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How does the TGN finest compare to the Shavemac 2-band? What about TGN HMW?

With your first question you know you're asking how a $30 knot compares to a $120 knot. It's not even fair. The difference will be huge.

Some like different attributes in a brush, some like scritch and others like something more luxurious. For me a brush should have enough backbone to handle any soap I throw at it. It should not be floppy at all so the bristles don't flop around when lathering. In addition to this it also has to be pillow soft with no scritch to give a luxurious feel when putting it to your face.

The hard part is that some brushes handle some of the qualities with ease but fail miserably on the others. I've also owned brushes over stuffed with tons of thin hair that eat a ton of soap while feeling mop like and lacking control when applying soap to your face. I have a TGN Silvertip premium knot that is this way. Nice and soft but are overstuffed in place of backbone, so it's super soft and floppy.

To me the TGN Finest is an ok knot. It gets good reviews and people like it because it's a great value at around twenty some dollars. I have one in a Rubberset 400 handle. For me it's a decent knot, nice backbone, a little scritch (not much) that I don't care for at all. It's not as nice as their HMW offering that runs $60. But it's a decent knot for the price. If you're going for value this is it. I wouldn't put one in a Wolf Whiskers handle and I likely wouldn't use another in a Rubberset 400. It might be a good knot to put in a $20 handle that you're restoring.

Back to the TGN HMW. I've had two of these and both were shedders. The hair is very fine and there's a ton of it in the knot. It has good backbone and some initial scritch that eventually disappeared after about a month of use. So it's now fairly soft and would be a decent knot if not for the shedding issue. At the $60 price I'd rather get an Envy Luxury Silvertip ($47.99) or move up to the Shavemac knot at $117. It's a nice knot but if the HMW didn't have the shedding problem and it was priced $20 cheaper I'd still pick the Envy Luxury Silvertip knot.

The Envy Luxury Silvertip knot that I have is a better knot than either of the TGN knots. It hasn't shed a single hair, has nice backbone and no scritch at all from day one. Just overall a much better built knot and one that I find to be of a much higher quality. Very soft tips, holds heat nicely and great for face lathering while not being floppy and having enough backbone to handle a hard soap. I have this knot in 24mm and 26mm. The 26mm knot is quite large. It costs about $48 but in the under $100 range this is the knot I'd choose.

The Shavemac knot I do not own yet but I'm buying it after a ton of research praising it. It should have a nice backbone, no scritch at all, and be luxurious and pillow soft. With this one, someone said "it's like angel wings gently caressing your face" or something to that effect. For most that have reviewed this knot and enjoy the same qualities in a knot that I do, it's supposed to be perfection. I suspect it'll be like my high end Rooney Emilion brush that has their finest hair. The brush is just luxurious and perfect on your face. It's not cheap at $117 for the knot (after they remove the VAT tax at checkout) but either was the high end Rooney brush.

I know that Peter offers the TGN knots so it's easy to do that way. I'd likely be happy with them had I not tried the Envy knot but now that I have I'd choose the Envy Luxury Silvertip oven any TGN knot every time.
 
With your first question you know you're asking how a $30 knot compares to a $120 knot. It's not even fair. The difference will be huge.

Some like different attributes in a brush, some like scritch and others like something more luxurious. For me a brush should have enough backbone to handle any soap I throw at it. It should not be floppy at all so the bristles don't flop around when lathering. In addition to this it also has to be pillow soft with no scritch to give a luxurious feel when putting it to your face.

The hard part is that some brushes handle some of the qualities with ease but fail miserably on the others. I've also owned brushes over stuffed with tons of thin hair that eat a ton of soap while feeling mop like and lacking control when applying soap to your face. I have a TGN Silvertip premium knot that is this way. Nice and soft but are overstuffed in place of backbone, so it's super soft and floppy.

To me the TGN Finest is an ok knot. It gets good reviews and people like it because it's a great value at around twenty some dollars. I have one in a Rubberset 400 handle. For me it's a decent knot, nice backbone, a little scritch (not much) that I don't care for at all. It's not as nice as their HMW offering that runs $60. But it's a decent knot for the price. If you're going for value this is it. I wouldn't put one in a Wolf Whiskers handle and I likely wouldn't use another in a Rubberset 400. It might be a good knot to put in a $20 handle that you're restoring.

Back to the TGN HMW. I've had two of these and both were shedders. The hair is very fine and there's a ton of it in the knot. It has good backbone and some initial scritch that eventually disappeared after about a month of use. So it's now fairly soft and would be a decent knot if not for the shedding issue. At the $60 price I'd rather get an Envy Luxury Silvertip ($47.99) or move up to the Shavemac knot at $117. It's a nice knot but if the HMW didn't have the shedding problem and it was priced $20 cheaper I'd still pick the Envy Luxury Silvertip knot.

