Two Band/Bristle Mixed knot (Oumo) 24mm Brushes

[SliceOfLife]

So the latest repair has been holding up. I've switched to going through all the others I've got made and confirming they aren't shedders.

I also remeasured all my lofts now that the knots have bloomed and glue has set, etc. Right now I have 10 of these on my shelf (plus 3 older ones)... One knot fell out and was reset in another handle, one was pulled and tossed for being a shedder (that's where the 40 and 41mm brushes went)

I think the sweet spot is 44-48mm, but the 53mm is still nice with plenty of backbone, and the 42mm is just fine, just a bit extra scrub and less flow-through than the bigger ones. These knots seem to be really versatile.

I think the next one I make will probably be a 48mm loft.

1x 42mm
2x 44mm
3x 45mm
2x 46mm
2x 47mm

And there's a 53mm (fan) from apShaveco, as well as two bulb versions from maggards @ 45mm and 50mm.

 

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Combed out all the ten brushes... Got maybe 10 hairs and some broken off bits. Seems like there was only the one shedder so far.

 

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Few more shaves in and I'm definitely liking the 45-47mm's better than the 42-44's. Whip up the lather better, still have nice backbone, and generally just feel better. I think the 44's will hit that with a bit more breakin... the 42 may have a bit of a ways to go to get to that point.

I would say 46mm is probably what I'll default to with these knots mostly in the future.

 

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New digital caliper arrived:


Favorites: Fans @ 44.6, 45.2, 46.2, 46.3
Second Best: Fans @ 47, 51.7
Third Best: Fans @ 43.7, 44.9, 44.9
Fourth Best: Fan @ 43.4, Bulb @ 50.1
Fifth Best: Fan @ 41.5, Bulb @ 45.7



So... This means handles, the particular knot, etc varies it a bit, Loft isn't the whole story... but there's a noticeable pull to ~44.5-46.5mm for fans being my favorites, and then as you move away from that, I find them less perfect. The top two groups are really close, so in the 44-45mm, the handle seems to be important (my guess would be it is a bit roomier for the knot, allowing more bloom in the two that made it into top tier... but much more snug in the two in third tier.)

If I were to pick out an absolute favorite, it'd be the 46.2... so I'd say the best bet for "perfect" loft for these (24mm mixed fan) knots would be 46mm, if nothing else is known/taken into account.

 

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So:

Pulled the knot from the 41.5mm and combed it out heavy... Got maybe 20 hairs (When I did this with the knot I eventually tossed as a shedder it was more like 50).. gonna try dryfitting it in a different handle and give it a few more lathers to see if shedding will stop or if this is the second shedder (Is it a strange coincidence that the two lowest loft knots are shedding... maybe the base isn't getting dry because it's set too deep?... they were both ~40-42mm loft, so base was set back ~23mm (almost an inch) deep... has never been a problem with any other knots; so I'm thinking it's just a coincidence though).


Also, Bought an absolutely Gorgeous NOS "Luma" German Vintage Butterscotch Vase Brush. Got here and the knot was too fantastic (vintage Euro I think) to destroy, so I tried to steam it out. It did save the knot, but sadly this introduced some hairline cracks to the brush right around the base of the knot. Still, A little Super glue and sanding to stabilize them later and we have this beauty. Was shooting for 47.5mm loft, wound up 47.1. Just washed out the knot, but feeling like a winner already.


I may not have a Persian Jar, but this is my Prussian Jar.

 

[SliceOfLife]

So I've been bouncing around these lately. And it really blows my mind how when these knots are setup right they feel so similar to the Rooney Finest. Specifically that frankenbrush @ 43.4mm loft. If I closed my eyes, I couldn't tell it from my Crazy dense and stiff Style 1 Size 2 Finest... maybe a teeny tiny bit less backbone. Then at the opposite end 47-51mm lofts, they start feeling like softer & more broken in versions of them. Gonna take a lot of uses to pick a favorite, but I'm thinking that 43.4mm is in the top tier as well now that it's broken in a bit more. I'm gonna say 43mm is a good floor and 52mm (maybe even higher) a good ceiling. I'm not even sure where these knots would start to get floppy or if they ever would. I don't need anything higher than the 51.7mm, but I may dry set one at 58mm (The max possible) to see how it behaves.

 

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So I got it dry fit in a handle I was waiting to reknot. 55 mm is more practical max. It gets it set in there stable and hides all the plug. you might eke out another millimeter or two but I don't think you could ever get the full 58 mm without the plug being visible or the knot being wobbly.

I'll use it today and report back.

and under 43 mm isn't bad it's just a lot more scritch and scrub than I think most people would want and you don't get that really luxurious bloom that you kind of want from a fan knot.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Just shaved with it @ 55mm, Still loads of backbone and fantastic Scrub. These knots are fantastic. 43mm-55mm all great with loads of backbone and scrub. Under 43mm possible if you don't need a nice bloom and don't mind the scritch. Really can't go wrong.

This is the potential 2nd shedder (of 11 so far) that I pulled from the other brush and combed out the other day. It shed a lot... Gonna give it a couple more uses to see if it stops. If not, that'll make the record 2 shedders vs 9 nonshedders. They all shed a bit for the first few uses... seems standard for cheaper knots these days (just got a Simpson's best last week that didn't shed a single hair and confirmed it's not ALL knots these days) but most seem to slow down/stop. So far one (and maybe this as the second) continually shed multiple hairs for 20+ uses.

If this one DOES turn out to be another shedder, I'm looking at probably 4-5 shedders out of 25 or ~80% of knots being non-shedders at this rate. That said, even the shedders work great, you are just stuck picking 3-6 hairs out of your lather every shave... which with another 14 of these knots available to me, I'm not willing to bother with, I'll just swap them out and toss the shedders into my junk box. As someone buying one knot, it just means it's worthwhile spending a few $ more to get it from a reliable reseller so you have some recourse if you get a shedder, since the chance seems pretty high (It COULD still be as low as 4% based on my sample size, but it's looking closer to 16-20%).

Keep in mind these knots are direct from Oumo. I only have one of these mixed knots from APshaveCo and two from Maggards and none of those three shed.