Some Good Advice From a Craftsman

Henrik said:

On a sidenote- the European badger (Meles Meles) territory does not stretch to China or Siberia. Is it not a common belief that most brushes originates from the Meles Meles..?

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Not a common belief, if only because brush-makers and customers are unlikely to know about the subtle difference between M. meles and its close cousin M. leucurus, the Asian badger. Sometimes we hear rumors that two-band brushes might be made of hog badger (Arctonyx collaris), another genus entirely. And then there are occasional questions about using American badger (Taxidea taxus), yet another genus. What this comes down to is that brush-makers do not tell us exactly what they are selling. To be fair to them, most of us buyers only care about how it looks, feels, and lathers.

Getting back to Meles, from what I can tell there is about as much difference between a UK badger and one from mainland Europe — both M. meles — as between the two Eurasian species. The existence of both species is a happy outcome for brush-makers, though, because while it is almost impossible to offer products made from M. meles, there are fewer laws about M. leucurus.

I wrote a bit more about this in an older thread: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/163327-M-meles-v-M-leucurus.

My Simpson Duke 2 came with instructions to not swirl. Since reading those instructions, and heeding the advice, I actually feel like I am getting better lathers as well. Maybe it is just because I am paying attention, rather than being a early morning, pre-caffeine automaton, but whatever works, right?

Great read about the badgers Mblakele- many thanks!

I've been trying to give this a shot the last couple days as my Thater has started to shed after nine months of intermittent use. It's tricky to do a strict painting lather with a dense bulb. I still have to splay it a bit. But it works alright. Loading is definitely different, but from a larger bowl it's alright as well. I still lost a few hairs though.

I typically swirl when loading, but use only painting strokes on my face. I admit that swirling when face lathering is much more effective at generating a rich lather faster. But unfortunately for me (and I guess fortunate for my brush), swirls on my face aggravate an old shoulder injury, so I rarely attempt it.

Very interesting read. Thanks Henrik.

Thanks for the article!

As for the swirling/painting strokes thing, there have been several threads about it here on B&B (I'm lazy and won't list them...). The result: do as you like as long as you don't crush, mash your brush! YMMV

I swirl while loading (what else?) and then, when lathering I start swirling and then painting. All my brushes are in perfect order!

Useless shaver said:

Thanks for the article!

As for the swirling/painting strokes thing, there have been several threads about it here on B&B (I'm lazy and won't list them...). The result: do as you like as long as you don't crush, mash your brush! YMMV

I swirl while loading (what else?) and then, when lathering I start swirling and then painting. All my brushes are in perfect order!

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One thing I like about a boar brush: feel free to crush and mash as they go for very little cash...
Plus - they are really great.

I have been swirling since the beginning and never really bothered to even read the swirl/non-swirl threads and the possible danger of damaging the brush. It´s just a brush and I have never encountered any problems with mine. Each to his own of course.
Well for fun, the last couple of days I changed my routine to paint stroke different pucks of soaps. Result- stellar lather in about the same time. I guess the real benefit of following this "doctrine" is that you supposedly get a more even surface (on the soap) which in turn keeps the puck from cracking. From my experience; MWF, Cadé and Tabac, to name a few, are prone to cracking if you leave them lonely for some time. (My pucks usually gets a "skateboard ramp" look after a while).

About Stan Archer the master craftsman who were interviewed- Gary Young stated he was their top brush maker. He turned quite a few handles as well.

THANKS!! Very interesting.

All good points, but the one item that really caught my eye was that in 1983, Simpson was the only company making brushes by hand. What about Rooney and Kent?

This was a vanishing art at the time of the interview. It was about that time when DE blades were disappearing altogether from shelves of USA stores. It took another 25 years of more expensive Gillette "shaving systems", and the web-based availability of supporting products, to bring back old-time shaving.