I've been toiling away for the most part for nearly two months with my Shavemac 177 Silvertip and am sort of reaching my wits end with the performance. I use a range of soaps (Tabac, MWF, TOBS, Proraso) and creams (Proraso, Cella, Speick, etc.) but am experiencing a frustrating time getting a decent lather out of any of my product.
My regular brush was a super badger (rebranded Vulfix) that I have had a great run with; no matter the soap or cream I'd get rich, thick, luxurious lather. Always good for 3 to 4+ passes.
The Shavemac has a much bigger knot (23mm versus 18mm) and is much more dense, but I can't seem to get more than two passes of sub-standard lather in anything other than the Proraso cream (which of course be lathered by just thinking about water).
I've played around with different amounts of water, different loading times, swirling and pumping whilst loading, cold water vs hot, different preps, drenching my face with water in between passes, face lathering, bowl lathering (no hand lathering) but am getting no joy at all. I've also tried washing the brush with shampoo, combing the brush and leaving lather in it overnight.
I absolutely love the brush in terms of weight, softness of the bristles, look and feel, quality of the construction, etc. but I'm at my wits end with getting the darn thing to work.
As this has been my first silvertip I'm wondering if I've got something wrong with my technique (although I've been at this for a while now and am very adept with my super or pure bristle brushes).
Any suggestions would be appreciated... right at the moment I'm seriously contemplating throwing it in the back of the drawer which would be a shame for such a nice brush.
Cheers.
My regular brush was a super badger (rebranded Vulfix) that I have had a great run with; no matter the soap or cream I'd get rich, thick, luxurious lather. Always good for 3 to 4+ passes.
The Shavemac has a much bigger knot (23mm versus 18mm) and is much more dense, but I can't seem to get more than two passes of sub-standard lather in anything other than the Proraso cream (which of course be lathered by just thinking about water).
I've played around with different amounts of water, different loading times, swirling and pumping whilst loading, cold water vs hot, different preps, drenching my face with water in between passes, face lathering, bowl lathering (no hand lathering) but am getting no joy at all. I've also tried washing the brush with shampoo, combing the brush and leaving lather in it overnight.
I absolutely love the brush in terms of weight, softness of the bristles, look and feel, quality of the construction, etc. but I'm at my wits end with getting the darn thing to work.
As this has been my first silvertip I'm wondering if I've got something wrong with my technique (although I've been at this for a while now and am very adept with my super or pure bristle brushes).
Any suggestions would be appreciated... right at the moment I'm seriously contemplating throwing it in the back of the drawer which would be a shame for such a nice brush.
Cheers.