Best vs super badger for first brush

Hey,

I came here in the spring for some soap/blade advice and received some good recommendations.

Now I want to buy a good quality brush and saw some best and super badger hair brushes on Amazon from $30-70 with good reviews - thought I'd ask here for some opinions though. Is there a big difference between the best badger and super badger brushes? Or should I spend the extra money to get a silvertip? Ideally I want a brush that'll last long, lather the soap well, and be soft on my face. Any good recommendations?

You can get really hung up on badger hair grades because different manufacturers use different terms. I have a "Best Badger" brush from Stirling Soaps ($10) that is actually very good. If you are OK with spending about $30+ go with an outstanding Whipped Dog with a custom deep-et Silvertip. About the best value in a brush in Shavedom.

+1 for Whipped Dog.

Or $30 for the L'occittaine synthetic or $10-15 for a nice Omega boar. Badger is not the only option or even the best option for everyone.

All 3 are great yet inexpensive brushes. Hard to go wrong. Great value all around.

Or the Sue Memorial Brush!

+2 for Whipped Dog silvertip, set deeply enough to avoid the flops.

sviato said:

Hey,

I came here in the spring for some soap/blade advice and received some good recommendations.

Now I want to buy a good quality brush and saw some best and super badger hair brushes on Amazon from $30-70 with good reviews - thought I'd ask here for some opinions though. Is there a big difference between the best badger and super badger brushes? Or should I spend the extra money to get a silvertip? Ideally I want a brush that'll last long, lather the soap well, and be soft on my face. Any good recommendations?

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There's no universal definition of best or super badger, so it is really hard to give a blanket statement "super is better than best". These terms are going to vary from vendor to vendor. It would be easier to help if you give us the exact models you were interested in and then we can try to help.

+3 (?) for Whipped Dog Silvertip. Outstanding value in a brush.
But if you are ok going to the upper limit of your budget, or maybe a bit more, look at some of the Simpson's in Best. I have a Berkeley in Best and a 20mm WD Silvertip. These brushes are similar in spec I have a hard time telling a significant difference between them. The best is a bit more scrubby, the silvertip is a touch more floppy, really that's about it.

edit to add - Look at the Berkeley, Colonel, Duke 1 in the Simpson's line up as they come in around your budget.

I picked up a Whipped Dog silvertip set lower to give it a balance of backbone and softness. Love it. I also have an Omega 48 that I like very much.

If you could give a little more information you would get much better advice. Do you have a budget in mind? Do you like backbore?

Silvertips can feel wonderfully soft on the face, but some are lather eaters.

Apparently anything above 'pure badger' is of a decent variety..it really depends on what works for you.

Ignorance is bliss…since the more you know, the more of an itch you will have to swap and keep on buying brushes as you wait for the holy grail to grace your cheeks.

I got a best badger as my first brush (in a bulb shape)….it sheds hair and seems to have limitations in how much lather it produces.

Ive since ordered 2 brushes…a 3 band and a 2 band from Shavemac and Thater respectively. No matter how good or bad they turn out, i have made up my mind to live with them.

X4 wd

just ordered a 24 mm 2 band silvertip with a faux horn from vintageblades.com. check it out. I wanted a similar thader but for 120 less I am trying this first.

TGN finest. Right at the upper end of your budget. You can customize both knot size and loft. I got a 24mm knot with a 50mm loft. It took a couple of years for me to break down and get one, and I'm upset with myself I didn't do it sooner. Just an outstanding brush.

+5 for whipped Dog. It is the best bang for the buck and hits much way above its price point.

Although I'm addicted to Silvertip, lately I have began to respect Finest (usually one step below Silvertip, usually, because there is no standard for such titles). It also sometimes goes under other names, such as Two Band, and High Mountain (not high Mountain White). Finest tends to be stiffer so it has more backbone, but the better ones have a face feel when lathered nearly as good as or as good as Silvertip. That earlier post about getting a Finest knot from The Golden Nib is a very viable answer. You can buy one of their handles or a Whipped Dog handle to set it in, and have a very desirable brush. Some say this particular Finest is better than Silvertip and I can understand why. My personal preference if I could only have one or the other would be Silvertip though.

So to my +5 for WD I would also add +1 for TGN Finest.

Are there any differences between the WD and TGN "grade A" silvertip ? I would assume the TGN knot must be nicer since it's more expensive ($10-15 / 30-40%). But I see so many recommendations for WD, that I'm wondering if that knot is actually better. Which has a more densely stuffed knot, etc ?

JohnG10 said:

Are there any differences between the WD and TGN "grade A" silvertip ? I would assume the TGN knot must be nicer since it's more expensive ($10-15 / 30-40%). But I see so many recommendations for WD, that I'm wondering if that knot is actually better. Which has a more densely stuffed knot, etc ?

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I've got 3 WD silvertips, a TGN Grade A silvertip, and a TGN finest. The WDs are the softest, but with the least amount of backbone. Not necessarily floppy. The grade A is the "scritchiest" of the lot. Not too bad, but noticeable. The finest, IMHO, is a great balance between backbone and softness. Just about zero scritch. Once I got it, it stopped my SRAD cold.

Oh, and both TGNs are significantly more densely packed than the WDs.

And all that being said, they're all great brushes. But the TGN finest is far and away my favorite brush.

Thanks !

I'm new but have just started using a Super Badger brush after having spent the last week using a Best brush. Noticeable difference. However, the Best was more than up to the job and was easily tolerable. The Best is a Simpson's Case and I bought it primarily for travel given it's size. The Super Badger is a Truefitt & Hill Wellington and I've only used it three times. It seems to have gotten just a little softer after each use (which was true with the Best as well) so I expect the difference to be slightly greater once it has gotten more use. I'd suggest asking the seller how they grade Super Badger relative to Best and Silvertip. Don't be shy about asking if it means the tips are bleached. If you don't get a clear answer then caveat emptor.