Review of the MUHLE 21mm Black Fibre brush

With the increased interest in synthetic brushes among members, I have updated and posted my review of the HJM 31 P 8 GR/GR in the Reviews section, for anyone who might be interested. This brush represents my first exposure to the new generation of synthetic brushes, and is a fine example of new-gen synths.

Please note that the editing function still does not allow for a YES in the "Recommended" field, and that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this brush.

Muele has re invented the aggressive razor 2012/r41 and now they have done the same with the brush. Simply one of the best lathering brushes i ever seen. I put 1 bean size drop of shave cream on the brush and it makes a ton of lather, unbelievable. its all in the silvertip and fibre combination. Somehow Muele has made this brush to save you money on shave creams and it pays for itself by saving on shave creams/soaps. here's a vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sm1DClv4rEQ<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=sm1DClv4rEQ" target="_blank">

Alex...am I missing something on the video? Is the Men-U brush made by Muhle?

TallyShave said:

Alex...am I missing something on the video? Is the Men-U brush made by Muhle?

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I am not trying to speak for Alex, but I can understand his appreciation of features that appear to be shared by new synthetic brushes, or have addressed known issues with synthetic brushes of the past. There are several manufacturers of new synthetic brushes leading the way, and whose brushes share some excellent qualities.

I actually first posted the video here on B&B after finding that the Black Fiber brush I review here appears to use soap and cream at a dramatically reduced rate. Even though the Men-U brush is not, to my knowledge, made by Mühle, it illustrates a characteristic shared by the Mühle brush I did review, IMO. I found that the Mühle Black Fiber brush reduced soap consumption by 50% or more, and the video demonstrates that the Men-U brush does pretty much the same. I have also seen that type of performance in other new-gen synths. The video seems to me to be a fair illustration of this characteristic.

From a prior post by me: "One of the advantages of synthetic brushes that's not often mentioned is that you need less soap/cream than with natural hair brushes. Synthetic fibers are solid, rather then hollow, and do not absorb lather the way animal hairs do. This also makes them more hygienic, faster drying and easier to clean." I am not the only reviewer to make these observations.

Perhaps a disclaimer would help? If so, it is offered by me.

Great review, I'm really enjoying my Black Fiber as well and it's probably my fourth favorite Brush and I love the feel of the Handle.

Codfish said:

I am not trying to speak for Alex, but I can understand his appreciation of features that appear to be shared by new synthetic brushes, or have addressed known issues with synthetic brushes of the past. There are several manufacturers of new synthetic brushes leading the way, and whose brushes share some excellent qualities.

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Gotcha...makes sense. I have been looking at the new synthetics and am very interested. The new Muhle Fibre ones look nice.

Codfish very nice review. Reminds me that I need to get up a formal review of the 23mm Muehle Silvertip Fiber that I bought after the pass-around of the same.

cxg231 said:

Codfish very nice review. Reminds me that I need to get up a formal review of the 23mm Muehle Silvertip Fiber that I bought after the pass-around of the same.

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Chris, I hope you get around to it one day. Your test under the pass-around was thorough and nicely illustrated. It would be nice to see a review with some "action shots" for a change. Keep up the good work, brother.

Codfish said:

With the increased interest in synthetic brushes among members, I have updated and posted my review of the HJM 31 P 8 GR/GR in the Reviews section, for anyone who might be interested.

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I'm interested, thnx! First i was a little doubtful, and I still want to own a Semogue Owners Club in cherry one day, but I do now believe that this is the future. They will most likely surpass natural brushes in a lot of ways. Of course natural will always has it's own charm.

El-a-Menthol said:

I'm interested, thnx! First i was a little doubtful, and I still want to own a Semogue Owners Club in cherry one day, but I do now believe that this is the future. They will most likely surpass natural brushes in a lot of ways. Of course natural will always has it's own charm.

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I agree completely. My first exposure to synthetics as a newbie left me pretty UN-interested in them. The reviews just weren't very enticing.

