Shave Masters are now fully available

[methodshaving.com]

I am sorry I forgot to do this yesterday. Enchante has officially launched the new line of brushes. I urge everyone to at least take a look at the section on his website http://www.enchanteonline.com/pages/...havemaster.htm

As it is one of the best brush buying guidlines I have ever seen regarding a shave brushes. This ushers in a new era I call the purpose built brush and his website should make it clear why it is foolish to buy based on supposed grading of hair.

[Hugo]

Adam,
I'm not sure I understand this comment: "...should make it clear why it is foolish to buy based on supposed grading of hair."
Haven't you and Charles spoken very highly of the HMW and the Worlds Greatest Brush for some time now? What is to become of Simpson's?
This is all very confusing.

[methodshaving.com]

Hugo,

I will be publishing an article on my site in the comming hours addressing this in some detail. In short I will say this much. CAR and myself have been working within the confines of the badger hair grading system provided to us by brush manufacturers. CAR did not make brushes and was left to toil with what material and brushes where made available to him. The Extra Super or manchurian brushes were an attempt by CAR and Simpsons to fill a need for traditional or low velocity shaving. These brushes delivered on the promise and I am not aware of a large number of people who where disatified with the brushes with respect to function.

With the advent of Hydrolast we saw the move towards a high velocity shaving evnironment. With this the limitation of the exisiting brushes became clear to those who worked with hyrdolast and pushed it to it limit. Overly large brushes were not working as well, and the Supers and Extra Supers were suffering issues with washing out hydrolast. Furthermore a private maker apporached CAR about building a new brush in the US for sale through Enchante. This gave CAR the opportunity to design a brush for hydrolast make it in the US and control the whole process.

One thing that should be clear to all is that the grading of badger hair is a complex issue with no real answers and a lot of confusion. Furthermore the manufacturer and CAR both learned from the importation of hair, that grading is even more murky when dealing with the Chineese than it is with the brush makers. The decision was made to create a brush that worked to a specific function. This being a high velocity style brush. In the development process the effort was on creating a brush and not grading a hair.

As many people have learned some brushes work better with soap and yet others work better with cream. Grading has something to do with this but I beleive it is more a fuction of knotting. When I talk about the purpose built brush I am reffering to things like this. Imagine if you could read a set of specs similar to those for the new Shave Master brush and understand exaclty what you are gettting.

In turn I will tell those who think this undermines the Simpson Manchurian or like brushes, that notion is nonsense. In fact for low velocity traditional english cream shaving nothing beats my PL12 in extra super. When I want a good brush for hard soap I go straight to my Plisson HWM. Now when I want a proper hydrolast brush I go straight for my shave master.

[Hugo]

Adam,
Thank you for that response. I appreciate it and it clears up a lot of confusion. I'm sure on some level I was no the only one confused. Hopefully others who were as perplexed as me have the chance to read your response here.

One more quick question: would this brush be not only better suited, but specifically designed for, RWSM and not a person who only uses cream/soap?

Also, yes we all understand the complexity of badger hair and it's grading system.

[methodshaving.com]

Hugo,

I have used this brush with soaps and cream and it works very well. However, having the benefit of a few good brushes I am able to see where they excell over one another. This is why I now hope people will start to jump on the band wagon of purpose built brushes. I think it will make buying much easier for everyone.

[Hugo]

Adam,
I know some members here and at SMF have gone ahead and purchased the brush. I'm looking forward to reviews.
Best,
H

[methodshaving.com]

I know my opinion will be one of bias from the eyes of many. However, Ihave used this brush for months now and love it. It is very well made, and delivers exactly what it promissed. I think for a small boutique to hand craft, and hand knot a brush of this caliber and deliver it for a retail price of $250 is quite feat and will certainly diminish the likes of simpsons, rooney, plisson and vulfix in the high end lines.

[dhiebert]

Enchante has officially launched the new line of brushes. I urge everyone to at least take a look at the section on his website http://www.enchanteonline.com/pages/...havemaster.htm

The quality of these photos is pretty poor (clicking on the small photos on the order page). Not a single photo is in focus.

[methodshaving.com]

There are several very high quality high res pictures available on my site

www.methodshaving.com

[dhiebert]

There are several very high quality high res pictures available on my site www.methodshaving.com

Where? I cannot find them.

[joel]

Fellas,
Got one one the way - I'll be sure to post pics and a review!

[methodshaving.com]

The pics are on the message board in the Main Forum.

[rtaylor61]

Adam,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't membership required to view contents? For me, not a problem as I already belong!

Randy

[methodshaving.com]

yes you need to sign up to read the messageboard.