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Are Silvertips best?

^ I currently own a savile row 18 mm silvertip, the 'il bambino' brush.

I like it a lot, but I want a brush that is a little bigger (maybe 22mm) that will hold a little more lather through multiple passes.

If i upgrade in size, should I stick with a silvertip, or are silvertips not always supeior, as far as face lathering soap?

Any suggestions/comments are appreciated. :thumbup1:
 
Best is subjective.

They (silvertips) are softest, generally speaking.

I like to use two band finest. And I also like Simpsons Best when it's a low loft and dense.
Boars are good face latherers too.
 
For a reputable brushmaker (and not someone who engages in barbarities like bleaching the tips), generally silvertip is considered to have the softest face feel. Depends on what your face likes. Mine is sensitive enough that Simpsons' current grade of Best is sometimes too prickly.

EDIT: I guess I should add that not all silvertip is created equal. There's no such thing as a "silvertip" category that means the same thing from maker to maker. I can vouch for Rooney Super and Thäter silvertip having superb tip softness once broken in, and have heard good things about Shavemac silvertip and Simpsons three-band Super.
 
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It's a personal preference. As a face latherer, I tend to prefer softer brushes and favour the Silvertips. Having said that, it varies tremendously between manufacturers and brushes within brands. The softest brush I own, and one of my favourites, is the Edwin Jagger Medium Silver Tip. I have a Simpson Chubby1 Super, yet I prefer, for softness, my Chubby 2 in Best. The Simpson Best is well known for its softness and is easily comparable if not softer than many silvertips.
 

Marco

B&B's Man in Italy
Silvertips are only softer. What is actually better is simply a question of personal taste. I personally know many experienced wet shavers who literally adore Pure badger brushes and will never renounce their strong exfoliating feeling.
 
Love my Thater silvertip as a face latherer, as long as I use sticks. It is a little to soft for my tastes when trying to load from a puck however, and I like my EJ Best badger for that. Now that I've converted everything to stick, the Thater sees 99% of my shaves.
 
For a reputable brushmaker (and not someone who engages in barbarities like bleaching the tips), generally silvertip is considered to have the softest face feel...
EDIT: I guess I should add that not all silvertip is created equal. There's no such thing as a "silvertip" category that means the same thing from maker to maker... and have heard good things about Shavemac silvertip and Simpsons three-band Super.

Badger Hair grades seem to be a subjective rating from Manufacturer to Manufacturer. I mainly use Horse Hairs (4) but own two Custom Shavemacs, one Finest & Silver-Tip. While I do enjoy the Silver-Tip very much, I think the Finest grade, which contains a percentage of Silver-Tip Hair, is virtually as soft as my Silver-Tip (say that three times fast). I also feel my Vie-Long Horses can very much match the Softness of the Shavemacs but lack the backbone these Badgers have, that being said I still grab my Horses more than the Badgers. BTW I Also enjoy the Semogue Boars and have a Buffet of choices when grabbing a Brush, That's not a bad dilemma to face before each shave :001_tt1:
 
I go through phases - sometimes I prefer the gentle touch of a silvertip, other times I like the exfoliation factor of a boar or synthetic
 
For face lathering look for a short lofted brush and density.

The hair grade is a matter of taste wether you like the caress of a soft silvertip, the massage feeling of a dense super badger knot, the scritchiness of a pure, the softness combined to the backbone of a two band hair or possibly all this range of choice (beware of SBAD).

Take a look at the ultimate brush chronicle, you will find good brushes to fit your need :
-A good boar like the Semogue 1305 is must try as it is inexpensive and extremely efficient.
-The Duke #2 or the Rooney 3/1 super silvertip would fit perfectly (soft but very dense).
 
Silvertips are nice, and I have a Kent which I use from time to time. However my 3 others are all in best, and IMHO I find them a better brush. Now that's me, and of course YMMV. :001_tongu :001_smile
 
SD, I'm a face latherer and have been playing with brushes for that technique since I've only been blade shaving since late February.

I began with the VDH kit brush, yes, it'll work, not what you're looking for IMO, but it will face lather. Eventually I decided to get a badger. I wanted a Simpson Special Best badger, screwed the order up and got it in Pure. Decided it was too scratchy, and ordered what I wanted in the first place, in Best. So I had 2 similarly named brushes in 2 different grades, same handles. The Best has a 40 mm loft and the Pure has a 44mm loft. They operate like different brushes and they are despite the similar name. Eventually the scratchy Pure has vindicated itself and I use it when it's turn comes up. Then I wanted a better boar and got a Semogue 1438, it has a wooden handle, but it's available in plastic if you want that. It's a great face latherer and appeared broken in soon after I got it. All of the brushes mentioned so far have knots <20mm and lofts <45mm. To me that was key for a fantastic face lathering brush.

While I was researching my face lathering brushes I ran into the Rooney 3/1 Super Silvertip (a 1/1 is a similar knot, different handle so I was told) and I was told it was a fantastic face lather brush. Recently I acquired one from b/s/t and have used it twice so far. It's a larger brush http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/238999-New-(to-me)-Rooney-3-1-Super-Silvertip and initially I thought to myself, "Well I can always resell it.". But it's a nice face lathering machine. I've used it for stick soap and soap in a bowl and it's worked great each time. One criticism of the brush when using a stick soap... When the damp brush is moved on the soapy cheeks, the brush does fling a little water. Maybe the criticism is of myself. I need to slow the swirling velocity down a little until the soap turns to a paste. It's a different brush that I need to learn how to use.

