A pre-July 2005 Shavemac silvertip

**bald1** · 02-22-2010, 03:10 PM

Much has been made of the changes Bernd made back in 2005 to the silvertip he was using. And with the more recent introduction of the D01 grade of silvertip, many have opined that the thicker, often barbed hair with overall firmer backbone of the earlier silvertips is now available again. Bernd also offers a higher density option as well.

Well I honestly don't know about all this fuss as I don't own a newer Shavemac silvertip or D01 flavor. What I do know is that the Thuja wood modified stubby handle he fitted with a premium silvertip knot in April 2002 continues to serve me extremely well. It is not floppy at all, holds a tremendous amount of water, and works equally well with cremes and soaps that I build lather with in a stainless heated cup. It measures Ht 110, Handle 48, Loft 62, Knot 23. As for density, I'll let the pictures do the talking. It is shown next to my Rooney 2/1 Super (Ht 107, Handle 55, Loft 52, Knot 22). Keep in mind that the loft measures 10mm difference.

For an 8 year old brush it is in great condition. It was used daily until 2007 when I acquired the Rooney Super but still is used at least 4 or more times per week and remains my favorite. Bristle loss over the years has been less than the fingers on one hand. Some worry about wood handles. Proper care to shake excess water out after use and hanging it hair down to dry helps. But the various finishes on wood will all ultimately show the effects of hot water immersion and handling. The easiest and most effective maintenance is to apply a coating of a food grade mineral oil-beeswax mixture periodically. This is the same stuff you want to use on your kitchen's wood cutting boards as well. It works very very well.

Others might weigh in about how it appears compared to their newer Shavemac silvertips and D01s. Post 'em up

**kooshman7** · 02-22-2010, 04:47 PM

Hope to see a flurry of interest and response on this. I remember reading about Shavemac changing their hair at that time and a lot of people saying they didn't care for it. Wasn't browsing around back then, but still would be nice to hear what others have to say.

I have 3 Shavemac's right now and I like all three of them very much. One 30mm Shavemac, a 23/45mm D01 Fan knot, and a 23/54mm D01 Bulb knot.

It's interesting how quickly all these changes have occurred from the short time I've started here. Rooney Finest might no longer be able to be sourced, their 3-band Heritage hair for the moment seems to be gone and now replaced with a different 2-band type, talk of Simpson 2-band being gone, and then all of a sudden it's now commonplace again, and probably a ton of other things I just haven't noticed or caught onto yet. Vulfix changes of course. A bit of a headache keeping up with all of this!

**bald1** · 02-22-2010, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by kooshman7

Hope to see a flurry of interest and response on this. I remember reading about Shavemac changing their hair at that time and a lot of people saying they didn't care for it. Wasn't browsing around back then, but still would be nice to hear what others have to say.

I have 3 Shavemac's right now and I like all three of them very much. One 30mm Shavemac, a 23/45mm D01 Fan knot, and a 23/54mm D01 Bulb knot.

While we wait to see if and what others will add now that more time has elapsed since the change and with the D01 introduction, here are a few links to older threads that discuss the silvertip change at Shavemac:

Old Shavemac - are they that good?

Whats the story behind Shavemac being better before they changed their bristle type?

Shavemac: then & now
(great comments from Dr Chris Moss and Peter aka "DrP")

**huracan** · 02-23-2010, 11:33 AM

That is a beautiful looking brush Bob. I have two Bernd filled brushes, one is a custom wood handle I sent him about a year ago and that he filled with a 2 band D01 hair, it turned out to need a 28mm knot. It is a dense monster too and it is my luxury brush.

The other is a horn handled Silvertip I bought second hand on the BST, the handle shape is the same as the Vietnamese ones. The original owner bought it new about a year ago, but the interesting thing is that the tips display the characteristic barbs that people mention from before. It is not too dense, but the individual hairs are very resilient and tips also feel rough when dry; once wet and in use, the brush just has a difficult to describe feeling, it is soft but with a touch of scrubbiness that is different than any of the few other brushes I have tried. I do think that if this knot was very dense, it could very well feel like the "sandpaper" DrP describes in an older post.

