Thanks for putting some info in this thread. Its good to see it in the thread it was meant for!! As to the above brush, yes it is the APShaveCo SynBad in the Ruby Ripple handle. I had a brush I put together with that knot in it but recently sold it as I just preferred others I had more.When I went looking deeper at APshaveco they looked like they were most likely reselling brushes available from Yaqi on alibaba.
Al from APShaveCo does source some of his knots from Yaqi but his are all made to different specs than the original Yaqi knot starting with his all being much more dense than the Yaqi. Milton from TurnNShave has some knots made by Yaqi as well and to his specs which are much different from Yaqi or APShaveCo. I have 3 from Milton that I set in custom handles that are now 3 of 5 I have in my rotation... I also use a Whipped Dog synth and a custom travel brush I made with an Omega handle and/ TGN synthetic knot.