So from considering a face lather brush to be relatively small brush (<20mm knot and <45mm loft) I now also accept the 22mm Rooney 3/1 to be an acceptable brush. It's in my rotation, and will stay there. The brush is almost like a caress as it works. It feels nice, but w/o the backbone of the boar brush or the slight prickly feel of the Simpson Special Pure badger. It's nice in it's own way. I think it works so nicely because of it's density.

All of the brushes I mentioned hold multiple passes for me, even the tiny Special Best badger. Of course the 3/1 is capable of holding a lot more lather. It may be what you're looking for.
 
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SD, I'm a face latherer and have been playing with brushes for that technique since I've only been blade shaving since late February.

I began with the VDH kit brush, yes, it'll work, not what you're looking for IMO, but it will face lather. Eventually I decided to get a badger. I wanted a Simpson Special Best badger, screwed the order up and got it in Pure. Decided it was too scratchy, and ordered what I wanted in the first place, in Best. So I had 2 similarly named brushes in 2 different grades, same handles. The Best has a 40 mm loft and the Pure has a 44mm loft. They operate like different brushes and they are despite the similar name. Eventually the scratchy Pure has vindicated itself and I use it when it's turn comes up. Then I wanted a better boar and got a Semogue 1438, it has a wooden handle, but it's available in plastic if you want that. It's a great face latherer and appeared broken in soon after I got it. All of the brushes mentioned so far have knots <20mm and lofts <45mm. To me that was key for a fantastic face lathering brush.

While I was researching my face lathering brushes I ran into the Rooney 3/1 Super Silvertip (a 1/1 is a similar knot, different handle so I was told) and I was told it was a fantastic face lather brush. Recently I acquired one from b/s/t and have used it twice so far. It's a larger brush http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/238999-New-(to-me)-Rooney-3-1-Super-Silvertip and initially I thought to myself, "Well I can always resell it.". But it's a nice face lathering machine. I've used it for stick soap and soap in a bowl and it's worked great each time. One criticism of the brush when using a stick soap... When the damp brush is moved on the soapy cheeks, the brush does fling a little water. Maybe the criticism is of myself. I need to slow the swirling velocity down a little until the soap turns to a paste. It's a different brush that I need to learn how to use.

So from considering a face lather brush to be relatively small brush (<20mm knot and <45mm loft) I now also accept the 22mm Rooney 3/1 to be an acceptable brush. It's in my rotation, and will stay there. The brush is almost like a caress as it works. It feels nice, but w/o the backbone of the boar brush or the slight prickly feel of the Simpson Special Pure badger. It's nice in it's own way. I think it works so nicely because of it's density.

All of the brushes I mentioned hold multiple passes for me, even the tiny Special Best badger. Of course the 3/1 is capable of holding a lot more lather. It may be what you're looking for.

Thanks a lot BK, i might have to try a boar since I have no experience with them thus far :)
 
I'll second most of what's been said already, especially two huge points:

1. There is no consistent offering of what a silvertip feels like. Between manufacturers but even between two identical brushes (two Rooney Finest 3/1s can be very different from each other)

2. There is no "best". There "may" be what's best for you (Sameer just bought the brush that's "best" for me and it may be the only one ever made, but that's another story:lol:) but you won't really know what it is until you own it. That said, the more you try, you can make better "attempts". For me, regular three band silvertips and supers tend to be too soft. I enjoy the stiffness and bit of scritch of 2 band brushes, in larger knots and shorter lofts. But that's only going to give me a shot at "my" best.

Cheers,

Ken
 
I have two Silvertip brushes, and they don't get very much play time ... among badger grades, I prefer Best/Finest/Super. This "middle-grade" has more backbone and just enough scrubbiness that I know its there. Silvertip is so soft and floppy that I can barely feel it on my face, but granted, Silvertip does produce an amazing amount of lather.

Silvertip is the most expensive not because its the most superior grade of badger hair. It ia expensive because its rare.

If you're into face-lathering, though, you should have several good boar brushes on hand. Semogue 1305 turned me around back in January and made a face-latherer out of me. I also have a Semogue Custom 2010, and alternate between the two. I will be picking up a few more boars in the next year or so, most likely a Semogue Owner's Club and an Omega Bambino, and I'm not sure what else.
 
To each his own is definitely the right answer. Just from reading posts I would guess there are more face latherers here than bowl latherers. And most of them it seems prefer a bit a scritch from their brush. For me, I bowl lather much more than face lather. I love putting a dollop of cream in the bowl, or getting some hard soap on my brush, then watching it whip into a nice foamy lather. I also pre-heat my bowl, and dip my brush in really warm water. So my lather ends up nice and warm. I love the soft, luxurious feel of my silvertip brush applying the warm lather to my face. I do rub it in a bit with the brush, but at that point I'm not trying to make lather on my face. So soft works just fine for me. But what I view as "that soft luxurious feel" of a silvertip on my face others might well consider a "floppy", less than ideal experience. That's why brushes come in different shapes and sizes and bristle material. Listen to other people's recommendations, but in the end just see what you like best.
 
True, so true! I have two Finest 3/1's and they're both very different brushes...
There is no consistent offering of what a silvertip feels like. Between manufacturers but even between two identical brushes (two Rooney Finest 3/1s can be very different from each other)
 
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