I just restored my barber handle Hardright brush with a 24mm Super Badger Bulb which is a GREAT Knot, but I think it's not for me. I just have to make way to much lather with this brush. I face lather and use Williams soap (which I love) and I just cant get enough soap for a decent lather, I have bowl lathered and have tons of lather left over. With my Tweezerman which is a good brush to me with no shedding, I can swirl my brush on the puck load my brush and get lots of lather with no effort for three passes. Am I doing something wrong with the beautiful, soft, and dense brush? I want it to work, but it looks like I'll be selling it soon, I'm just frustrated and thinking smaller and less dense is better for me. Thanks for the help.
Tweezerman vs TGN Super Badger Bulb brush and lather!
- Thread starter DEW
- Start date
This is just from my experience, but the larger or denser a brush, the more soap you need. My $10 dollar Shea Moisture Shave pure badger brush makes lather faster and with less work than my $50 dollar TGN silver tip. The pure badger is probably 18mm, loosely packed, and floppy. The silver tip is 28mm (don't ask), densely packed, and not floppy. You might be comparing apples to oranges here. The hair itself doesn't make you lather faster (silver tips pack more water and can make the lather runny), but it seems how floppy and how loose the hairs are do have an effect.
If you really need to make lather fast, have you thought of just using creams? There is no loading the brush, just plop some cream in a bowl and start swirling the brush. At the end of the day though, you keep the brush that works for you. Hence why I kept the humble $10 pure badger, and also the silver tip. I just don't expect both of them to work the same.
-Edit- Forgot to mention about the "more soap you need". You seriously need more soap with a larger brush. I tried this before with Proraso cream and a measuring spoon. I can make decent lather with my small pure badger on 1 tsp of cream, but my large silvertip can't make anything half decent. I believe this is the same with soaps. I'm not sure because all my soaps are sticks (arko).
If you really need to make lather fast, have you thought of just using creams? There is no loading the brush, just plop some cream in a bowl and start swirling the brush. At the end of the day though, you keep the brush that works for you. Hence why I kept the humble $10 pure badger, and also the silver tip. I just don't expect both of them to work the same.
-Edit- Forgot to mention about the "more soap you need". You seriously need more soap with a larger brush. I tried this before with Proraso cream and a measuring spoon. I can make decent lather with my small pure badger on 1 tsp of cream, but my large silvertip can't make anything half decent. I believe this is the same with soaps. I'm not sure because all my soaps are sticks (arko).
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- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks for the reply, Time making lather doesn't bother me, it's just the amount of water and soap it takes to make it and you can forget face lathering. The TGN is a beautiful, dense, and soft brush but to make lather it just takes to much soap, water, and work. Do the smaller brush's of high quality make lather like my 14.00 Tweezerman if they are dense or are they like the 24mm because of the density?
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Every brush hair is different and requires different lathering technique. As I have mentioned that the silver tip, you have to be careful about water because it soaks so much up. Density really doesn't have anything to do with the knot size. It just refers to how much hair the manufacture can stuff in there. Even then our measurement of knot density is... sketchy. (Oh ya that silver tip has a density of 24.794 hairs per square cm. I counted!) You can sort of feel it by running your hand through the brush. Denser brushes are not floppy and quite thick.
Let's hypothetically say you have 2 brushes that are both 24mm, but brush A is not dense and brush B is dense. Brush A would theoretically make lather with less work. This is sort of why the Wee Scot can make so much lather. It's small and kinda floppy imho. The general rule is this, the more hair you have either through density or brush size, the more work, soap, and water, you will have to put in it to get it to generate lather. It will generate more lather though than a smaller one, but it will not generate equal lather with equal amounts of soap and water compared to a smaller brush; it won't make any at all.
Let's hypothetically say you have 2 brushes that are both 24mm, but brush A is not dense and brush B is dense. Brush A would theoretically make lather with less work. This is sort of why the Wee Scot can make so much lather. It's small and kinda floppy imho. The general rule is this, the more hair you have either through density or brush size, the more work, soap, and water, you will have to put in it to get it to generate lather. It will generate more lather though than a smaller one, but it will not generate equal lather with equal amounts of soap and water compared to a smaller brush; it won't make any at all.
- Thread starter
- #5
OK, I did something a little different this morning and had the right amount of lather. I lightly squeezed the water out of the brush instead of a hard squeeze and it produced lather just fine. Before I was using the brush either too wet or too dry! So here we are again looking at how to use the brush just like with the razor. Thanks for the tips they made a great difference in this great brush. 
Congratulations and finding that soap to water ratio does take a little bit. Continued success.
Although I've seen some bad opinions of the Tweezerman and I am planning on upgrading myself (I just want more of a showpiece). My $9 Tweezerman has been a beast at creating lather. Even my MWF with my hard water will create a beautiful, thick peaky lather with ease. It's been a good little brush for me.
