DIY-Tutorial: How to soften your Cheap-Badger DRASTICALLY!

Hi there, i will present to you now a pretty easy way to soften your regular 8-10Bucks Badger so that it (in my Case) even
surpassed a Silvertip-Badger that costs 14x times as much.


You basically just need a Dremel or an equivalent Multitool, and a few minutes (depending on how rough the Badger-Hairs are between 10-20Minutes).


DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, IAM IN NO WAY RESPONSABLE TO DAMAGE DONE TO YOUR BADGER YOUR DREMEL YOUR ENVIRONMENT OR ANYONE AROUND YOU, YOURSELF INCLUDED.


But here goes the Video-Tutorial: http://bit.do/vidtutorial

Its just a quick demonstration, and the time you need may vary.
Just use it on the Tips of the Badger and NOT inside of the Badger-Brush as shown.
Use the Dremel in the same motion as shown in the Video.
As always safety first: "Wear some protective Glasses, and a filter-Mask if needed and do it preferably in a well-aerated room"




And here is a close-up shot after the procedure is done: http://bit.do/largecloseup
Just look at the almost invisibly thin-hairs :O
(WARNING: The Image your about to load is about 6-8MB large, in Case you're on a mobile-phone)



I dont have that many silver-tip-badger Brushes but the one i "enhanced" for a friend complaining about the prickling of his badger-brush came out extraordinary good, which is actually the one shown in the Videotutorial.
And compared to my "Muehle 21MM Silvertip-Badger" its easily on-par if not softer than it.
I also compared it with multiple "Erbe Silberspitz-Brushes" ranging from 69-145€ and NONE came to the softness of the
enhanced Badger.


One thing i have to say nonetheless:
As you just soften up the Tips of the regular-Badger you will still have more back-bone than it would be the case with a "real" Silvertip-Badger, as just the tips of the "enhanced-Badger" are on-par or thinner than a silver-tip-brush.
This can be a pro or a con depending on your point of view.




Hope this helps some beginners that are just getting into Wet-Shaving to have atleast some drastically improved feeling with their regular drug-store Badger.
So that they won't have to spend quite a lot for some quality-silvertip badger right at the beginning.

As of today, i've done this procedure to 4x different Cheapo-Badger-Brushes and they all came out extraordinary well so far.
Excuse my typo's or gramatically mistakes, iam not a native english-speaker!



Cheers.

How many of those Beck's did you drink before doing this?

What about just swiping the tips up against a piece of sandpaper? Wouldn't that do the same thing?

Look closely, its alcohol-free

It probably would but i guess it would be a rather hard procedure to replicate 33000rpm@20minutes with your bare hands
It would furthermore be a different surface (plain vs rounded shape), but so far i didn't try it for myself but someone that didn't succeed with sandpaper, did succeed with the Dremel.

Who hasn't some Dremel-like Multitool nowadays anyway? So no real reason to take the hard route.


Cheers.

That is one if the oddest videos I have ever seen.

Non alcoholic Becks, white gloves, classical jazz music, and a man dremeling a badger brush.

...it was strangely awesomely entertaining. Kudos on the video and very novel softening technique.

http://knowurl.com/ expands http://bit.do/vidtutorial to https://drdrb-30.wistia.com/medias/udiq14geeo

I really do not trust that link and I hope nobody else here does. Clicking on shortened links is VERY dangerous.

Manning said:

That is one if the oddest videos I have ever seen.

Non alcoholic Becks, white gloves, classical jazz music, and a man dremeling a badger brush.

...it was strangely awesomely entertaining. Kudos on the video and very novel softening technique.

Click to expand...

@ Manning
Iam glad you liked the Video, i wanted to make it pretty straight-forward
The Gloves are due to Autofocus that works better if there is a higher contrast (in this case Black-Brownish/on Clear-White.
The Jazz-Music is relaxing, and there is no other way to drink a beer and be responsible while using tools, other than non-alcoholic beer

grantmm said:

http://knowurl.com/ expands http://bit.do/vidtutorial to https://drdrb-30.wistia.com/medias/udiq14geeo

I really do not trust that link and I hope nobody else here does. Clicking on shortened links is VERY dangerous.

Click to expand...

@grantmm
Generally i've to agree with you, but in this Case its really harmless.
They both lead to pretty well-known Websites ( Wistia.com Videohosting & Directupload.net Image-Hosting)


Cheers.

Nice technique for those cheap pure badgers to soften them up. Scritch is a b****.

Word of caution though... power tools and gloves of any kind are a combination to avoid. Don't mean to patronize just looking out for you and others watching.

Diabolique !!!

@Le Buzz

That is true, but you don't really need the gloves for this task.
It had the sole purpose of having a higher contrast.


@takisg

What is diabolique about this Method?



If there are questions remaining feel free to ask


Cheers.

I'll have to try this next time I reduce the loft on a brush. It looks like this will make the tips split faster .

Kinda felt I was getting ready to watch a snuff film.
Nice filming!

I've heard of the brick technique too.

Very nicely presented! I would like to suggest a comb upgrade!

I have a black badger knot that didn't excite me. I may just try this and see what happens.

Woodekb said:

Kinda felt I was getting ready to watch a snuff film.
Nice filming!

I've heard of the brick technique too.

Click to expand...

It's hilarious what kind of associations a pair of white gloves are able to create.
That paired with the high-pitched sound of a Dremel and snuff-mosphere here we go

Anyone watched "The Dentist"-Movie by any means? Quite some resemblance sound-wise

Jim said:

Very nicely presented! I would like to suggest a comb upgrade!

Click to expand...

Thank you for your kind words!

Nah the comb is fully functional until further notice, so no upgrade planned

Big Jim said:

I have a black badger knot that didn't excite me. I may just try this and see what happens.

Click to expand...

Hard to tell what happens, a black-badger and the high rotating speed of a Dremel? Probably the same as dividing through zero will happen
Just kidding, you'll have some nice and fancy pure-badger with at-best the softness of a Silvertip or slightly better.


Have a nice day!

I was expecting a mime to attempt exiting an imaginary box at the end. Interesting, and although I do love my Dremel and find some odd uses for it, softening a shaving brush won't be high on my list.

They for sure are quite handy tools.
Have a few more of them, one by Bosch another by Voltcraft.


They are also great if you are into Straight-Razors, to be precisely the making of straight-razor Scales.



Cheers.

I tried this last night with my Art of Shaving "temporary" brush. I didn't see much of an improvement. I'll try some more later and continue to lather up the brush a couple of times a week to see if dremeling at least starts the tip softening process.