Is it me or premium high-end brushes are out of fashion?

[helicopter]

@Marco Makes a good point about the arrival of good synthetics from China. Many prefer the softest knot they can find, and synthetics are softer than any natural brush, hold more water, are more durable, and are faster to lather in general.

Some find the European STF to be a great synthetic, but I have two of them, and I don't think they are any better than most of the identified Chinese knots like cashmere, cat whisker, timber wolf, g5c, a2s, and others. Even the unidentified knots in $4 Yaqi Special Offer Defect synthetic brushes have some objective advantages over the most fancy and expensive badger knot ever tied.

Personally, I prefer some scritch on my soap and again on my face, so I prefer natural brushes overall. However, the brushes I prefer are the cheapest and lowest graded ones, boar, pure badger, black badger.

If I preferred a softer touch, my favorite natural brushes would be the Manchurian, the silvertip, the three band, the high mountain, but above all of these in softness would be the cat whisker, the cashmere, the STF, and other synthetics. Even the cheap synthetics fall between the best natural badger and the premium synthetics on this scale.

There is something to be said for the quality of the Chinese resin handles, too. Yaqi, Boti, FS, DSC, have gorgeous handles at rock bottom prices.

As an American, their AliX stores also provide a better shopping experience than I can find for something like Plisson, or Simpson. They have huge selections, great organization and pictures, exciting sales, special editions for youtubers and holidays, choice shipping, tremendous availability inventory. When I go to Plisson, where I would actually like to buy the gold and brass handled black badger or the ivory acetate Russian gray, they don't have either one in stock, they are $100-600, they want $29 euros for shipping, the VAT and refund calculation and currency conversion are confusing... it is painful so I don't buy them or anything else. I can get the Yaqi Sagrada Familia Pure Badger and the DSC Amber pure badger, two of my absolute favorites, BTW, for less than Plisson wants for shipping. Simpson is just as bad as Plisson.

 

[Mustard Seed]

Personally, I find Simpson very easy to deal with. The VAT reduction, etc is easy and automatic when you include your USA address, etc. They ship promptly and the customer service is super. At least, that has been my experience. Plus you can find handles for their brushes you cannot get on this side of the pond.

 

[helicopter]

Personally, I find Simpson very easy to deal with. The VAT reduction, etc is easy and automatic when you include your USA address, etc. They ship promptly and the customer service is super. At least, that has been my experience. Plus you can find handles for their brushes you cannot get on this side of the pond.

I just made an account and went part way through the checkout with an S1. The VAT is showing a calculation, and everything is in pounds, and they want 19.95 shipping.

It is better than Plisson, which doesn't even have the two brushes I actually want, and hasn't for months, but it is still trash compared to Chinese vendors, especially if you care about price.

Once I have entered my address and made an account, and logged in, they should have everything in dollars with no crap about VAT anywhere, maybe local sales tax if it applies, and shipping that isn't more than the delivered cost of an incredibly similar Chinese brush. If it really costs 20 pounds to ship a tiny parcel to a huge trade partner, then they should get someone in the US or Canada to fulfill North American orders.

At least if they want my business they should. I would probably have both of the Plissons and the S1 if they were not so painful to obtain. I will probably get them eventually, but I am keeping my money today.

The other thing these companies could do is have better wholesale prices, agreements and production, and get their stuff into US stores like TRC and Maggards. Omega has done it with great success, Semogue, less so, Simpson, further less so, and Plisson not at all.

The fact of the matter is that the AliX stores provide a far better shopping experience for American customers, Omega being a lone exception among European makers.

 

[Marco]

Personally, I find Simpson very easy to deal with. The VAT reduction, etc is easy and automatic when you include your USA address, etc. They ship promptly and the customer service is super. At least, that has been my experience. Plus you can find handles for their brushes you cannot get on this side of the pond.

