Morris & Forndran Blonde Badger

beginish said:

I don't think you need an enabler, Joe. Believe me, I should know!

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I'm actually quite surprised that I finally resisted temptation. To be honest these days I mostly just use 2 brushes and my others don't get enough use anyway. No reason to add another to the stable that will probably gather dust on my shelf.

Plus, the Oozuku Asagi JNat I purchased yesterday put a decent dent in the shave funds.

Harvitz81 said:

I'm actually quite surprised that I finally resisted temptation. To be honest these days I mostly just use 2 brushes and my others don't get enough use anyway. No reason to add another to the stable that will probably gather dust on my shelf.

Plus, the Oozuku Asagi JNat I purchased yesterday put a decent dent in the shave funds.

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Nothing like a reality check, especially this time of year. But those three in the mail are something to look forward to!

After reading this thread yesterday morning, I couldn’t resist.
I email Lee Sabini at 9:58 asking him if I could have one. Got a reply from him 7 minutes later saying yes is got few left and I can have one. Send him the PayPal payment straight away and believe it or not it came via post to my house this morning just after 11:00,that is less than 24 hours from the initial contact, WOW!!!!

Let us know what you think of your brush. I am im/patiently waiting.

I'm just curious, are all of the M&F brushes being discussed in this thread the same "Blond Badger," with similar dimensions, i.e., 24mm knot, 54mm loft? Or has Lee made up a few prototypes that he's selling prior to release of official production brushes? Are these last few 54mm loft brushes for sale the longer end of a range of prototypes he created to determine which would be the best loft for this grade of hair?

Maybe Bambos could give us an initial impression of this brush just received.

ltjaw said:

I'm just curious, are all of the M&F brushes being discussed in this thread the same "Blond Badger," with similar dimensions, i.e., 24mm knot, 54mm loft? Or has Lee made up a few prototypes that he's selling prior to release of official production brushes? Are these last few 54mm loft brushes for sale the longer end of a range of prototypes he created to determine which would be the best loft for this grade of hair?

Maybe Bambos could give us an initial impression of this brush just received.

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I will of cause give you my initial impression, no problem. And yes the brush I am talking about it is indeed the Blond badger one.
I have not seen the brush in person yet, as i went to work well before 8:00.

The following is part of Lee's email about the brush size: "[FONT=&quot]It will be the medium 24mm knot but loft height approx 54mm"[/FONT]

I do not like bidding wars. Last blonde badgered M&F sold on eBay two days ago and it was a real bargain for a 2-band brush.

Bestarrkin said:

I do not like bidding wars. Last blonde badgered M&F sold on eBay two days ago and it was a real bargain for a 2-band brush.

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I would just email Lee if you want one. I bid on that one on eBay, lost, and Lee sent me a second chance offer.

Kind of glad I didn't win as I really don't need another brush and hearing that the loft is now 54mm, I don't think I would like that (the one on eBay was advertised as 49mm).

ltjaw said:

I'm just curious, are all of the M&F brushes being discussed in this thread the same "Blond Badger," with similar dimensions, i.e., 24mm knot, 54mm loft? Or has Lee made up a few prototypes that he's selling prior to release of official production brushes? Are these last few 54mm loft brushes for sale the longer end of a range of prototypes he created to determine which would be the best loft for this grade of hair?

Maybe Bambos could give us an initial impression of this brush just received.

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I think they had variations just like any other handmade brush we see, i asked Lee for a 24mm knot 52mm loft.....but i think this is an initial run to get the word out and then February i think he is going to release a line of brushes.

Harvitz81 said:

I would just email Lee if you want one. I bid on that one on eBay, lost, and Lee sent me a second chance offer.

Kind of glad I didn't win as I really don't need another brush and hearing that the loft is now 54mm, I don't think I would like that (the one on eBay was advertised as 49mm).

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Joe, thank you for your offer. But I do not like that there is no standard. It seems an issue. I prefer knot sizes which they are under 50mm. In these terms I will wait. Same as Simpsons issue. For now in Simpsons website Colonel X2L is out of stock. I think new batch is a lot better than the old stock and I hope they care our recommendations. Thanks again.

Bestarrkin said:

Joe, thank you for your offer. But I do not like that there is no standard. It seems an issue. I prefer knot sizes which they are under 50mm. In these terms I will wait. Same as Simpsons issue. For now in Simpsons website Colonel X2L is out of stock. I think new batch is a lot better than the old stock and I hope they care our recommendations. Thanks again.

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Same here. If I had won the auction advertised for a 49mm loft and it came 54mm, I would be a little upset.

