I recently dove back in to the search for an ideal Simpson brush, having given up for a while after being both disappointed by a Classic 1 and generally pleased with my Commodore X1.
This came in the form of an Emperor 1; I've always liked the look of the handle and the size seemed to be in the general neighborhood that I favor (small knot, low loft, more fan than bulb... though published Simpson knot dimensions are *ahem* inexact at best), so a sale price was all it took to push me over the edge into ordering one.
The result (for me at least) was that I have finally found a brush that equals or exceeds my other favorites (a TGN 20mm Finest fan I set in a hand turned dymondwood handle for my late father years ago and a custom Shavemac with 20mm fan shaped Silvertip 2-band knot).
I'm interested to know if the very dense and resilient character of the knot in my Emperor is typical of all Simpson Super bristle, or if Super is as variable as "Best", which in my experience runs the gamut from prickly to plush and nicely springy, to borderline floppy, with all shadings in between.
Either way, I think my search has ended with this knot/handle combo, hopefully it'll be many years before I go shopping for brushes again!
This came in the form of an Emperor 1; I've always liked the look of the handle and the size seemed to be in the general neighborhood that I favor (small knot, low loft, more fan than bulb... though published Simpson knot dimensions are *ahem* inexact at best), so a sale price was all it took to push me over the edge into ordering one.
The result (for me at least) was that I have finally found a brush that equals or exceeds my other favorites (a TGN 20mm Finest fan I set in a hand turned dymondwood handle for my late father years ago and a custom Shavemac with 20mm fan shaped Silvertip 2-band knot).
I'm interested to know if the very dense and resilient character of the knot in my Emperor is typical of all Simpson Super bristle, or if Super is as variable as "Best", which in my experience runs the gamut from prickly to plush and nicely springy, to borderline floppy, with all shadings in between.
Either way, I think my search has ended with this knot/handle combo, hopefully it'll be many years before I go shopping for brushes again!