Soaking new brush for 24 hours?

[Bundah]

Hi Everyone,

I have bought a new Duke 2 from T&H - lucky me! When making the purchase the salesman said to soak the brush for 24 hours in cold water prior to its first use. I have never heard of this procedure, and after spending hours looking on the 'net and through all message boards can't find anything like it. The common consensus seems to be 'just use it'. I am not sure what to do here - I certainly don't want to hurt the brush in any way. Any advice will be very appreciated.

Thanks,

Bundah

 

[Kooze]

Hi Everyone,

I have bought a new Duke 2 from T&H - lucky me! When making the purchase the salesman said to soak the brush for 24 hours in cold water prior to its first use. I have never heard of this procedure, and after spending hours looking on the 'net and through all message boards can't find anything like it. The common consensus seems to be 'just use it'. I am not sure what to do here - I certainly don't want to hurt the brush in any way. Any advice will be very appreciated.

Thanks,

Bundah

Don't soak it overnight. Here is how to defunk a new brush, from our own brush master Rudy Vey:

Here is what I recommend to do:
* soak your brush knot for a few minutes in warm (!) water
* lather up with soap/cream etc in your hand
* rinse the lather out
* repeat a couple of times

Thread:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/248708

 

[graysonhenryrussell]

Was this T&H in Chicago? Todd would never advise that & probably should be advised of the sales person who told you this.

 

[Bundah]

Thanks guys. I had never found that thread - just the info I was looking for. Glad I asked!!

 

[Lamb Root]

Do tell about that sales man. We'd like to know more of him.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

If it doesn't have the Badger funk just soak for a few minutes before you use it.
If it has the Funk there's a good section in the brush section of the wiki about defunking a brush.

 

[malocchio]

Follow the instructions from kooze....soaking a brush for even little more than a few minutes will crack the glue and you'll start loosing the hairs,even the entire knot.Eventually you will need to disinfect the brush,and a full submersion in Barbicide or Mar-V-Cide should only last 3 minutes.After shaving you should bob the brush up and down in a glass filled with running water,this helps to rid the brush of residue,especially where the knot meets the handle.Ship-Shape powder is great for cleaning a brush,but does not disinfect like a soak in Barbicide .I use Mar-V-Cide because when properly diluted,it costs 50% less than Barbicide.

 

[AABCDS]

Don't soak your brushes overnight or even for an hour for that matter.

 

[ChiefBroom]

Congrats on the Duke. Great brush. I've yet to score one.

You already have lots of good advise here. +1 to don't soak a brush for 24 hours.

 

[Wayne1963]

You can always just make 15 or so lathers in the palm of your hand. This will serve to de-funk the brush and will allow you to "dial in" the lathering with the brush.

 

[Alpinebully]

My first badger brush was just used once a day, after about 2 weeks i felt the brush had softened up and was stink free.

My 2 & 3 brushes were given a shortened version of the treatment as per the defunking thread on this forum. I just made a couple lathers with them then let the lather sit in the brush for a few hours, re lathering the brush a few times in that period then rinsed them out and let them dry before further use.

I found this just takes the edge off the smell.

Travis.