Some new large brushes from Tony @TGN/Penworks

I'm thrilled to be breaking in two new brushes from Tony. After the first few uses, I expect they will spend some time in the herd.

the herd


from above


First off, a 26mm Finest Ivory with a 55mm loft. Great tips, nice backbone, a handle shape I've always liked and a great feel. After a few warmup hand latherings with valobra, I lathered up valobra in my old vdh bowl. I got a nice lather and look forward to more practice with the brush in future shaves. i was a little worried about the bulb shape, but must say it lathers well and has a great flow through so no problems there. no hair losses.



finest lathered


finest bloomed



Going bigger, a 30mm silvertip-a with a 50mm loft and beautiful striped handle. I look at this a the baby brother of Tony's new 3x brush set. I was incredible. The combo of loft driven backbone and amazingly soft tips as well as holding the heat in from the water was pure nirvana. After a few warm up lathers with l'ocittane cade, i gave it 4-5 swirls in martin de candre. An incredible lather, warm lather and brush, and enough for all the passes one could need (and the rest of the family as well - ha). dropped one hair.

30 bloomed - gotta love that 50mm loft


Will work these through for a couple of weeks and post up a full review.

Great job tony! lovely brushes!

That 30mm looks like a winner to me...great loft to boot...

Ok, Its been more than a couple of weeks for the review, but here goes a quick summary.

Both of these brushes have truly proven their worth and continue to maintain a front row seat as two of my most used brushes. Both can face lather like absolute masters and feel incredible doing so, especially the 30mm silvertip-A. The 30mm has such amazing softness with the ability to whip soap to creamy bliss in seconds, all while feeling so smooth and wonderful on my face. It makes me want to shave each morning just to enjoy those few moments before the lather explodes. I find the 30mm goes exceptionally well with italian soft soaps, any creams, and martin de cadre.

I don't mean to shortchange the 26mm Finest at all, and I find it loves the english (or any hard) soaps. The finest does a great job of destroying soaps and seems to love MWF, TOBS soaps, l'occitane CADE, and just about any other hard soap I have. The handle is a classic keyhole and is great to hold in the bowl or for a face lather. Its nicely scrubby, without any scrittchyness and is one of the best flowing finest badger brushes I've ever owned.

The two together make a great one - two punch have replaced a number of well respected brushes in the front row including my Duke 3, Morris & Forndran style 1 size 3, chubby 3 in best and so on. I seem to spend much more time with these two brushes from Tony (TGN/Penchetta) as well as the boar (semogue 2000) and a vie-long horse I picked up in Spain and save the others for those days when they are the only ones that will do.

The 30mm TGN brush has continued to perform well over the years and is still my go to weekend brush. It's so luxurious! It continues to amaze even as I find good results with some of the newer synthetics like an AP Shave 28mm G5C. Reminds me how good badgers can be.