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What happened to short lofted small brushes?

Sir, you have good taste!!

I also enjoy my Wee Scott as well as smaller brushes, especially badgers!! :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
I own the S1 Simpsons which is a small brush. I also have a Polo8, a Shavemac 26X56 and my bigger one, an Omega 48.

I do enjoy ALL of them, as I do with my different razors and soaps. Some combinations are better than others....but after all, is not just a shaving, is a hobby.

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I'd say they are alive and well. One of my favorite brushes I have is this Connaught Omega with faux jade persian jar handle. Here it is on the far left with a couple of it's boar siblings. As you can see the loft is shorter than Omega's own 10066 brush. I much prefer the Connaught.

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Mate you cannot surely be claiming the Jade is a small brush? Surely? The handle is a bludgeoning instrument and the knot is....big.
 
I like larger brushes with most of my brushes 24 mm or over. When I first started shaving and for many years I had only smaller brushes.

Of all my brushes, now I have only two small ones. A Hoffritz brush I bought in 1993 and a T&H Silvertip I bought in 2010. Both brushes are about 20 mm and do a remarkable job. Unfortunately, the T&H brush is not in their current catalog and Hoffritz is out of business.

Hoffritz.jpgT&H Silvertip.jpg
 
Mate you cannot surely be claiming the Jade is a small brush? Surely? The handle is a bludgeoning instrument and the knot is....big.

The loft is short. Shortest of my 17 brushes. It may be wide at the base at 27mm but that short loft at 52mm is short. I find that I enjoy the fatter knots with a shorter loft. And the handle is on the small side. I don't like using handles that are much smaller than that. And I definitely enjoy handles that are larger.
 
Warning: Old man's, first world problems, rant following.

...After looking, and with the exception of some pure badgers (which generally don’t get much praise) I have found that in EU accessible, only Simpsons and Shavemac offer something close to what I am looking for and in general care to match loft height to width variation...

Am I missing something here?

You may be. shavemac and Simpson Pure are not typical. If you are one that seeks a soft, luxurious, gel tip wall of badger of course Pure is not going to deliver. If however you enjoy feeling hair work the lather on your skin, scrub and yes probably some prickle then it might be worth trying.

Vulfix 2190, Simpson Special-1, Beaufort-1 can be had for ~$20. I have the Vulfix and it's the cheapest and coarsest Pure of the herd of 7.

shavemac has a fine Pure. If you try a shavemac the loft needs to be lower than allowed on the Configurator. The maker will do this for you if requested. The best of the 2 is a bulb at 20x44 if I recall the specs correctly. A fine little workhorse.

The rest of the Pure herd are Simpson Eagles of each size. IMO the sweet spot is G2, the G1 being exceptional too.
 
10+ years ago I loved short-lofted brushes. I even had Rudy make me a 16mm short-lofted brush. I guess I got old, sold it, and now prefer 2-band (24-26mm) Thaters.
 
Vulfix 2190, Simpson Special-1, Beaufort-1 can be had for ~$20
Well since I am not in USA but in EU (Greece) the least I can find a Simpson (even in Pure) is around 40$ (including shipping). If I were to find one at 20$ (all in) I would not hesitate, even for the experience.

shavemac has a fine Pure. If you try a shavemac the loft needs to be lower than allowed on the Configurator. The maker will do this for you if requested. The best of the 2 is a bulb at 20x44 if I recall the specs correctly. A fine little workhorse.
Ah, I did not know they can set the loft lower than the configurator and never thought of asking them. Thank you fot the info. But still a Shavemac in Pure comes very close in pricing with a Duke 1 for example..(different animals, I get it).
 
Well since I am not in USA but in EU (Greece) the least I can find a Simpson (even in Pure) is around 40$ (including shipping). If I were to find one at 20$ (all in) I would not hesitate, even for the experience.

Ah, I did not know they can set the loft lower than the configurator and never thought of asking them. Thank you fot the info. But still a Shavemac in Pure comes very close in pricing with a Duke 1 for example..(different animals, I get it).

Well I'm wrong, they're more than $20 here too. Suppose it's been a while since I picked up that Vulfix. Good luck with the hunt.
 
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The loft is short. Shortest of my 17 brushes. It may be wide at the base at 27mm but that short loft at 52mm is short. I find that I enjoy the fatter knots with a shorter loft. And the handle is on the small side. I don't like using handles that are much smaller than that. And I definitely enjoy handles that are larger.

It may well be the shortest loft of your 17 brushes. You may enjoy larger handles. That is not a small brush and it does not have a small handle. Just saying for accuracy like. It is a thread about small brushes after all.
 
I am not opposed per se, in fact I am aslo eyeballing the Simpsons T1 but please show me which Yaqi one you mean
Look up the Yaqi white handle synthetic or the Yaqi Short Heavy Metal brushes on West Coast Shaving. The metal one is a bit bigger (24mm) but its got a short loft.
 
I have a small Omega 10075 that I used sometimes. Although it is nimble, it often doesn't hold enough lather to last a three pass shave. I still enjoy it for travel purposes.
 
It may well be the shortest loft of your 17 brushes. You may enjoy larger handles. That is not a small brush and it does not have a small handle. Just saying for accuracy like. It is a thread about small brushes after all.

Ok. Fine then. I don't like small shave brushes. So there. Happy now? And in reflecting on your comment, I do have two brushes that are smaller than the one I was referring to. One is an Art of Shaving pure badger that came with their medium "travel kit". The other is an Edwin Jagger best badger brush which happens to be the same size. I find both too small for me, so they sit in a bin unused. Add to that they are both very scritchy. You're right though. I do gravitate to larger brushes. Maybe the lack of smaller brushes is sort of like the phenomenon in the US where everyone drives trucks or larger vehicles, because they can. As with everything shaving, YMMV. :001_unsur
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
Interesting thread. They say that fashion goes in cycles and 'what goes around comes around'. I wonder though if the fashion for very large brushes has ever occurred before. I know there are large vintage examples but they were not in general production. Perhaps folks did not have the disposable income in those days and large brushes are an unpleasant sign of modern excess. I see a similar thing with modern oversized wrist watches, ostentatious and vulgar. At one time men did not feel the need to do this, to me at least, overtly macho nonsense but something has changed. Perhaps I am over thinking it, maybe some men just like larger brushes and buy them because now they can. 😁
 
Interesting thread. They say that fashion goes in cycles and 'what goes around comes around'. I wonder though if the fashion for very large brushes has ever occurred before. I know there are large vintage examples but they were not in general production. Perhaps folks did not have the disposable income in those days and large brushes are an unpleasant sign of modern excess. I see a similar thing with modern oversized wrist watches, ostentatious and vulgar. At one time men did not feel the need to do this, to me at least, overtly macho nonsense but something has changed. Perhaps I am over thinking it, maybe some men just like larger brushes and buy them because now they can. 😁
When I bought my Plisson in 1986 I thought it was very large. I’ve just knotted two new badgers. They are very large. I like large brushes because I do a full face and head shave. I love the comfort and also the added efficiency because that’s a lot of skin to lather. The biggies are a 26mm and 28mm.
 

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