Is hanging the brush upside down crucial?
- Thread starter Big_Fuzzy
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No.
- Thread starter
- #4
This topic has been debated on B&B for years on many threads. As I've said on those threads, my experience was that two really good Kent brushes rotted within two years of purchase when I stored them standing up. The same was true with all of my father's shaving brushes. My brushes have lasted 10 years and are still going strong now that I store them up side down. I learned my lesson the hard (and expensive) way.
I don't think that hanging a brush is absolutely necessary. I've been wet-shaving for about 45 years. Until this past year, I never hung my brushes, and they seemed to do just fine. Though they were inexpensive bristle brushes, they each lasted many years. The only reason I hang my brushes now is because I built a stand to hold my straight razors upright, and decided to go ahead and incorporate a way to hang a couple of brushes.
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My tweezerman instructions says to dry it upside down or laying on it's side!
+1
And have you ever noticed that the corporate logo and other writing on a brush displays correctly when the bristles are UP?
If they really wanted you to hang it bristles down, they would design the handles to prevent standing them on end. And include a small stand, adjusting the price upwards accordingly.
I hope brush makers don't start offering only brushes with rounded ends so we can't stand them bristle up...what would you do with the loaded brush between passes?
You would put it in your scuttle, where it belongs!
You got me there!
If you thoroughly dry your brush (shake it out, lather on towel, fluff bristles, etc) and you do not live in a super humid or musty environment, I don't think it would matter. My concern is not about "up or down", but if I am being too rough on my brushes via flicking the water out! Just my 2 cents.
I have read that there's a thread on one of the other sites where someone weighed brushes to see if they dried faster one way or the other and the results showed that there just wasn't any difference. No, I don't have the link but would love to read it if someone does.
Here it is. http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=52285
Skip to post #10 for the actual experiment.
Somewhere later on in the thread is some statistical analysis of the data.
Not at all. I just think they look better that way in their own stand. 
no. water evaporates "up" .. if you shake and dry your brush, there shouldn't be anything dripping from it anyways.. I've actually found that my brushes have dried quicker when I set them on the handle, brush up.
Thank you for posting this, very Interesting. They should make this thread available to everyone from the Brushes section....or the wiki or faq
Seems pretty obvious why it might dry faster sitting on its base rather than hanging bristles-down; sitting on its base lets gravity take effect and splay the bristles out, while hanging it tends to make the bristles all go downward.
Splaying them out would improve air circulation between the bristles, and increase the drying rate.
However, this is misleading. At the base of the brush, which is the part in question with the up or down drying question, the question becomes:
"Does the brush lose more water via drying in the base of the bristles by drying bristles-up than it would lose via gravity by drying bristles-down?"
Splaying them out would improve air circulation between the bristles, and increase the drying rate.
However, this is misleading. At the base of the brush, which is the part in question with the up or down drying question, the question becomes:
"Does the brush lose more water via drying in the base of the bristles by drying bristles-up than it would lose via gravity by drying bristles-down?"
Nerd time! gravity<matric potential (call it MP). Residual water (water not drained by gravity) will stay in the base of the knot until it evaporates because the MP (think "suction"), created by the pore spaces between the hairs, holds the water in the knot. No amount of shaking will get that residual water out of the knot. It's the same reason liquid rises higher in a coffee stirrer (straw type) than it does in a drinking straw and why a nurse can sample the iron in your blood (finger *****) using a tiny capillary tube that appears to fill itself. That's all due to MP, which is determined by the diameter of the tube or "pore". Smaller diameter tube=greater MP. The "tubes" created by a tightly packed bundle of badger hair are quite small and should produce a rather high MP, thus holding the residual water firmly inside the knot until it evaporates. I personally feel water will evaporate more easily out of the brush with the hair/bristles pointing up (i.e., not in a stand... plus I don't want to pay for one... I'd rather buy soaps).
-Andy
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I agree! If it is standing up, the moisture will be able to evaporate up and away out of the brush!
