Two case studys

[Loric]

A couple months back I started a thread comparing and contrasting two Rooney 3/1's in super. It seemed to get some interest, so I'm back at it with two different duplicate brushes. I'm obviously a bad influence on my brother as I somehow unintentionally Jedi mind tricked him into getting a Chubby 3. Then for his birthday I decided to have Rudy Vey custom make a couple handles and set some knots in them.

Case Study 1 - Simpson Chubby 3 in Super.
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As you can see both the knot and then handle are of a slightly different scale. My brothers (on the left) handle is both wider and shorter, not to mention the gray lettering as opposed to the gold of mine on the right. The left Chubby is also MUCH more dense, though I dont think its as broken in as mine is. I thought mine felt like a brick of badger hair, but after getting my hands on his Chubby his is the champ for density. The brush on left is almost solid near the base, its staggering how they packed so much hair into one knot. It is also much more irregularly shaped, being almost oval instead of round. I'm not complaining about the density of my brush, because it is an impressive knot, its just not like the other.

Case Study 2 - TGN 24mm Extra Stuffed Finest
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The second two brushes are more similar than the first two were. There are some slight differences though. The Eagle shaped brush is a little denser and a little bit softer. The knot beds are just about identical, but the Tulip seems to have bloomed less than the Eagle. The TGN knots seem to be very consistent at least in our very small sample.

I should have taken pictures of the two TGN's next to my 26mm TGN Extra Stuffed Finest that I just sold. The difference in density was really staggering. Loose both 24mm knots (i.e. 65mm loft) were more dense than the 26mm set at 53mm loft. The two new brushes are also much softer than the 26mm. I might have gotten a bum 26mm, but I'd like to think that the 24mm knot is just better all the way around. Several other reviewers would seem to indicate the same, so just add +1 to that statistic.

 

[rsaltonstall]

I'm obviously a bad influence on my brother as I somehow unintentionally Jedi mind tricked him into getting a Chubby 3. Then for his birthday I decided to have Rudy Vey custom make a couple handles and set some knots in them.

You're a bad influence on ALL of us. Whenever I read one of your threads, I end up getting SBAD while my wish-list of brushes just gets longer.

BTW nice write up.

 

[huntmol]

Great writeup! It's always important to note the variation between brushes of the same model.

 

[Hex]

You're a bad influence on ALL of us. Whenever I read one of your threads, I end up getting SBAD while my wish-list of brushes just gets longer.

BTW nice write up.

+1

I feel a need to scratch an unreachable itch.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Indeed, the 24mm finest is my favorite TGN knot. I may buy another. And I will agree that there is as much hair in my 24mm as my 26mm as far as I can tell, making it denser.

Interesting to see the differences in the chubbys. You should "accidentally" swap them on your brother. He won't notice.

Thanks for the pics. I LOVE seeing top down pics of brushes. Really that's the best view imho.

 

[Loric]

Thanks for the support everyone. I almost didn't write this post because it felt too brush geeky even for me! I'm glad I'm in good company. You all make me feel more normal.

Interesting to see the differences in the chubbys. You should "accidentally" swap them on your brother. He won't notice.

Thanks for the pics. I LOVE seeing top down pics of brushes. Really that's the best view imho.

I thought about asking for a trade. He does have trouble lathering with it, so chances are it would happen. At first I thought it was his technique and gave him some pointers, but now that I see how dense that monster is I think its just the brush itself. My brain hurts to even think this, but his Chubby could be to d...de...den...den...

Nope, never mind I cant say it! But you get the idea

Top down pics are the way to go, they give way more info than a side view. Top down gives you a good estimate of density, how the hair lays, etc etc that you just cant tell from the side. Side views are for glamor shots and knot shape and thats about it.

 

[Loric]

Sorry to dig up a dead thread... But time marches on and I wound up with another Chubby 3 in Supper, so I thought I would add some photo's of it to this thread.



I traded for this brush, so I cant say when it was made, but its my favorite of the three. It's similar in density to my old one. I had originally thought it was less dense, but after looking at the photo's I think it might be a bit more so. I guess my standards have been warped by the years using high density brushes. The shape of the knot is perfect too, a nice subtle bulb with out the peak some Simpsons have.

It is the least soft of the three. However, thats not a bad thing here. The tips are very soft, but they just have this little hint of texture to them. I cant exactly say what it is, its not skritch proper, but there is just this little bit of something that makes me love how it feels. The only other brush I had with this was a Lee Sabini brush, that is my favorite 3 band I ever used. Unfortunately, that brush got broke, and is not usable anymore

Also worth of note, is that some of the paint on the word "Chubby" has worn off.

I also have a new case study. One of two HIS Synthetic brushes.

Case Study 3 - HIS Synthetic



My first HIS was the bulb shaped one on the left. I liked it, but the super tall loft really got in the way of face lathering. I did some experimentation with the loft, but the bulb got so pointy so fast, there was no shortening this brush. When I found a flat fan shaped HIS on BST and snagged it to do some testing on. Before I did so, I made sure to take some photo's.

The density of both brushes is about the same, though the bigger bloom on the fan makes it look otherwise. After using a fan shaped HIS I can see where people call them floppy. The bulb had much better backbone, especially at the peak. The biggest weakness of the HIS brushes is that they have a hard time getting soap (from a shave stick) to lather up where my facial hair is coarse, especially on the mustache area. The bulb is poor at doing this, while the fan is next to useless for this task.

The other bit of quality control I noticed was the blue. You can see both only have a thin band of glue holding the knots in. While both are secure, it looks horrid and inconsistent with the clear handles. The plus side of that, being that cutting them out with a hack saw can be shockingly easy.

These brushes (and some customs) were instrumental in my understanding that for synthetic brushes knot shape is at least as impotent as loft for tuning as. I strongly prefer a round fan shape. To round a bulb and it feels sharp on the face at any loft, and to flat they become much to floppy again at almost any loft.