I don't know if a)this was and older stock brush (I have not found reference and I don't think Shavemac did horn brushes in this shape back in '05); b)he used some remaining hair he found on a batch or c) the barbed hair is more prevalent than people think and just has not been discussed lately. I'm leaning towards c.

**bald1** · 02-23-2010, 02:55 PM

Lou,

I'd love to see pictures of that pair. As for density, all one needs to do is look at the base of the knots on mine. Rooney's are known for being dense but my custom Shavemac is denser.

As for the barbed hair issue, I don't know what the percentages were back then of Bernd's silvertip with or without. Same too with two banded versus three. Regardless my three banded primarily barb free haired silvertip pleases me no end.

**Greyfox** · 02-23-2010, 03:32 PM

If I ever feel the need to buy another brush to rotate with my Savile Row 3824 it will be a DO1 Shavmac. Bernd does some great looking brushes.

**huracan** · 02-23-2010, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by bald1

Lou,

I'd love to see pictures of that pair.

I'll post one, been out of the house for some time and will be back home in the beginning of March though.

Originally Posted by bald1

As for density, all one needs to do is look at the base of the knots on mine. Rooney's are known for being dense but my custom Shavemac is denser.

It looks like he had help from two other guys and a small boy to hold the knot while he stuffed more hair in there. I can only imagine how fantastically it lathers and feels.

Originally Posted by bald1

As for the barbed hair issue, I don't know what the percentages were back then of Bernd's silvertip with or without. Same too with two banded versus three. Regardless my three banded primarily barb free haired silvertip pleases me no end.

I've come across a few posts here and there about the barbed hair issue lately, but no one mentions anything special about them anymore the way folks talked about those old Shavemacs. Some have mentioned that the latest cases may just be regular Silvertip that may have been singed on, say, a too hot a scuttle surface or the like <shrug>.

**bald1** · 02-23-2010, 06:13 PM

I think that this quote from Peter aka drP in a reply to Dr Chris Moss describing his pre-2005 silvertip Shavemac #220 from the 2006 link I cited above best describes my brush as well:

"... with the exception of my #220 all my Shavemacs were "barbed"with hooked tips; very much alike my barbed Chubby #3 and barbed Polo #12: in fact, except for the construction of the brush (lightbulb shape vs trapezium shape) I still cannot see any differences between my barbed Shavemacs and barbed Simpsons super.

But there was one remarkable exception: the Shavemac #220: the loft of this brush has the stiffness and resiliency of my other Shavemacs but it doesn't have barbed or hooked tips; this brush was therefore for a long time my absolute favourite; it had all the qualities in it which i prefer in a shaving brush:beautiful round/lightbulb shape, densely packed, soft tips, much stiffness or resiliency of the bristle shafts and keeping it's form perfectly."

**huntmol** · 02-23-2010, 07:44 PM

I've never tried a 2005 Shavemac, and although I have often checked, I've never even seen on on the B/S/T. I would love the opportunity to compare/contrast a 2005, Silvertip, and a D01.

**kooshman7** · 02-23-2010, 08:03 PM

To be more dense than a Rooney is hard to imagine... My Emillion is stuffed to the hilt with hair!

**bald1** · 02-23-2010, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by kooshman7

To be more dense than a Rooney is hard to imagine... My Emillion is stuffed to the hilt with hair!

All I can do is compare my Shavemac to my Rooney Super 2/1 as shown in the photos above. No doubt there are higher grade Rooneys that are denser than my 2/1. But like Lou (huracan) teased in his post after examining the photo, it looked like Bernd "had help from two other guys and a small boy to hold the knot while he stuffed more hair in there."

**huracan** · 03-17-2010, 02:54 PM

Finally a few days at home with enough time to relax. Here are the pictures I promised. The closeup is of the horn brush on the right, notice the barbed tips; the brush was bought new by the original owner (not me) a little over a year ago, it is not overly dense, but it shows expertise in knot tying because it matches the hair qualities to the "required" density for it to feel right (see my post above).
The cocobolo brush has two band D01 hair, I used it today with SCS Calypso soap.