Badger Hair Grading and does "Bristle" have a significant meaning

OK, I'm shopping around for a badger brush. Looked into an Omega 636 and thought, wow, a silvertip for $45! To good to be true? So I looked at badger hair grading in the Wiki, becuase I have discovered that "Silvertip" isn't always a companies highest grade of brush, and looked up Omega. They show Pure, Fine and Silvertip Bristle.

Is this different from any other silvertip "hair" or is this just how Omega lables theirs burshes. I know that the hairs used to make a brush are "bristles" but I gues I'm trying to find out if this is a lesser grade hair.

It's great that they grade badger hair but it needs a standard that the manufacturers stick to or the grading is kind of meaning less IMHO. Let's face it, the great Rooney has two grades above a silvertip, EJ & Kent call "Pure", "Best", according to the wiki and some people argue they have a "Pure" grade which pops up on vendors sites. I think some just don't want to admit they bought "Pure" but maybe I'm wrong and their is a difference between Pure and Best in their line of brushes. Savile and Simpson apparently call their silvertips "Super". Ahhh my heads going ot explode......

Can someone shed some light on this to clear it up or is this just a fog created by the brush manufactures for marketing/pricing purposes?

I'm down to the EJ Med in best or the Omega 636 Silvertip in my decision. Both are less than $50. But am I comparing a Pure Badger to a true Silvertip?

Yes, that's a problem if you want to compare brush hair qualities of different makers. The one has best as their top grade, from another maker the best is a lower grade. You really need always look up the maker's hair grading in the Wiki.
Bristle is normally referred to as the boar hair. Some companies mix badger and boar hair. I don't know Omega brushes, so I am not of much help here.

Rosborne, yeah, all the grades are confusing. But generally, when you hit the almost top grade or top grade for that manufacturer, you're going to get a very soft brush compared to a lower grade.

There are some exceptions, like 2-band hair and "white mountain badger" hair used in very expensive brushes made by Simpsons, Rooney, and Plisson.

EJ has four grades (pure, best, super, silvertip), and best would be #2, whereas the Omega you're talking about is Omega's top grade, so I can basically guarantee that it will be softer. If you're looking at the 636, I believe WCS is out of stock and I'd be leery of ordering from Amazon marketplace or something like that. I don't know why WCS had it so cheap, because there are other reputable stores selling that brush for a bit more. You might want to email WCS and see when/if they will be restocking the brush.

For EJ, they have a Super on sale right now that you might want to look at. I'd go for this one over the EJ Best.

http://www.theenglishshavingcompany...TG21sb1||~@c~@b~@r~|0|user|1,0,0,1|29|special

In the end you pretty much get what you pay for.