Thater Premium Boar

[snowman]

From one defective shaving brush to nation bashing. It appears the internet is functioning normally.

I was about to throw out all of my beloved Haslinger shave soap when I noticed it’s produced in Austria, not Germany. Whew. I get to keep it.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

From one defective shaving brush to nation bashing. It appears the internet is functioning normally.

 

[Raven Koenes]

From one defective shaving brush to nation bashing. It appears the internet is functioning normally.

I was about to throw out all of my beloved Haslinger shave soap when I noticed it’s produced in Austria, not Germany. Whew. I get to keep it.

...and if you have any Merkurs laying around you might consider keeping them too imo. They are German, they are zamak, but they are actually made in Solingen. They are also old school in design and Merkur is still somewhat innovative. They are Germany's Glass Bead Game of the wet shaving world. Just be prepared for German brutal and direct customer no service if the zamak cap heads south...and they still need to bring back our bicycles.

 

[Raven Koenes]

Jim, I'm really anticipating the out come of this ordeal. Please keep us posted. I really don't want to have to taunt Germans a second time.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Jim, I'm really anticipating the out come of this ordeal. Please keep us posted. I really don't want to have to taunt Germans a second time.

Taunting anybody but Scots is a game for people who find shooting fish in a barrel too easy.

Scots get naked and blue and find weapons and are back at you. Beware!

My wife's DNA reveals her Pict ancestry. She thinks that tells a lot about her, and, of course, I have considerable Scottish ancestry and am open to jokes about it. Painted blue, naked, with a sword, but open to jokes? Not hardly!

Being entirely the opposite of Politically Correct is one of my hobbies but I haven't yet found a suitable venue or appropriate circumstances to fully indulge it.

Shaving is a much easier hobby. While looking at my email to see if Thater had responded to my communication telling them the brush is in transit, I saw and read a BullGoose email selling their wares and read what the link has to say about the brush I bought and boars in general...

So, Rave, it appears you and I are wrong. Our boars from Italy actually lack both soul and quality. I'm waiting for my Mondial to disappoint me, and expecting the Zeniths to fall apart any day now.

Spoiler: Enter sarcasm font mode...

In the meantime I'm ever so pleased with my Thater Premium Boar and suggest buying yours while they're only several times as costly as a nice Omega but worth every penny.

Rave, I didn't hear you bashing Germans. I heard you romanticizing Italy and all things Italian which is a very easy endeavor. I love Italy, too, and would like to go there again to tour some of my favorite shaving manufacturers, etc. As I recall, their trains were on time, too.

Should I get a good Thater brush I'll be sure to let you know, Rave. I'm also waiting on my winning lottery ticket.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Cal]

From one defective shaving brush to nation bashing. It appears the internet is functioning normally.

I was about to throw out all of my beloved Haslinger shave soap when I noticed it’s produced in Austria, not Germany. Whew. I get to keep it.

Jim, I'm really anticipating the out come of this ordeal. Please keep us posted. I really don't want to have to taunt Germans a second time.

I must agree with Rave on Italy and the shaving thing, and I have many beloved Fatips and Omegas. BUT, I've always found German folk to be exceptionally friendly and helpful (not to mention being good at the jobs they do [most of them that is]).

And my all time favorite shaving brush is a German Shavemac (I have three) made by the ever helpful Bernd.

EDIT
And of course it's easy for Scots to say "ich bin Schotte." The English have difficulty pronouncing "ich" as they do with "loch" and so on... what about you Americans?

 

[Raven Koenes]

Rave, I didn't hear you bashing Germans. I heard you romanticizing Italy and all things Italian which is a very easy endeavor. I love Italy, too, and would like to go there again to tour some of my favorite shaving manufacturers, etc. As I recall, their trains were on time, too.

Should I get a good Thater brush I'll be sure to let you know, Rave. I'm also waiting on my winning lottery ticket.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Thanks for understanding Jim I like Germans too. I am scared of their most delicious deserts though. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always think they're trying to fatten us up (think Hansel & Gretel). So it's decided, we don't mind Germans at all. In fact we kind of like them along with certain aspects of their culture. I don't think we'll be starting a Tabac Appreciation Society any time soon...but hey.

 

[Raven Koenes]

I must agree with Rave on Italy and the shaving thing, and I have many beloved Fatips and Omegas. BUT, I've always found German folk to be exceptionally friendly and helpful (not to mention being good at the jobs they do [most of them that is]).

And my all time favorite shaving brush is a German Shavemac (I have three) made by the ever helpful Bernd.

