Hello, I just received a Shavemac, Silvertip brush, and for a pre-use cleaning, washed it up in dish washing soap. Unfortunately the brush has a strong chemical odor, something that reminds me of moth balls. I rewashed it in dish washing soap again and also some shampoo... no luck. I have another Shavemac with the same knot it it is great; there was never any strong odors, of any kind that I noticed. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am guessing that just washing/soaking it in strongly scented soap would just be masking the problem. Thanks.
I bought the Shavemac D01 it didn’t have a funk to it at least nothing that was irritable. However the brush was incredibly stiff.... like a boar but stronger. I let the brush sit in water for a day and a half and did about 5 bowl lathers with Williams. That did it just right. Maybe using this method based on the density of your knot can help. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
one of my badgers i got recently was like that, dawn, then shampoo and conditioner. still some funkiness..a few lathers in it has settled down..
Not speaking from experience, just a quick googling - to conquer mothball scent two easy fixes. First with some caution, vinegar. It's an acid so dilution is in order, as well as limited soaking time. Second - lemon scented soap. Got ARKO? That's one of the biggies suggested for boar funk. It tends to strip oils so you might finish with a pleasant scented hair conditioner.
Thanks for the reply. The Silvertip I had previously was pretty soft and not too scrubby from the start, but I don’t know about this one.
I remember when my D01 was new. It was like using a velvet covered stick. It eventually broke in after a month of hand lathering daily. (That soap you hate the scent of but can't bear to throw away brcause you might need it somrday...yeah. Use that one). It's the brush I use more than any other. It has the softness of badger and the stiffness of boar.
I would cut the vinegar 1:5 with H2O. 20 minute soak. Rinse well. Then use your favorite soap, work up a big lather, leave the lather in the brush overnight. Rinse, repeat if necessary.