What's new

In praise of Omega brushes ...

Two boar brushes that are in my regular rotation are the Semogue SOC and the Omega 31064. Both are equally loved by me and both provide soft tips with great backbone. I agreed that they don't get much love on the boards but Omega is as fine a manufacture of brushes as you will fine. Italian soaps and Italian brushes are a great fit.
 
I got a great Semogue 1800 off the BST here and I really like it, especially for a quick face lather on days I don't shave. This thread got me to take a look at Omega's, I am considering trying the 20102 or the 10048. Hell, knowing me I'll probably try both! At their prices not only can I afford to, how can I not? :wink2: Worst comes to worst I can always PIF them on. Thanks!
 
They are great brushes! I still love my Semogue's but I felt like I missing one and it was an Omega. I used to have an Omega Pro 48 which has a higher loft but a bigger knot at 28mm. I sold that one off. But I recently purchased and wanted to modify it to my liking an Omega Pro 48 with a lower loft. So I trimmed the hair on my own and its awesome!

Here's a comparison shot of my Omega Pro 48 next to my Semogue 11 LE Fbristle 2.

proxy.php
 
My Pro 49 arrived today. It isn't as big as I was expecting and the smell wasn't too bad either. I could only sense it up close (I was expecting a stink cloud of sweaty pig when opening the packet) and it was more of an old man's closet kind of smell, which to me is pretty harmless and was sort of enjoyable in a barber shop kind of way. I used my Grosvenor to shave but did a test lather with the 49 on my Trumpers Limes soap, with which I have always struggled. Even with only 20-30 seconds of loading the puck and my "Very Hard" rated water, it was lathering up a treat. I can't wait to use this brush.
 

JCinPA

The Lather Maestro
Old man's closet, that's it. I thought I smelled a hint of mothballs with my new 49 for a couple days. They break in fast, however.
 
An Omega 10275 was the first brush I bought after getting started with a Shea Moisture badger from Target. I wanted something smaller and scrubby, and the 10275 fit that to a "t". I used it for about 2 months straight and thought it was great. I wasn't able to avoid temptation to get something else, so I snagged a Vie-Long BGS LE horse/badger mix. The Omega pretty much stayed in the cupboard for the past 2 months when I was using the Vie-Long... until the past couple days. I decided to sell the Vie-Long, so I have been using the Omega. It has been awesome. I remember now why I thought it was such a great little brush. It does splay more than I have been used to with the Vie-Long, but it's small enough that it doesn't matter much. I face lather 100% of the time these days, and it is a fantastic fit for that. It's a trusty little backup that will always have a place in my cupboard.

All that for $10.
 
They are great brushes! I still love my Semogue's but I felt like I missing one and it was an Omega. I used to have an Omega Pro 48 which has a higher loft but a bigger knot at 28mm. I sold that one off. But I recently purchased and wanted to modify it to my liking an Omega Pro 48 with a lower loft. So I trimmed the hair on my own and its awesome!

Here's a comparison shot of my Omega Pro 48 next to my Semogue 11 LE Fbristle 2.

proxy.php

If you trim boar hair, does it resplit after use?
 
What I love about the Omegas is the bristles tend to stay straighter. The Semogue, when well-broken in, end up looking like my head the morning after having a couple too many martinis! Bed head extraordinaire! :lol:

Hear hear! I often see pictures posted on B&B of Semogue brushes with crazy "bed head" and I wonder if something is wrong with them! Given the love of them on here, I am sure they are fine brushes, but I do like the more composed behavior of my Omega Pro 49!
 
What I love about the Omegas is the bristles tend to stay straighter. The Semogue, when well-broken in, end up looking like my head the morning after having a couple too many martinis! Bed head extraordinaire! :lol:

I agree. The three brushes I use all the time are the lowly VDH, the Semogue 2000, and the Omega 10049. The Omega and the VDH have more backbone, which I like. The Semogue is softer, which is nice in its own way, but I prefer the other two.

full
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Balj,

I have the 48 but found it far, far too big and clumsy. I considered trimming it but didn't have the minerals.

What did you use? What's the loft length now? How does she lather??

Really keen on an answer as I'm going to follow your example...
 
Balj,

I have the 48 but found it far, far too big and clumsy. I considered trimming it but didn't have the minerals.

What did you use? What's the loft length now? How does she lather??

Really keen on an answer as I'm going to follow your example...

Mad Man,

Happy to hear that your going to try it out! I agree with your comment on the 48 being way too big and clumsy. That's one of the reasons why I did what I did. I guess that is what Semogue excels in, when the knot is big the lofts are set at a versatile height. The original loft of the Pro 48 is 70mm, and I wanted to make it like my Semogue 2011 LE FBristle 2 (26.5mm knot at 55mm). I don't have a caliper but its close enough. Granted the Semogue's bristles are of different quality and a big price difference, I wanted to see if there was an alternative, which in my mind was to reduce the loft to Omega Pro 48. By doing so I put a rubber band around the knot, then used an electric hair trimmer. I tried to trim as evenly as I could with a keen eye. It took all of 10 min really. Any who, after shortening the loft, she is a lather monster with a quite amount of scrub. I think its the best latherer in my rotation! When using Marco's method especially and loading your brush, the Pro 48 has a 28 mm knot, Imagine the result after bowl lathering :w00t:?
 
I'm convinced!

I'd actually packed the 48 away since my Savile Row arrived and haven't used any other brushes.

But.....I've got a BIG order of the new formula Proraso gear on the way and wanna have the 48 ready for it.

Rubber band/clippers. Might actually get to use the trimmers on my old Braun!
 
After all the boar talk, I ordered up an Omega 31064. I'm impressed by how hefty the brush is, how much water it held right away, and how fast it whomped up a lather with milled soap. I think I'm really gonna like this thing.

Letting it stand overnight saturated in Proraso, and rinsing it out with hot water in the morning certainly has gone a long way to getting rid of the naphthalene stink.
 
I have four badger brushes - a Duke 2 in Best, a 3-band Thater, a M&F blonde badger and a New Forest High Mountain. I'm nearing the end of using each of them on a rotation of Tabac, Arlington, Pen's BB and an RR La Famiglia. As soon as I'm done and have a real good and fresh memory of how each performs with these soaps I'm going to try my new Omega 48 on all of them. By then my Semogue SOC and 610 should have arrived and I can try it all over again with each of them. That should give me a good comparison of all of my brushes, and of my boars compared to my badgers, although all of the boars will be new and so will presumably be better after many more shaves. Oh boy, I can do this all over again in a few months!
 
Top Bottom