I thought I was out of the brush game.
I thought I had tried everything I wanted to try. I felt no pull towards Plisson or Thater after the excellent Bullgoose Vie-Long silvertip killed my desire for high end white-tipped badger. A superb Rudy Vey offering satisfied my curiosity about two-band hair. I was not tempted by any of the super-premium Manchurian offerings from Simpson. I was settled in my rotation. Maybe I, thought, I would go for a version 2 Silvertip Fibre brush from Muhle to replace my version 1 from 2011. But certainly no more badgers or boars, right? Well then Muhle, my favorite company, had to go and make the Retro series of brushes.
Dammit.
See, Muhle is my favorite shaving company. Everything they make is class, and even if I don't buy many of their offerings because of price, I have to sit back and admire what they do. They innovate. They're a truly small operation with helpful people and they make hands-down the prettiest gear. But I never felt the need for one of their badger brushes because I like density, and Muhle knots aren't known for density.
Then they made the Retro series. Brushes with dense and lofty 25mm knots, handles right out of the swingin' 60's and delightfully "retro" boxes. I felt the pull, but resisted it. No more brushes, right? No more. I had enough.
Yeah right. When SBAD bites, you have to scratch.
So here's the RP1, the Retro series brush with a "Pistachio"-colored handle, burgundy/choco-brown foot, and old-timey logo. I originally wanted to get the butterscotch version, but I saw a few high-res photos of the pistachio and just fell in love. My crappy phone pics don't do the color justice. It varies between a greenish yellow and a mustard yellow depending on light, and with the logo it reminds me of the German flag. Muhle says this color was used on special brushes back in the day and it looks like it. I can imagine this for sale in 1968. Especially in the cool little box (which I'll photo later).
Truth be told, when I opened the box I was a bit concerned. The hair quality is "handcrafted Silvertip badger", the highest grade Muhle offers, but in person and in the pictures it looks a lot like a best badger grade. There's a bit of scritch to it dry. But this thing is DENSE. Now I'm not a density hound per se. I have never held or used a Chubby, Rooney XL Super Stubby or whatever it's called. The densest thing I owned to this point was a Commodore X3 until now. This, to me, is VERY dense for such a lofty knot. The specs are apparently 25x58, which makes this quite the beast in my reckoning. It reminds me somewhat of my Edwin Jagger Super that was my very first "nice" brush. Large and lofty, but much MUCH more dense than the floppy EJ.
It was also the funkiest brush I've encountered. I lathered it 6 times tonight as a test and to defunk it, and I'm pleased to report that this beast only lost 1 hair. Despite the 58mm loft, it loads hard soaps with ease. Face lathering with it is a pleasure. It's got all the backbone I could want and it's not scritchy like I thought it might be. But the biggest thing I noticed that I've never experienced before in 4.5 years of wetshaving is that the breach of the brush stays warm, even through the 2nd pass! Is this a feature of very dense brushes? If so, I like it. No brush I've ever used has so far exhibited this. But it also holds a LOT of water and I'm going to have to get used to that. Full of lather, this thing is easily capable of 5 passes, maybe 6. The density counteracts the loft so it's not a mop, but it also has flow-through. I kind of expected it to be a lather hog, but it's not. Maybe that's a benefit of the lofty hairs.
Is it worth it? Being the most expensive brush I've bought, when I took it out of its box I fought back buyer's remorse. But that has disappeared after using it. I wanted a huge brush because I'd never used one, and this fills that purpose. When you buy Muhle, you buy design. The price of this brush is comparable to Simpson offerings with less gargantuan knots, in some cases cheaper after Simpsons' price hike. And there's the unique handle to consider. So overall I'm happy. All brushes are overpriced for what you get, no matter the brand. But at least with this I can tell myself that it's got character and it's unlike any other brush I have.
I wish I had a better camera, but these pics will have to do. Pre-use, and post-use bloom. The picture doesn't adequately capture the bloom. It's enormous.
