Art of Shaving "mountain badger" brush

I made another visit to the Art of Shaving store in Bellevue Square (in scenic downtown Bellevue, Washington) over the weekend to scope out brushes. Mainly I wanted to fondle the silvertips to see if I would be interested in them.

Anyway... on the top shelf of the brush cabinet they had four or five "mountain badger" brushes. They all had some kind of stone handle with a removable cap on the bottom. I was told that this was for easy removal of the knot if it should ever need replacing.

If I can recall correctly the prices ranged from around $300 for the modestly-sized brush to $750 for the GIANT floppy one. Any takers?

Also, does anyone know if there is a species of badger called a "mountain badger?" I thought it funny that a burrowing animal would live in the mountains...

sklegg said:

They all had some kind of stone handle with a removable cap on the bottom. I was told that this was for easy removal of the knot if it should ever need replacing.

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I've been working on a Gibberish/English translation book for quite some time. My tentative entry for "I was told that this was for easy removal of the knot if it should ever need replacing" is "piece o' crap".

ouch said:

I've been working on a Gibberish/English translation book for quite some time. My tentative entry for "I was told that this was for easy removal of the knot if it should ever need replacing" is "piece o' crap".

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Now that's funny!

Geez everything with this company is waayyyy over priced. 750 bucks for a brush!!?? man for that price it better shave my face, do my laundry, and win me a nobel peace prize!

OmegaEdge said:

Geez everything with this company is waayyyy over priced. 750 bucks for a brush!!?? man for that price it better shave my face, do my laundry, and win me a nobel peace prize!

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Don't they have a $1200 brush? That swirl one.... Too bad their brushes don't present the same value as some of their other products.

Yes, you can see it here.

Seriously, who pays 1200 bucks for a damn brush! I don't see nothing special about it. What is it made of? Platinum? Geez.....

OmegaEdge said:

Yes, you can see it here.

Seriously, who pays 1200 bucks for a damn brush! I don't see nothing special about it. What is it made of? Platinum? Geez.....

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I wonder if it is any better than the one I got for about $50?

Plisson's top grade badgers are called "High Mountain White". And their top priced brush is more than 400 euros...

The handle is sterling silver which means some silversmith had to make the thing. Most shaving items with sterling silver tend to go for pretty high prices. I still don't think its worth it to me but I'm sure people buy the thing otherwise they wouldn't sell it.

the mall i got my brush at has both a C&E and an AOS. i got my brush at C&E. the lady at the counter said the guys over at Art of Shaving go to C&E to get their brushes because theirs are "far to expensive"

Mountain badgers have a diet which makes their hair particularly luxurious.

Also, it's cold in them thar hills, so mountain badger hair is thicker and warmer than valley badger hair, which translates into a closer shave, obviously. Duh.

momo360 said:

Too bad their brushes don't present the same value as some of their other products.

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Yup.

In case it wasn't clear, these top-shelf AOS brushes are made by Plisson -- that, plus AOS insanely high markup = the ridiculous prices you see here.

Cheers.

J

I work in Redmond and go there about once a month.. I started with their starter pack, but the rest of the stuff is way too expensive..

I've been contemplating a haircut and shave, though.. $70 isn't too bad to be pampered for an hour.

Chris.

Drifting off topic with the concept of Gibberish/English translation.
The catagory is Hong Kong movie subtitles.
Specificly translating "blank round" into "headless bullet". Honestly "headless bullet" is a lot more poetic then "blank round"!