When I got the Black Fiber brush, I knew something dramatic had changed about synths. Then I got the Silvertip Fiber, and began to think that synths may have come of age.

I saw characteristics that were as good, and maybe even better, than natural brushes. To me, they use half as much soap/cream and produce better lather, they are easier to clean, much faster drying, more hygienic, need no break-in, hold their shape and lose almost no fiber through damage to a hollow shaft, breaking or shedding. The newest ones are pretty good looking, too, and hard to tell from naturals in appearance and performance. And the old water retention problem has been solved by some manufacturers.

Is heat retention still an issue? I don't know. I haven't tested it yet.

New-gen synths have come a long way in the past few years. They address animal-product issues for those who are concerned, and may one day clearly surpass natural brushes in every dimension of performance. Is that day here? I have an open mind.

Will they ever have the appeal that naturals have to many shavers? Probably not.

One thing is sure. In a recent poll, only 6% of members said they used synthetic brushes. Look for dramatic increases by next year. New-gen synths won't be overlooked for long. They're just too good.

Well now you are just enabling Jim! How can I not get one after that breakdown?

the black fibre brushes come with such sexy handles too. bonerific:



for the combination of price, outstanding look, performance, and durability, i think these should become first recommendations for beginners. i definitely will ALWAYS want an ultra-pillowy Thater with a huge knot of heavenly silky soft silvertip badger hair, but i own a Muhle silvertip fibre and i'm extremely happy with it.

vitalMyth said:

the black fibre brushes come with such sexy handles too. bonerific:

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Oh, man. Now you have me salivating! And I see the Muhle catalog has a listing for a 25mm Silvertip Fibre brush "available soon". They sure make some beautiful brushes!

The term "bonerific" is new to me. Does it mean what I think it means?

If so, I agree!

Codfish said:

Oh, man. Now you have me salivating! And I see the Muhle catalog has a listing for a 25mm Silvertip Fibre brush "available soon". They sure make some beautiful brushes!

The term "bonerific" is new to me. Does it mean what I think it means?

If so, I agree!

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It does mean what you think it means.

Muhle is making it very hard on the natural fiber only competitors.

Just curious - with the loft and knot (below), is it not a little "floppy"?
[My vulfix badger, at 19mm knot and 50mm loft feels rather floppy already...]

Knot (at base): 20 mm
Loft: 54 mm
Link

merkur59 said:

Just curious - with the loft and knot (below), is it not a little "floppy"?
[My vulfix badger, at 19mm knot and 50mm loft feels rather floppy already...]

Knot (at base): 20 mm
Loft: 54 mm

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I just wrote a PM to another member on this same topic. Let me quote myself:

I agree that the lofts seem higher than expected, but that's because synthetic fibers are solid and have different characteristics than naturals. They need more loft to emulate the backbone and "feel" of fine badger. The loft height is not directly equivalent to that of naturals. If you noticed the height of the Black Fiber brush next to my EJ Best, you would see a noticable difference.

I owned a Frank Shaving Silvertip, FWIW, and the Mühle synth feels as nice to me.

I trust that the synth brush dimensions are as good as they can be, whatever they are. Mühle is very careful to do the absolute bast it can with the materials they use and the designs they employ. I think they've hit home runs with the synth fibers they created. Edwin Jagger is introducing a lot of new synths, and I would not be surprised to find they're using Mühle knots.

From what I understand, a main focus of their brush testing is fine-tuning of the lofts and shapes. Synthetic fibers differ from natural hair in some ways. On some dimensions, they may even be better, IMO. Synthetic brushes simply require different engineering to adjust for the different material. You may find differences in dimensions. They are intentional, and not necessarily directly comparable to naturals by dimensions alone. Performance is what counts.

Jim - nice post above on the relationship between brush material and design. One thing I have noticed that is common to all 3 of my synthetic brushes, and a trait that was observed during the Muehle Silvertip Fiber pass around, is that the synthetic fibers seem to be "springy". As you mentioned, this is probably a function of being stiffer in bending as they are solid rather than hollow fibers.