I thought I had tried everything I wanted to try. I felt no pull towards Plisson or Thater after the excellent Bullgoose Vie-Long silvertip killed my desire for high end white-tipped badger. A superb Rudy Vey offering satisfied my curiosity about two-band hair. I was not tempted by any of the super-premium Manchurian offerings from Simpson. I was settled in my rotation. Maybe I, thought, I would go for a version 2 Silvertip Fibre brush from Muhle to replace my version 1 from 2011. But certainly no more badgers or boars, right? Well then Muhle, my favorite company, had to go and make the Retro series of brushes.
Dammit.
See, Muhle is my favorite shaving company. Everything they make is class, and even if I don't buy many of their offerings because of price, I have to sit back and admire what they do. They innovate. They're a truly small operation with helpful people and they make hands-down the prettiest gear. But I never felt the need for one of their badger brushes because I like density, and Muhle knots aren't known for density.
Then they made the Retro series. Brushes with dense and lofty 25mm knots, handles right out of the swingin' 60's and delightfully "retro" boxes. I felt the pull, but resisted it. No more brushes, right? No more. I had enough.
Yeah right. When SBAD bites, you have to scratch.
So here's the RP1, the Retro series brush with a "Pistachio"-colored handle, burgundy/choco-brown foot, and old-timey logo. I originally wanted to get the butterscotch version, but I saw a few high-res photos of the pistachio and just fell in love. My crappy phone pics don't do the color justice. It varies between a greenish yellow and a mustard yellow depending on light, and with the logo it reminds me of the German flag. Muhle says this color was used on special brushes back in the day and it looks like it. I can imagine this for sale in 1968. Especially in the cool little box (which I'll photo later).
Truth be told, when I opened the box I was a bit concerned. The hair quality is "handcrafted Silvertip badger", the highest grade Muhle offers, but in person and in the pictures it looks a lot like a best badger grade. There's a bit of scritch to it dry. But this thing is DENSE. Now I'm not a density hound per se. I have never held or used a Chubby, Rooney XL Super Stubby or whatever it's called. The densest thing I owned to this point was a Commodore X3 until now. This, to me, is VERY dense for such a lofty knot. The specs are apparently 25x58, which makes this quite the beast in my reckoning. It reminds me somewhat of my Edwin Jagger Super that was my very first "nice" brush. Large and lofty, but much MUCH more dense than the floppy EJ.
It was also the funkiest brush I've encountered. I lathered it 6 times tonight as a test and to defunk it, and I'm pleased to report that this beast only lost 1 hair. Despite the 58mm loft, it loads hard soaps with ease. Face lathering with it is a pleasure. It's got all the backbone I could want and it's not scritchy like I thought it might be. But the biggest thing I noticed that I've never experienced before in 4.5 years of wetshaving is that the breach of the brush stays warm, even through the 2nd pass! Is this a feature of very dense brushes? If so, I like it. No brush I've ever used has so far exhibited this. But it also holds a LOT of water and I'm going to have to get used to that. Full of lather, this thing is easily capable of 5 passes, maybe 6. The density counteracts the loft so it's not a mop, but it also has flow-through. I kind of expected it to be a lather hog, but it's not. Maybe that's a benefit of the lofty hairs.
Is it worth it? Being the most expensive brush I've bought, when I took it out of its box I fought back buyer's remorse. But that has disappeared after using it. I wanted a huge brush because I'd never used one, and this fills that purpose. When you buy Muhle, you buy design. The price of this brush is comparable to Simpson offerings with less gargantuan knots, in some cases cheaper after Simpsons' price hike. And there's the unique handle to consider. So overall I'm happy. All brushes are overpriced for what you get, no matter the brand. But at least with this I can tell myself that it's got character and it's unlike any other brush I have.
I wish I had a better camera, but these pics will have to do. Pre-use, and post-use bloom. The picture doesn't adequately capture the bloom. It's enormous.
