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Shaving brushes for shaving soap or shaving cream?

Hi - this is Bridget Jagger responding to the various comments about our Edwin Jagger best badger shaving brushes. We have a range of shapes, materials and sizes which hopefully meet the needs and pocket of any prospective purchaser. Interesting to hear the comments about the latherability.
Neil and I have been discussing this recently from the point of view of which of our brushes may be best suited to use with a hard shaving soap as opposed to a soft shaving cream. Certainly some of the super or silver tip badger hair, which is soft, luxurious and sometimes longer, is not as satisfying when used with hard shaving soaps however, the length and density of the hair is really the key. Best badger brushes will perform well with hot water and any soap or cream.
Our newest luxury brushes with silver tip fill are excellent with either hard soap or soft shaving cream as the hair is a little shorter and denser and therefore not as floppy. To isolate them they are at this link - http://www.theenglishshavingcompany...dwin+Jagger+Silver+tip+badger+shaving+brushes


We think these brushes, whilst not inexpensive, are excellent value for your money. They were also highly rated by the mods at B&B who evaluated them a few months ago.
Happy lathering! Sheafshaver
 
I currently one an Edwin Jagger brush in Best Badger and find it to be fantastic for both soaps and creams. I’m primarily a soap user, but this brush also works like a champ with the few creams I do have (Proraso, Taylor and T&H). I can only assume that the finer hair grades would be an improvement on what is already a great brush.
 
Hi Bridgett --

I predominately use soaps, and have had excellent results with the nice, soft, Finest Silvertip B&B brush you folks made for us a few months back. I guess I've never really understood the idea of a 'soap brush' vs a 'cream brush'. A great brush is a great brush, regardless of lather format IMO. I wouldn't consider the B&B brush 'scrubby', but it works very well with soaps and is quite luxurious.

-- John Gehman
 
Hi Bridgett --

I predominately use soaps, and have had excellent results with the nice, soft, Finest Silvertip B&B brush you folks made for us a few months back. I guess I've never really understood the idea of a 'soap brush' vs a 'cream brush'. A great brush is a great brush, regardless of lather format IMO. I wouldn't consider the B&B brush 'scrubby', but it works very well with soaps and is quite luxurious.

-- John Gehman

Bridgett:

Just to prove that different people feel differently, while a quality brush will work just fine with either soaps or creams, I do think that certain attiributes make a brush more or less suited to one or the other.

Take the B&B finest silvertip - while it is undoubtedly a quality brush, I find it a little on the floppy side for soaps - it definitely takes more time/effort to load the brush with soap (especially tripple-milled or tallow soaps), but it does whip the soap into good lather once loaded. In a similar vein, I find it too floppy for lathering directly on the face, as one would do with a shave stick. On the other hand, it is a champ with any cream I've used it with.

At the other extreme is my little Simpson "Rover" in pure - which has a short 20mm knot - the Simpson pure bader doesn't seem prickly as Vulfix's pure, but the combination of the coarser hair, and short dense knot make loading the brush with soap a snap and it produces a very good later - its also perfect for use with shave sticks. On the other hand, it takes more effort than my other brushes with creams - but does make good lather.

In the middle are my Saville Row (24mm silvertip) and Rooney Style 1 Large (26mm). While the Rooney is a little large (in that lathering soaps in the wooden bowl can be slightly messy), both of these brushes have dense knots, both of which are shorter in loft than the B&B finest. These brushes work great with both soaps and creams.

So, my opinion (and you know what they say about those!) is that the "ideal" soap brush would have a shorter, dense knot and likely be no bigger than 22mm (again the mess factor comes into play). And the hair should have some resiliance/backbone to make loading easy - this is why the firmer-haired silvertip and finest/best (or whatever mid-grade designation the manufacturer uses for the grade between pure and silvertip) seem to be favoured for use with hard soaps.

Having said all of this, all of my brushes (including those I've sold or traded) can make lather with cream or soap, but the floppier brushes didn't seem to do as good a job for me with the soaps - to the point where I don't bother any more using them with soaps.

It seems like the brushes you linked to have the hallmarks (dense, shorter lofts) of a good soap/all-around brush. But I can't comment from personal experience.

Just my $0.02 - for what its worth.
 
I agree with what Suzuki said. I own a medium in super-badger and I find it's only downfall to be the floppiness. If these new brushes you linked to are the way you say, the only reason they wouldn't sell is the price (which is fair IMHO). Pitty that badger hair is so hard to come by and takes so much time and effort to craft.
 
Hey Bridget,

Why is there no "small" size in "silvertip"? Thanks.

J

Looks like the medium has a 21mm knot and the overall brush height is 87mm.
Probably don't want to go too much smaller than that - you'd be getting into travel brush territory.
 
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