IIRC, my first Badger-ish brush was an Omega Mixed Midget, which stank to high heaven and didn't hold enough lather for two passes of face lathering, I thought I'd upgrade and wound up with a Simpson Special in Pure, which was uh... *coarse* at best and just shy of using a wire brush at worst, plus it shed like crazy to the point that I drilled out the knot and put a TGN finest knot in the handle (sadly lofted a bit too tall for my taste), then passed it along to a friend.
Fast forward about six years, I decided to try another "pure" badger brush, this time it's a NOS English made Simpson Beaufort B2, it has a great handle and after just a few shaves the knot is beginning to go from a definite skritchy+ to fairly smooth, I doubt that it'll ever qualify as a soft brush, but it's good and springy and face lathers quite nicely.
I'm looking forward to this brush being fully broken in, I think it's going to be a regular in the rotation, despite all of its den mates being "best" or "finest" knots.
Fast forward about six years, I decided to try another "pure" badger brush, this time it's a NOS English made Simpson Beaufort B2, it has a great handle and after just a few shaves the knot is beginning to go from a definite skritchy+ to fairly smooth, I doubt that it'll ever qualify as a soft brush, but it's good and springy and face lathers quite nicely.
I'm looking forward to this brush being fully broken in, I think it's going to be a regular in the rotation, despite all of its den mates being "best" or "finest" knots.