Vintage "badger cased" brush

[pdieten]

I picked up an old Made Rite 303 as a restoration project. I hope I can make a useful brush out of it. I love its Catalin handle.

Having a little fun with this knot though. I don't think this brush was ever used. It looked normal enough when it arrived, but look what happens to this knot when you get it good and clean and soft after a shampoo and cream rinse.



This is hilarious. When they said "badger cased" they weren't kidding around. That is the most "just for looks" knot I could possibly imagine. The thin outer layer of badger hairs splayed as badger hairs do, and that core of boar hair stuck tight together and is stiff as a board. It's banded boar; you can see banding all the way through the brush, so it's got that going for it, but the banding isn't the same color or in the same place on the boar hairs as on the badger hairs.

I am terrified to lather with this knot but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't try it a few times to see how it feels. Either way it's hard for me to see right now how it's going to replace any of my existing brushes as is.

 

[Lightcs1776]

It looks like it has a lot of potential. A few lathers and you might find it to be a great addition.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[SliceOfLife]

Cased are interesting brushes. I've seen them be half decent a time or two... but mostly it seems like the badger splay out and wear/break with VERY little use. Generally when I find them the boar core looks barely used but the badger exterior is trashed. Definitely inferior to a proper mixed knot in my opinion.

 

[pdieten]

Definitely inferior to a proper mixed knot in my opinion.

I agree with you; a properly mixed knot would have worked so much better than this I think. This just looks silly. And I'm a face swirler when I lather, so I can't even imagine how weird this is going to feel. I'm still going to use it for a little while; it would be a shame to waste a knot that hadn't ever been used, and we'll see how it holds up, but I don't feel like this is going to last long. If those badger hairs don't survive, the boar core is barely wider than my finger. Not what I'm hoping for from my brush experience.

 

[pdieten]

Well, after spending the entire first half of the football game rubbing those boar sticks against my shirt, my arm hair, a towel, and every other friction-providing surface in reach I finally have something that at least nominally resembles a functional shaving brush knot that is capable of splaying if I need it to. Have to see if this can do anything useful with the Proraso soap I'm working on when I shave in the morning.

 

[BigJ]

Keep us posted! (Please!) If the knot does not come around, then a re-knot is definitely worth considering.

 

[pdieten]

Keep us posted! (Please!) If the knot does not come around, then a re-knot is definitely worth considering.

First use was actually good. I have a Proraso green soap out at the moment, the brush did a better job building and applying lather than a few of my other brushes and it wasn't prickly lathering up. I was actually pleased with the results. But it's only one use so far. I have two more vintage brushes coming in this week that I want to work with before I go back to using this one, since I'm probably going to get rid of some of my current brushes, so I'm not prioritizing reknotting it right now but it's in the back of my mind if needed.

The only real problem with it is that the knot offends my sense of aesthetics. The badger bristles are short relative to the boar bristles, and the whole thing just looks silly with a tuft of boar bristles sticking out the top of a ring of badger. Seems like a waste of a nice butterscotch Catalin handle.

 

[pdieten]

The second of my three vintage brushes arrived today, gave it the usual spa treatment (antibacterial soap, clarifying shampoo, conditioner) and actually shaved with it already. It's a butterscotch Catalin Made Rite 500PB, a more expensive cousin to the 303.

Still has its original pure badger knot. But not for much longer, I think. It is well used. Very soft. Too soft. It splays under the lightest pressure. Hard to lather with it. I face lathered with Erasmic cream, which is a very easy cream to use, but nothing I did could get it so I was lathering with the tips. Not satisfactory to me.

This one has a very comfortable handle and is probably going to be used regularly, so I'm going to have to get a knot I like for it.

 

[pdieten]

 

[Borderboss]

I have a NOS vintage Stanley that states that it's "badger and bristle". It's construction is just as you described, with the boar hair in the center and the badger around the outside. To me, it has all the negative traits of a boar brush: it smells and it doesn't lather nearly as well as a pure badger brush. I'm continuing to use it in the rotation because I'm too tied up right now to reknot it, but that's high on my list when I get time.

 

[pdieten]

I have a NOS vintage Stanley that states that it's "badger and bristle". It's construction is just as you described, with the boar hair in the center and the badger around the outside. To me, it has all the negative traits of a boar brush: it smells and it doesn't lather nearly as well as a pure badger brush. I'm continuing to use it in the rotation because I'm too tied up right now to reknot it, but that's high on my list when I get time.

Heh, funny you mention that, I have one of those coming this week too. My mother-in-law sold Stanley home products for a long time and I always thought I might want one of their brushes, especially since they all came with the little stands. I thought those were mixed, not cased. But if they're cased, then definitely a reknot candidate. The thing is, I think I'd want to put a banded boar knot in a handle like that, a badger knot wouldn't fit in the stand anymore once it blooms....

 

[Borderboss]

Heh, funny you mention that, I have one of those coming this week too. My mother-in-law sold Stanley home products for a long time and I always thought I might want one of their brushes, especially since they all came with the little stands. I thought those were mixed, not cased. But if they're cased, then definitely a reknot candidate. The thing is, I think I'd want to put a banded boar knot in a handle like that, a badger knot wouldn't fit in the stand anymore once it blooms....

It definitely won't fit in the travel case any longer. I just keep the box and the case for posterity reasons.

 

[pdieten]

I have a NOS vintage Stanley that states that it's "badger and bristle". It's construction is just as you described, with the boar hair in the center and the badger around the outside. To me, it has all the negative traits of a boar brush: it smells and it doesn't lather nearly as well as a pure badger brush. I'm continuing to use it in the rotation because I'm too tied up right now to reknot it, but that's high on my list when I get time.

Well, now I have one too. Here it is in all its glory, or whatever....



And you were right, it is indeed a badger-cased boar. Stanhome model 213 deluxe shaving brush, with the 168 stand that is a bit too small for it, though it does look reasonably handsome in there. I swear I've seen this design sold with some of the traditional brushmaker brand names too.

Thoroughly washed and conditioned, because it was mighty dusty when it came in the house earlier today. But not bad for seven bucks. I needed a shave tonight so I put it to work to see if it could lather up a puck of Edwin Jagger sandalwood soap. I tried that soap once a few months ago with my EJ best badger brush, which did not successfully build a lather with it and I got a crappy shave. I almost threw the soap out, but I decided to just put it away for awhile, and today I finally got it back out to let this mostly-boar brush give it a try.

I don't know how much this brush was used but it did a very good job. I got a fine lather using it and the soap. So the soap stays now.

This is kind of embarrassing. I didn't figure on actually using these silly and ancient cased brushes but the stupid things work too well to throw out. Ran rings around my Omega 10065. That Omega might not have a future in the house.

I don't know about this stand. It's not a travel case, the box says it's a stand for the brush and you're supposed to put it in there to dry with the bristles down. I don't know how the knot is ever going to dry all squeezed together like that though.

I wonder what the handle and stand are made of. I don't think it's catalin, because no color change and the brush wasn't lathe turned. But I don't see a seam from an injection mold. Cast resin, maybe? The glue that holds the cap on let go, so I could open it and see inside. The knot looks like it's held in with epoxy but it is otherwise hollow and is noticeably more knot-heavy than the balanced catalin Made Rites.