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Vie-Long Lord Randal SE brushes

I have not tried horse hair before and I really liked the look of the green handle so I placed an order for all 4. They showed up in the mail today. Very nice looking brushes. I will look forward to trying each one of them. It is interesting that the handle on the natural brown horse hair brush is 2mm bigger than the other 3 (55mm vs. 53mm). They all have a 24mm knot and the the loft is 54mm on the brown horse hair and 53mm on the others. I will look forward to using each of these in the coming weeks. Here is a picture of the set.

Brown Horse Hair, White Horse Hair, Mixed Horse Hair & Badger, Silvertip Badger

$VieLongLordRandalSESet-70342.jpg
 
I purchased the white horsehair version; it should be in my mailbox by Saturday. I look forward to your evaluation of each brush. I really like the look of all the brushes.
 
I'm quite curious about the mixed horse/badger knot. That sort of hybrid doesn't get much press on B&B. Looking forward to updates!
 
I did a first test lather with MWF in my palm with each of them. All of them produced a nice quick, thick lather. The brown horse hair and mixed knot shed about 3 or 4 hairs each, while I did not notice any shedding from the other two. All four brushes had an above average amount of new brush funk in them. I will most likely do one more test lather with each of them before I use them to shave to make sure it is gone. I will comment on the backbone and such after I use them on my face. Until then that is all. Here is a picture of the bloom post lather.

$VieLongLordRandalSESetPost-70343.jpg
 
I got mine today. Nice surprise! I've never had a horse hair before, and let me tell you, that sucker STINKS! It smells like my aunts horse barn from when i was a kid.

I did a test lather and when I squeezed the lather from the bristles, the lather from the middle of the knot came out BROWN. I rinsed it and re-lathered and the brown was gone.

This thing (white horse) is a lather monster! Built up crazy amounts of lather! I can't wait to use it tomorrow! I only rubbed it on my hand, but it didn't feel any more scratchy than my non-broke in boars. Less scratchy than my black badger for sure.

High quality brushes for sure!
 
I got mine today. Nice surprise! I've never had a horse hair before, and let me tell you, that sucker STINKS! It smells like my aunts horse barn from when i was a kid.

I did a test lather and when I squeezed the lather from the bristles, the lather from the middle of the knot came out BROWN. I rinsed it and re-lathered and the brown was gone.

This thing (white horse) is a lather monster! Built up crazy amounts of lather! I can't wait to use it tomorrow! I only rubbed it on my hand, but it didn't feel any more scratchy than my non-broke in boars. Less scratchy than my black badger for sure.

High quality brushes for sure!

Yes the funk in these brushes is definitely bad. The straight badger is just as bad as the horse hair brushes, but that will pass with a couple of good lathers.
 
i hoped to order these when he had the discount but i totally forgot to place my order the last day when he announced them and i missed the discount so the wife is making me wait now before i can buy a couple. doh.... i was like well there is a discount good till today and she said okay because of that and i had to work really late that night with a client and never got the order in now i have to wait.
 
i hoped to order these when he had the discount but i totally forgot to place my order the last day when he announced them and i missed the discount so the wife is making me wait now before i can buy a couple. doh.... i was like well there is a discount good till today and she said okay because of that and i had to work really late that night with a client and never got the order in now i have to wait.

I ordered them on the 15th but forgot about the discount. Oh well he did put a really nice pen (nice for me anyways) in with the order. That is one thing I do not want to start collecting is pens. It looks like the really nice ones are even more expensive than top end brushes and British Aristocrat razors.

Rob
 
I would love to hear your assessment on them. Particularly the silvertip and white horsehair.

Regardless of the handle, the Natural White Horse knot @24mm is the finest Horse they produce... placing my order NOW, love the handle!

Ok, I broke down and got a V-L Silver-Tip in the Beehive as well... I always wanted to try a V-L Silver-Tip, may as well go all the way!
 
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man you guys.... i really want these... my wife will literally kill me if i buy anything else this month besides my razorock order. grrrrrrrrr i really want the white and mixed (well the silvertip also....)

how is the mixed can someone give me more info on it?
 
What is the difference between the white and brown natural horse hair brushes?

My Vie-Long with light hair is bleached and has a 50/50 mane/tail hair mix. Both of these qualities make it softer than the "natural" brown counterpart of my brush (not bleached, with 35/65 mane/tail hair mix).

On these Lord Randal SE brushes, the white is "natural," which implies unbleached. Is the mix of mane/tail hair any different than the brown? The Bullgoose site does not specify the mix, and in fact, the specs. look identical between the two. So, I am curious if there is any performance difference or if it's just the appearance.
 
My understanding, and I may be WAY out in left field on this one, is the white is 50/50 and the brown is 35/65 like all their other horse brushes are.

I know that if my white one isn't 50/50, I'd be shocked. It's quite soft right out of the box and after a shampoo and conditioner last night, it's even softer. I used it this morning for face lathering and it has just the tiniest bit of scritch. Way less than an un-broken in boar brush. It's also just the slightest bit "floppy" when I gave it a couple of shakes to get the water out when done. With those characteristics, I'd be surprised if it had more than 50% tail hair.
 
What is the difference between the white and brown natural horse hair brushes?

My Vie-Long with light hair is bleached and has a 50/50 mane/tail hair mix. Both of these qualities make it softer than the "natural" brown counterpart of my brush (not bleached, with 35/65 mane/tail hair mix).

On these Lord Randal SE brushes, the white is "natural," which implies unbleached. Is the mix of mane/tail hair any different than the brown? The Bullgoose site does not specify the mix, and in fact, the specs. look identical between the two. So, I am curious if there is any performance difference or if it's just the appearance.

I don't know the ratios but the brown feels like it has a little bit more backbone than the white.
 
Wow! All in I guess! Those handles do look great. I'd be tempted to go after one of the horse brushes..... it is Vie-Long after all. I think I'd like to try a horse brush of the 24 mm size with a loft closer to 50 mm though..... and since these are not customizable, I'll probably opt to not get one. Again, great looking brushes though. Congratulations!

Ben
 
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