E-mail Lee if interested. He responds very quickly. I had the choice of 53 or 55 and chose 53mm. The type of hair helps determine loft and I explained that I normally face lather. Trust that he was setting loft based on this particular hair. We should know more as the reports get posted.

For what its worth the loft on mine is right at 50mm. However I got one of the first ones, and was fairly direct about using short loft face lather brushes almost exclusively.

Just had my M&F Blonde Badger brush arrive today and it could just be me, but it seems awful familiar.



At first glance you'd just think it was a different handle color and label! Everything is exactly the same between these two brushes otherwise. The loft of both is at 52mm, the knot of the brush is 24mm dead on, they both weigh 2.5 oz.

I haven't used the M&F yet, but it initially they don't feel as soft as the finest, or as dense, but it's still pretty close. The density feels just about right on this brush, but I've been veering slowly away from insanely dense brushes for awhile now towards brushes with just the right amount of loft and density to work well, without hogging the lather.

I know what I'll be using tonight for my brush...!

Post use:

Just got finished using the M&F Blonde Badger, and while it isn't as dense as the Finest, or that same feeling in the use, this brush is well worth what I paid for it! While I won't be parting with my Finest anytime soon, I won't be parting with this either.

It had no problems lathering up my Vintage Blades Triple-milled soap like my Finest, but it was easier to get the lather just right and release it thanks to the lower density. The backbone was pretty dead on for the M&F though, and if you really want more, getting one with a bit less loft would kick it up some more. But for me I'm as happy as a clam!






M&F brush on the left

Got mine. It's like a Stubby 2 2-band knot in a 1/2 handle with a higher loft. Cool. It might be more dense than the Stubby 2, slightly more backbone, whiter tips. I like it. I would probably still pick the S2 due to it's fan-shape.

kooshman7 said:

Just had my M&F Blonde Badger brush arrive today and it could just be me, but it seems awful familiar.

At first glance you'd just think it was a different handle color and label!

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No doubt the M&F is a good brush, but I'm hoping that statement is tongue in cheek. The density on the M&F looks to be ok, but Rooney Finest are the densest brushes I've ever seen, and the density difference is pretty obvious at first glance in that picture. You're not getting a $300 brush for $70 here. The tips are also very different. The M&F has whiter tips (like the Rooney Stubbys), not the off-white you see on the finest. In fact if that brush looks like anything to me, it looks like a Rooney 2 band stubby (pre-XL variety).

SliceOfLife said:

No doubt the M&F is a good brush, but I'm hoping that statement is tongue in cheek. The density on the M&F looks to be ok, but Rooney Finest are the densest brushes I've ever seen, and the density difference is pretty obvious at first glance in that picture. You're not getting a $300 brush for $70 here. The tips are also very different. The M&F has whiter tips (like the Rooney Stubbys), not the off-white you see on the finest. In fact if that brush looks like anything to me, it looks like a Rooney 2 band stubby (pre-XL variety).

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It was just tongue in cheek about how similar they are. Sorry if it seemed different. For some reason the tongue smiley didn't make its way out. If I made it sound like this was a better alternative than Finest, I didn't mean to, but in use it surprised me how much it put me in mind of Finest, though things were lost between the two. It doesn't replace Finest. But don't look for it in this brush. It has it's own merits which impressed me. The handle is high quality, along with the hair, and while it isn't as densely packed or have the same stiffness in the hair or diameter that Finest does, or the same massaging tips, it wasn't completely out of it's league either. At least for me.

This brush is just right for where my preferences have been headed. A large knot, typically 22-24mm but increasingly headed upward on the scale, a handle while it could be just a bit taller, still isn't a pain on the hand to use, and a good variety of ways to use, not so dense that it doesn't have good flowthrough, just a right amount of stiffness to give it a good backbone, and good softness with just a bit of a slight massage feel.

well i just took mine for its maiden voyage on some mwf, results were an excellent shave. This brush contains many of the things i like. I was actually looking to get bernd to slap a shavemac 2-band knot in a rooney 1/2 handle so this is the exact thing i was looking for, (and much cheaper). The hair is very comparable to my shavemac d01, soft tips, great density, and i love the handle. I am very happy with this brush and look forward to what m&f has in store for us.

how much are these brushes going for?

50 GBP delivered. Converts to ~$77. If available. They are likely proto's that Mr. Sabini made for testing. When contacted, I had a choice of 53ish loft or 55ish. I opted for 2 of the 53ish.Imho, this hair works very well at this loft. Arrived promptly with no box or instructions. Trust I used it correctly! Fantastic brush, very similar in feel to my Simfix Grosvenor. Bigger knot, slightly more loft, slightly more density.