Hi, my Turkish 6 from best shave died. The handle took in water and swelled up until the knot came away. It lasted about 6 weeks of daily use. I thought I would post a pic of the knot so people can see what it looks like on the inside. It is glued in a triangular shape, this might partially explain why the bush opens up with a hole in the centre when wet. For now it is my only brush, I used it as it yesterday. I am considering drying out the handle, then painting it and re gluing. The main problem is the soft wood pine handle.
Looks like the manufacturing system has changed. I went in halves on a large quantity buy and have reknotted several vintage handles with the knots extracted from the #6. The versions that I have has the hairs glued into a plastic cup, then the cup is set into the handle.
Would you have another handle you could put the knot in? I had my original #6 set in a resin handle two years ago by a friend and it still works well today..I actually think the #7 although the knot is slightly smaller (20mm vs 25mm) than the #6, but the loft is the same. It's kind of like a plastic handled #6...I guess I'll have to order one now and compare them.....
If you re-glue it, make sure you use a pool of five minute epoxy no larger than a nickel, or else the resin will overflow and ruin the knot. Where are you located?
The horse-brush experts will have to confirm, but my understanding is that horse hair brushes can also develop empty spots in the center of the knot from using pressure + circular motions. (Horse is more prone to knotting than badger hair or boar bristle). Some folks recommend more back-and-forth painting motions (or reduced pressure when circle-swirling) with a horse brush.
I am located far enough away to not know how big a nickle is ... New Zealand. However it will need quite a bit of epoxy to fill that hole. I will sort it out, nice to have a project. Thanks for the advice. I may yet buy another brush, they are thin on the ground here, at good prices anyway. But I can get the body shop synthetic one locally, does that have a quality handle? There is also a local soap shop with an omega. If anyone wants to see the NZ soap shop here is a link. http://www.globalsoap.co.nz/special.htm
Compairing the photos on the link with google images the omega appear to be good value. I think it is "Omega 10275 - Badger Imitation - 100% Boar Bristle Shaving Brush"
Looks like the Omega 10275 banded boar http://www.shoeboxshaveshop.com/omega-10275.html http://www.omegabrush.com/english/dabarba/oggetto.php?id=57 Omega's are good brushes, and the price doesn't seem bad. You can probably get it cheaper online, but I don't know how shipping would factor in.
I bought a #6 as a gift for someone else. Did one lather with it just to see what it was like. The hair was the least dense packed knot I've ever seen. Made a decent lather and the hair appeared more like boar hair than horse hair to me. The epoxy job on the one I had was poor as the plastic cup the knot was in was not set flush against the handle. Fine brush for 2 bucks but I wouldn't get one for myself, no offense to the guys that enjoy them. I do have an omega boar knot from TGN I used today with good results. Was a nice change of pace from my typical all badger rotation.
That is true, but there's no way the #6 is horse hair, its boar with filler, the knot splays the way it does due to the way its glued. On a real horse hair brush, you can just comb the hairs and it takes quite a lot to tangle them really.
I had been soaking this brush, I realise now that was a mistake. I am sure it is a good brush when used correctly. I assumed the varnish was applied inside the handle, it's not. I still have not replaced or fixed the brush yet, I have just lathered with the knot, it must be well made as I have not lost a single hair.
I read somewhere that having that void in the middle is normal for a horse knot. Mine will get the void but then it fills in when my soap is the correct consistency and volume..As for the hair knotting I've never had that problem with my #6 and I lather both ways(circular and painting motions). I have always used gentle preasure when making my lathering however....
Your brush doesn't knot because the #6 isn't horse hair lol. ^ Real horse. Horse hair doesn't split, or fray, look at the tips of the #6 it does all of those... I really wish I could dig up the old thread where we all reviewed them and came to the conclusion that they're not actually horse, but I'm lazy and that was years ago.
First that knot doesn't look like the knot on my #6 it looks more like a Vie-Long knot. Second as far as I've always been told all hair will split at the "ends"..Lastly your basically calling bestshave liars (they claim it's horse) with no proof. While certainly lying to a bunch of Americans is no big deal nowadays,where bestshave is from selling pig to a bunch of muslums by calling it horse can probably get you killed and I would think it's not a safe business practice, also bestshave has been selling these brushes for a long time.........
Turkey is 97.5% Muslim. I just can't believe a Turkish company would sell a brush with boar bristles labeled as horsehair. I also found a link to a brush site (not shaving brushes) that mentions split tips on horsehair brushes, unfortunately I couldn't find many references to horse hair splitting. http://www.harperbrush.com/About-Harper/pdfs/Brushes-Fiber-Tips.pdf
For more information on hairs throughout the cosmetic industry and how they behave when used. http://www.trueart.info/types_of_hair.htm Please look at this chart as well. http://www.trueart.info/Types-Hairs-96.jpg As to Bestshave, although it is a Turkish enterprise, the majority of its business clientele are in the U.S. followed by Europe. Bestshave.net receives almost 85% of its web traffic alone from the U.S. http://www.webstatsdomain.net/domains/shop.bestshave.net/ Domain infomation on Bestshave.net http://digsitesvalue.com/s/bestshave.net
I don't have a #6 to compare with a real horse, but it is inaccurate to say that horse hair does not split. The healthy horses I groom do get split-ends in both mane & tail. The hair can actually split anywhere along the shaft (not just the tip). I imagine that it's not as dramatic or noticeable as in the 20X thicker boar bristle. The composition of horse & human hair is similar enough for a the same premium conditioners to be repackaged & sold for both horses & long-haired humans. (I've used in on both with excellent results )...I have tried a genuine horse-hair cosmetic brushes & they weren't for me. So I've really got no horse in this race