I would love to get a Shavemac Brush at some point, and we must not forget our dear German Vendor friend who sells Mk1 Fatips!

EDIT
And of course it's easy for Scots to say "ich bin Schotte." The English have difficulty pronouncing "ich" as they do with "loch" and so on... what about you Americans?

I don't think it is so much a problem for Americans being the big melting pot and all. We will however, and do, butcher the English language quite freely and at will.

 

[Boar Fighter]

Curious about the pricing of the Muhle and EJ 89 series heads. Muhle and EJ collaborated on the design and from all indications the production of the razors is outsourced, probably from China, and the are assembled in England and Germany respectively. That is quite a cost difference for screwing a Chinese razor together.

Italy, imho, is the Spiritual Wet Shaving Center of the known universe. Despite any quirks Italian products may have they also have soul. My $9.95 US dollar Omega brushes are beautiful, simple, and seemingly out preform many of my "higher end" brushes. They have heart. As efficient as Germans might be you can't replicate that through German logical left brain intellect.

But when you pay for the Muhle DE89 head the same money that you pay for the entire Edwin Jagger DE89 razor, you also get a package with a mill stamped on it and the pride of owning a "Muhle" head, instead of some razor named after a british person called Edwin Jagger. So this should count for something.

Omega concentrates mainly on making functional, very affordable brushes. There are also some models with heavy resin or clear acrilic handles and better quality bristles, which are priced higher, but IMHO, very honestly. I prefer Semogues for face feel, but Omegas work "better" for me.

 

[Raven Koenes]

But when you pay for the Muhle DE89 head the same money that you pay for the entire Edwin Jagger DE89 razor, you also get a package with a mill stamped on it and the pride of owning a "Muhle" head, instead of some razor named after a british person called Edwin Jagger. So this should count for something.

Omega concentrates mainly on making functional, very affordable brushes. There are also some models with heavy resin or clear acrilic handles and better quality bristles, which are priced higher, but IMHO, very honestly. I prefer Semogues for face feel, but Omegas work "better" for me.

Semogues do hit the sweet spot in softness and splay.

 

[shave/brush]

Semogues do hit the sweet spot in softness and splay.

I find the Semogue LE from TSN to be the best boar brush I ever tried and I also have the Thater brush. The Semogue blows it away in every way.

 

[Raven Koenes]

I find the Semogue LE from TSN to be the best boar brush I ever tried and I also have the Thater brush. The Semogue blows it away in every way.

View attachment 932884

That is one beautiful brush. I have the 610, 620, and 830. My favorite is the 610 of those. Perhaps it is because it is unbanded? I really like the handle on your brush. What are the dimensions?

 

[johnwick]

So I have a brief experience to mention, Specifically about Muhle (unquestionably a German company).

I purchased an R106 a few months back from an obscure vendor on Amazon. It’s the DE89 razor with the black resin handle. Long story short, after a few months (less than one year), the handle developed cracks. Assuming I’d receive no support from the amazon vendor I went on Muhle’s website to send an email to customer service.

Muhle happens to have “German American Beauty”, a company out of Florida, as their exclusive importer of goods to the US and Canada. After sincere apologies from GAB for my troubles and then sending a picture and receipt, they had me a new handle in about 3 days, shipped Priority Mail!

Needless to say I was blown away by this level of service... But should I have been? Isn’t this the level of service we should always expect from companies we do business with in good faith? Companies with reputations to back, and expected quality products subsequently backing them?

Muhle’s size and scale is much larger than Thater. But I can’t help but wonder, as a purveyor of exclusive goods for Thater, why isn’t Bullgoose acting in a similar capacity as GAB was for Muhle? It baffles the mind.

 

[Boar Fighter]

So I have a brief experience to mention, Specifically about Muhle (unquestionably a German company).

I purchased an R106 a few months back from an obscure vendor on Amazon. It’s the DE89 razor with the black resin handle. Long story short, after a few months (less than one year), the handle developed cracks. Assuming I’d receive no support from the amazon vendor I went on Muhle’s website to send an email to customer service.

Muhle happens to have “German American Beauty”, a company out of Florida, as their exclusive importer of goods to the US and Canada. After sincere apologies from GAB for my troubles and then sending a picture and receipt, they had me a new handle in about 3 days, shipped Priority Mail!

Needless to say I was blown away by this level of service... But should I have been? Isn’t this the level of service we should always expect from companies we do business with in good faith? Companies with reputations to back, and expected quality products subsequently backing them?