I've always had a wonderful experience with Simpson. Their customer service is fantastic as is the quality of their brushes, both badgers and synthetics. The vast majority of all my brushes is Simpson. Also, many of these in the past were made to my exact specifications on the Isle of Man. I personally gave Mark Watterson precise instructions on my knots dimension and shape. He always did an outstanding job.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I've never held a $400 brush. On the other hand, I've got about 20 brushes and the cheapest ones rarely, if ever, get used. Of the 5 brushes in my rotation the cheapest 3 run about $65 or so, and they are very nice brushes. The Wald synthetic was around $250 and is several steps above every other synthetic that I've tried so far, and my favorite "every other day" brush was about $180. Aside from the Wald, they are all some variation of Semogue SOC (boar, 2 band badger, Mistura and Parbear badger).

Some people are not at all fussy about brushes and I'm much closer to the other extreme. Lots of nice boars for very little money, not so much with badgers. But whatever works well for you is good with me. It's all about enjoying your shave, use what you like. Lots of shavers have never tried a more expensive brush and my serious advice is to never do it!

I made that mistake. I now have 5 lovely SV brushes I rotate for every shave. I have 3 other badgers I rotate for pre-shave lather. I couldn’t be happier.

 

[Frito Ray]

Topics are cyclical, they will be back.

 

[brucered]

Most, if not all of the brushes I acquired over the years are now unobtanium badger

My daily brush is a $20 synthetic.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I just made an account and went part way through the checkout with an S1. The VAT is showing a calculation, and everything is in pounds, and they want 19.95 shipping.

I'm a little confused. The S-1 is available at a bunch of US vendors. But that shipping price is pretty standard for overseas parcel service. The ali slow boat service is cheaper, of course.

 

[BigJ]

Great thread!!

My take is that the market for ‘luxury’ items is limited these days, this appears true of clothing, cars, liquor, etc.

 

[helicopter]

I'm a little confused. The S-1 is available at a bunch of US vendors. But that shipping price is pretty standard for overseas parcel service. The ali slow boat service is cheaper, of course.

Thanks for the tip. Just ordered one from Maggards. Not as easy to find as Omega, but not difficult either.

 

[helicopter]

I've always had a wonderful experience with Simpson. Their customer service is fantastic as is the quality of their brushes, both badgers and synthetics. The vast majority of all my brushes is Simpson. Also, many of these in the past were made to my exact specifications on the Isle of Man. I personally gave Mark Watterson precise instructions on my knots dimension and shape. He always did an outstanding job.

I didn't realize they offered such customization. That is worth something. I guess I will see how I like them myself soon.

 

[helicopter]

I've had a couple of brushes, a boar I got with a beginner set (stopped working properly), Razorock synthetic plissoft, a pure badger one (got it for free) and a proraso boar brush (actually got two, but got one for free.)

And to be honest the 12 dollar Proraso one has been my favorite and is my daily driver. I cant seem to get the hand on the synthetic one and the pure badger just felt weird, with a lack of a better word to use. Looked at the Antica Barbieria Colla brush once and searched for its cheaper "cousin" or whatever you wanna call it, from another manufacturer which used the same knot I believe, but never bought that one. Might do so in the future, if I get curious...

Doing the great old water break in trick made the Proraso boar a great brush that does its job. So to me personally there is no need to get expensive brushes really. Suppose it is a lot like cars, sure, Tesla looks nice, but you can get good use out of a Toyota. At the end of the day to each their own I say.

Yes. True for many categories of goods, cars, guns, brushes, soaps... of any you can say "They all do the same thing." We worry too much about which one to get.

Also like cars, the correlation between price and quality exists, but it isn't particularly strong.

 

[Marco]

I didn't realize they offered such customization. That is worth something. I guess I will see how I like them myself soon.

Sir, please take into consideration that I'm talking about many years ago. The last bespoke badger I ordered was roughly 10 years ago or so.

 

[helicopter]

Sir, please take into consideration that I'm talking about many years ago. The last bespoke badger I ordered was roughly 10 years ago or so.

Thanks for the clarification. Well I am going to see how I like the one I just ordered off the shelf. I tend to prefer the scritchiest badger, so I ordered a standard pure badger S1. I do like a smaller high density knot without too much loft in a handle that isn't too small. I am a big man with big hands, and fairly tough skin, but I find that the bigger knots can be messy.

My favorite knot so far is a 20mm Boti super high density black badger, followed by DSC black, DSC pure, and Yaqi pure.

