Which knot?

[dushea]

I'm looking into a custom RV brush for my dad for his bday in a couple months and I'm trying to figure out the best knot and loft for him. He's a soap user (turned him on to Mike's and he hasn't looked back) and face latherer and he's been using a 20 year old horse hair brush with what I'd guess to be a 45mm x 20mm knot (eyeballing here...).

I have a Kent BK8 which measures about 55x25 and is a 3 band. I think he'll like something with a little less loft and with more backbone, but soft tips are a must. The Kent has been my only three band - do all three bands have that little backbone or is that a function of its high loft? I'm nervous a finest knot will be too stiff (if it's anything like my SOC boar) so I'm wondering if a lower lofted 3 band would solve the problem.

Any insight you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated!

 

[celestino]

Most of the new 2-bands would meet these requirements, easily! M&F 2XL for a luxury brush, Wet Shaving Products Stubby 2-band. and Wilborg 2-band brushes are what i would suggest.
How much do you want to spend?
The TGN 2-band are very, very soft, but lack substantial backbone, in my opinion, unless you really set the loft at 46-48mm. Good luck.

 

[dushea]

Forgive my noobity, but what's the difference between a 2 band and 3 band (aside from the obvious number of bands)? Is it a different part of the badger? Is a 2 band just a lower lofted 3 band?

 

[dushea]

Would a best badger be a fit here? The more I learn, the less I know.

 

[Big Jim]

There is no industry standard for classifying badger hair, but it generally goes something like this.

At the bottom rung of the ladder is 100% badger. About all that can be said about it is that it is all badger with nothing else blended in. Black badger generally fits in here too.

Next up is Best badger.

Then there is Finest badger. Two band is usually finest. Many feel this is the most suitable for shaving. Treated Finest is sometimes called Super badger. The treatment makes the tips softer without loosing overall stiffness (backbone). This is often the mainstay of many name brand brushes.

On top is Silvertip. As far as I know, all Silvertip is three band. Silvertip is only about 15% of the hair available on the badger. It is usually the softest and often the densest. Treated Silvertip is sometimes called Super Silvertip. Silvertip tends to have less backbone, and some users feel it is too soft.

Personally, I'm addicted to Silvertip. I have a best and two Blacks in my collection and I do rotate them in, but I really like my Silvertips best. YMMV.

My suggestion would be to start with a Whipped Dog Silvertip. It is a wonderful value so it won't break the bank. See how he likes it and go from there for the next brush. He may just fall in love with it.

 

[tomcj2]

I have often seen the term "treated" but never an explanation of what, or how the "treatment" is done or consists of.

Can someone give further details?

 

[Big Jim]

At least part of the "treatment" is bleaching the tips. This effects the color, although it still doesn't quite look like silvertip, having a more sterile appearance. It is said to also effect the tip softness although some debate that, claiming the softness comes from sorting and selecting softer hair from among what would otherwise be classified as Best or Finest.

 

[dushea]

Thanks Celestino, I think 100 is about my max. I want to get something he likes, but he's not on b&b and has only used his current brush, so he won't really have anything to compare it to anyway. Going crazy with this doesn't seem to make sense.