Muhle’s size and scale is much larger than Thater. But I can’t help but wonder, as a purveyor of exclusive goods for Thater, why isn’t Bullgoose acting in a similar capacity as GAB was for Muhle? It baffles the mind.

I suspect that the situation in USA is like the one we had here before the EU-wide new laws, that made 2 year warranty compulsive and the retailler as the only responsible towards the customer in that period. Before that, the retailer and the company were often trying to shift responsibility from one to another.

You should see chinese customer service. Once i bought a chinese razor from Amazon. I made a review pointing that the threaded part of the handle, was maybe not properly finished, making the screwing somewhat stiff, fearing that this would wear down the thread of the head over time. They contacted me and offered: 1) to keep the razor, 2) To send me a new razor and 3) full refund. All of this together. I accepted 1 and 3. The razor still works btw. I have had similar experience with other chinese vendors in Amazon who sell products unrelated to shaving. The last one that i remember, was a purchase of 2 smartphone charging cables. After the purchase, they sent me email to ask if i am happy and they included a voucher with special discount in case i wanted to buy their car charger too. The cables had no defect to begin with.

 

[shave/brush]

That is one beautiful brush. I have the 610, 620, and 830. My favorite is the 610 of those. Perhaps it is because it is unbanded? I really like the handle on your brush. What are the dimensions?

Yes the 610 is a wonderful brush. The dimensions on my LE model are 24mm knot x 53mm loft. It is the best handle I ever saw.

 

[Somerled]

And of course it's easy for Scots to say "ich bin Schotte." The English have difficulty pronouncing "ich" as they do with "loch" and so on... what about you Americans?

I have no problems pronouncing any of that.
My wife, being English, does though.
We moved back up to Scotland over 10 years ago and she can just about pronounce "Loch" correctly if she concentrates.
If she gets it right I then ask her to pronounce Auchtermuchty.

For those that don't know, thats a town on the east side of Scotland in whats known as the Kingdom of Fife.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I would love to get a Shavemac Brush at some point, and we must not forget our dear German Vendor friend who sells Mk1 Fatips!

I don't think it is so much a problem for Americans being the big melting pot and all. We will however, and do, butcher the English language quite freely and at will.

I am watching a Netflix show again. One of my favorites, Shetland. Beautiful scenery. Good characters and stories, etc. Anyway, I use subtitles for everything on television except football because I have just enough hearing loss to make it a challenge understanding what's being said. Good thing because even if can hear the characters on Shetland, I have no idea what they're saying half the time. What language is that English?

There are probably good people and bad people most places. There are good people I don't like and bad people I do, but mostly I prefer good people. Not that I'm unique there.

Whether expensive brushes like the Shavemac are actually any better than my Maseto brushes is not something I could possibly know anything about since I don't have the Shavemac, but I'm very satisfied with my Yaqi badgers, and MS badgers.

I don't see how any brush's knot could please me more than my Zenith Manchurian! Italian, of course. Lots less expensive than a similar Shavemac!

If I were a company like Thater unused to making boar brushes I'd buy a few of the best brushes from Omega, Mondial, and Zenith, break them down, and reverse engineer them. I've not torn down or examined the makeup of any brushes, but I'd bet the formula for making a great brush is not hard to discover. Maybe Thater tried to reinvent the wheel?

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Somerled]

Maybe Thater tried to reinvent the wheel?

Happy shaves,

Jim

Wheels like these?

Not seen any of that program Jim.

It will either be English or Gaelic.
Northern and island living scots have a wonderful lilting accent.
It can be difficult to understand if your not used to it.

 

[Esox]

I really don't want to have to taunt Germans a second time.

They are German, they are zamak, but they are actually made in Solingen.

Muhle razor heads are actually made in Germany? Given the state of my R41 head, it could be German made products are not quite as precisely and meticulously made as some may expect. I think it pretty much on par with Thater.

Given the almost $50 cost by the time an R41 head would arrive to me from Maggard, it should be far more precisely made that the one I have is. My Fatip Grande was $48CAD shipped and its as finely a crafted piece as I could ask for, for even twice the price. Italian products might have heart and soul, but they also have style and substance.

Non puoi insegnare niente a un uomo. Puoi solo aiutarlo a scoprire ciò che ha dentro di sé. - Galileo Galilei

Good sig line that...

 

[Cal]

Non puoi insegnare niente a un uomo. Puoi solo aiutarlo a scoprire ciò che ha dentro di sé. - Galileo Galilei

Based on that, I think you'd like this book, Mike.