Being "plastic" fibers they can deform a lot and still bounce right back into their original shape. I believe this also explains why I have observed less "bloom" from my synthetic brushes than the natural brushes. But to bring this back to your post above, proportional to the knot diameter, the synthetic fibers need to be longer in order to mimic the same stiffness or backbone of the natural fibers.

If the fibers are longer but stiffer, they will exhibit the same "backbone" as a shorter, less stiff fiber of the same fiber diameter. I don't want to confuse "stiffness" with "skritchy", those are two different characteristics. The Muehle silvertip fiber is not at all "skritchy".

Codfish said:

I just wrote a PM to another member on this same topic. Let me quote myself:

I agree that the lofts seem higher than expected, but that's because synthetic fibers are solid and have different characteristics than naturals. They need more loft to emulate the backbone and "feel" of fine badger. The loft height is not directly equivalent to that of naturals. If you noticed the height of the Black Fiber brush next to my EJ Best, you would see a noticable difference.

I owned a Frank Shaving Silvertip, FWIW, and the Mühle synth feels as nice to me.

I trust that the synth brush dimensions are as good as they can be, whatever they are. Mühle is very careful to do the absolute bast it can with the materials they use and the designs they employ. I think they've hit home runs with the synth fiber they created. Edwin Jagger is introducing a lot of new synths, and I would not be surprised to find they're using Mühle knots.

From what I understand, a main focus of their brush testing is fine-tuning of the lofts and shapes. Synthetic fibers differ from natural hair in some ways. On some dimensions, they may even be better, IMO. Synthetic brushes simply require different engineering to adjust for the different material. You may find differences in dimensions. They are intentional, and not necessarily directly comparable to naturals by dimensions alone. Performance is what counts.

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Thanks.

And I.am.sold - definitely my next purchase!

cxg231 said:

...One thing I have noticed that is common to all 3 of my synthetic brushes, and a trait that was observed during the Muehle Silvertip Fiber pass around, is that the synthetic fibers seem to be "springy". As you mentioned, this is probably a function of being stiffer in bending as they are solid rather than hollow fibers.

Being [solid] fibers they can deform a lot and still bounce right back into their original shape. I believe this also explains why I have observed less "bloom" from my synthetic brushes than the natural brushes. But to bring this back to your post above, proportional to the knot diameter, the synthetic fibers need to be longer in order to mimic the same stiffness or backbone of the natural fibers.

If the fibers are longer but stiffer, they will exhibit the same "backbone" as a shorter, less stiff fiber of the same fiber diameter. I don't want to confuse "stiffness" with "skritchy", those are two different characteristics. The Muehle silvertip fiber is not at all "skritchy".

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Chris, I agree with your observations, and wish I knew more about these new fibers. After photographing my Black Fiber brush, I found some details that I did not notice when I was using it. I was aware of the softness of the tips, of the nice backbone, lack of "skritchiness" and good water retention, but did not know what made the Mühle fiber different than others I'd heard about. My pictures revealed details that surprised me:



I sent the picture to Mühle, advancing my theory that the forking and curling increased the brush's water holding and retention capabilities. My suspicions were acknowledged without further comment about what else sets their fibers apart.

My synthetic brush from the New York Shaving Company has micro-crimping in the fibers. NYSC confirms that its fibers are heat-crimped, but the fibers, unlike Mühle's, are very artificial looking.

Mühle has developed at least two terrific synthetic fibers that deserves further study, as I am sure their competitors are doing. For now, given my somewhat limited knowledge and experience, they seem to stand alone and at the head of the pack.

how does the scritchiness of the black fibre brush compare to the silvertip fibre? i have a silvertip fibre already and i'm considering getting a black fibre as well, but only if the scritchiness is similar or less...i like really soft, pillowy tips in my brushes.