I am looking forward to trying this 18mm Simpson. I prefer 18mm to 22mm, and perhaps 19mm would be perfect.

And of course since Simpson doesn't offer black, I also anticipate trying some Plissons eventually. It is easier for me to stomach the high price of Plisson because they are so small, and they have the gold brass handles, the ultimate material to me.

I also anticipate trying mixed badger and boar. In my order from Maggards today, I also included an Omega 11047, which was an irresistible $16.50.

On the topic of this thread, I still haven't seen anything over $100 that I want except for the unobtainable Plisson.

 

[Marco]

Thanks for the clarification. Well I am going to see how I like the one I just ordered off the shelf. I tend to prefer the scritchiest badger, so I ordered a standard pure badger S1. I do like a smaller high density knot without too much loft in a handle that isn't too small. I am a big man with big hands, and fairly tough skin, but I find that the bigger knots can be messy.

My favorite knot so far is a 20mm Boti super high density black badger, followed by DSC black, DSC pure, and Yaqi pure.

I am looking forward to trying this 18mm Simpson. I prefer 18mm to 22mm, and perhaps 19mm would be perfect.

And of course since Simpson doesn't offer black, I also anticipate trying some Plissons eventually. It is easier for me to stomach the high price of Plisson because they are so small, and they have the gold brass handles, the ultimate material to me.

I also anticipate trying mixed badger and boar. In my order from Maggards today, I also included an Omega 11047, which was an irresistible $16.50.

On the topic of this thread, I still haven't seen anything over $100 that I want except for the unobtainable Plisson.

In the Simpson lineup the "Best" grade of hair has always been my favourite, with 22/24 mm knots. I particularly love the Chubby 1, The Duke 2 and The Duke 3. The Colonel X2L is also a great brush, very versatile and not expensive for a quality badger.

Please, let me know your thoughts on the Special in Pure when it arrives.

 

[Phoenixkh]

The Omega Vintage Edition Elite are SUPERB brushes indeed. Their design takes inspiration from the old Omega brushes that were handmade by experienced craftsmen. The MB1920 is the one I proudly own. After a few days from having received it I was so impressed by this stunning brush that I quickly decided to buy a backup. The pic below is taken directly from the Omega website.

View attachment 1911122​

That’s the one. I saw your first post showing it in its glory and put it in my Must Buy list. Thanks, Marco.

 

[Marco]

That’s the one. I saw your first post showing it in its glory and put it in my Must Buy list. Thanks, Marco.

Always at your disposal, Sir.

 

[Kyle89]

Well I am going to see how I like the one I just ordered off the shelf. I tend to prefer the scritchiest badger, so I ordered a standard pure badger S1.

Their Special in pure is fantastic- it's one of my favorites. Enjoy!

 

[Lightcs1776]

I see a strong trend towards the very low end price Chinese made stuff. The mid-section makers, myself included, suffer quite a bit for a while now. No wonder that several old names in the brush business have closed down, just to name Vielong and Thaeter. Shavemac has drastically reduced their production and does no sell any longer themselves, only through a few resellers. Their so much liked brush configurator has also be discontinued. You can guess what their next step might be. High end brushes, due to their limited offering always have their customers, not many, but they can and will pay any price. We just see it so often here that people ask for cheap stuff. Yes, the Chinese fill this void. If you ask here "what is the best synthetic brush under $10" or "...best Silvertip under $30" one will understand that we (like the mid-priced makers) can not survive in the long haul. I am even not sure if I can afford to renew my vendor status next year due tom its cost and drastically dropped off sales.

I like to save money, but there is a balance. I don’t shop for bottom price but won’t overpay. If I needed another brush and didn’t want to try turning the handle myself, you have a reasonable starting point.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Rudy installed one of those high end knots for me in a lovely Persian Jar handle.... 28mm fan... Unfortunately, it turned out to be too big for me as the Mozingo knots have huge blooms after a use or two. It sold on BST in a few minutes. I loved the handle Rudy made for it... I was sorry to see it go because of the handle.... and I think that knot would have been lovely in a 24 or 26mm.