The Envy Luxury Silvertip knot that I have is a better knot than either of the TGN knots. It hasn't shed a single hair, has nice backbone and no scritch at all from day one. Just overall a much better built knot and one that I find to be of a much higher quality. Very soft tips, holds heat nicely and great for face lathering while not being floppy and having enough backbone to handle a hard soap. I have this knot in 24mm and 26mm. The 26mm knot is quite large. It costs about $48 but in the under $100 range this is the knot I'd choose.

The Shavemac knot I do not own yet but I'm buying it after a ton of research praising it. It should have a nice backbone, no scritch at all, and be luxurious and pillow soft. With this one, someone said "it's like angel wings gently caressing your face" or something to that effect. For most that have reviewed this knot and enjoy the same qualities in a knot that I do, it's supposed to be perfection. I suspect it'll be like my high end Rooney Emilion brush that has their finest hair. The brush is just luxurious and perfect on your face. It's not cheap at $117 for the knot (after they remove the VAT tax at checkout) but either was the high end Rooney brush.

I know that Peter offers the TGN knots so it's easy to do that way. I'd likely be happy with them had I not tried the Envy knot but now that I have I'd choose the Envy Luxury Silvertip oven any TGN knot every time.

Decision made. Just ordered another Shavemac silvertip 2-band. This time I went with bulb shape in 25/50.

i gave been on a bit of a brush binge lately. I am in the que with Nathan Clark with an envy white supreme badger brush 26mm. I am excited to try this as well.
 
Decision made. Just ordered another Shavemac silvertip 2-band. This time I went with bulb shape in 25/50.

i gave been on a bit of a brush binge lately. I am in the que with Nathan Clark with an envy white supreme badger brush 26mm. I am excited to try this as well.


Great knot choice. I choose the 24mm 2 band silvertip in a bulb shape with a 52mm loft.

I haven't tried the Envy White Supreme knot and I'd like to know how it compares to the Envy Luxury Silvertip that I find to be outstanding. Maybe that'll be the knot for my next WW brush.
 
Well - I'm on twice .... #39 and #72. That's good, as it spreads my purchases out a little.

I didn't know you could get on the list twice. Not that I wanted to be on twice this round but it's good to know in case I'd like to for a later round or if I wanted to purchase a gift for someone and get one for myself as well.

What are you choosing for knots? Any idea which brushes you're going with?
 
Great knot choice. I choose the 24mm 2 band silvertip in a bulb shape with a 52mm loft.

I haven't tried the Envy White Supreme knot and I'd like to know how it compares to the Envy Luxury Silvertip that I find to be outstanding. Maybe that'll be the knot for my next WW brush.

Slight modification in knot selection. Shavemac was out of the 25/50 2-band bulb shape. They were also out of the 24/48. But...they has 26/52 so that is what I got. I am #49 on the list and I was afraid if I waited for them to make a 25/50 it would be too late. They said they were on vacation after today until 7/11/16. I think it will work fine for the handle I have selected.
 
Slight modification in knot selection. Shavemac was out of the 25/50 2-band bulb shape. They were also out of the 24/48. But...they has 26/52 so that is what I got. I am #49 on the list and I was afraid if I waited for them to make a 25/50 it would be too late. They said they were on vacation after today until 7/11/16. I think it will work fine for the handle I have selected.

That's going to be a really nice brush.
 
I didn't know you could get on the list twice. Not that I wanted to be on twice this round but it's good to know in case I'd like to for a later round or if I wanted to purchase a gift for someone and get one for myself as well.

What are you choosing for knots? Any idea which brushes you're going with?
I contacted Peter and asked if I could order two brushes on the one order and her said 'no' ... if I wanted more than one brush, I had to establish more than one WaitListR profile (so you would need more than one email address)

He said that he only allows 'one brush per position on the wait list' ... but never said that a person can't be on the list more than once. Makes perfect sense to me ... if one position = one brush, he knows that 150 positions on the wait list has to be 150 brushes. If people could order one, two, or three brushes ... there would be no way for him to plan on workload when he had 150 people on the list ... it may be 150 brushes, or 400 ...
 
I contacted Peter and asked if I could order two brushes on the one order and her said 'no' ... if I wanted more than one brush, I had to establish more than one WaitListR profile (so you would need more than one email address)

He said that he only allows 'one brush per position on the wait list' ... but never said that a person can't be on the list more than once. Makes perfect sense to me ... if one position = one brush, he knows that 150 positions on the wait list has to be 150 brushes. If people could order one, two, or three brushes ... there would be no way for him to plan on workload when he had 150 people on the list ... it may be 150 brushes, or 400 ...

It works for me. As long as you do a little prep work with the accounts ahead of time and you're fast when the list opens you can sign up as many times as you'd like. I think I'll stick with one at a time, for the most part, but it's definitely good to know.
 
That's fair. I signed up two spots, one for me and deciding on the second, maybe for the wife or for my brother. As I'm browsing the colors, wife hints that I don't need another brush.....might need to stash mine away for a rainy day, or do a his and hers!
 
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