Who are, in your opinions, the best suppliers of (1) badger knots, (2) boar knots, and (3) synthetic knots? Thanks in advance.
Do they need to be loose knots? For synthetic I like AP shave Co and TurnNshave. Boar... Depends on whether I can include full brushes or just knots. Zenith, if the former. I'll let others cover badgers. I only have 5 badgers and, ironically, like the two I paid the least for the most.
Boar ... Depending on the size usually I harvest one from an Omega brush ... really large or small Whipped Dog Badger .... Maggards Synthetic ..... Maggards, AP shave I've tried Envy and Shave Forge ... IMHO over priced and unimpressive. Oumo I'm still on the fence with them. I've even bought from the no name one on ebay with mixed results 80-90% great. I've been regularly buying a variety of knots for the last six years, so I stand behind the ones in the top three lines.
PAA synthetics... I can't believe I forgot PAA. Best performing brushes out there for 19.95 a each. The Peregrino may be my best performing brush. It's the brush that retired all of my natural hair brushes and all but 3 or 4 synthetics.
For Boar knots, I go Omega. I've tried others mentioned here, and their quality isn't as good as Omega. Others just seem to shed over time. Plus, Omega is inexpensive. I'm a big fan of the Omega 10098, for a tall donor knot. As a matter of fact, I'm about to buy an Omega 10066, for a restoration handle project.
I vote for the mistura by Semogue and am throwing in that curve of a mixed badger/boar. If I’d had bought one first, I may not have twenty plus brushes today. Whatever knots saponificio puts in their brushes are ridiculous. Best badger I have. Even nudges past my Chubby 1 and 2.
+1 https://shavemac.com/en/home/111-brush-comopser.html Do your research on the different types of badger hair. D01 is unlike any other type of badger hair used in brushes, and Shavemac is the only place you can get it. That's why shavemac gets my vote. If something happened to my D01 Two Band, I would order a replacement knot the next day, no hesitation. It's got too much backbone for most people, and it's a right bastard to break in, but best brush I've ever owned for my personal taste and preference. Also, Bernd Blos is a typical German perfectionist. A higher level of detail goes into the shaping of knots, and trimming the knot than I've seen from other manufacturers.
I agree with you on all points. The Shavemac, D01 Two Band, in Extreme Flat Top, shall ever reign supreme for me. Unfortunately, all I see now is the fan shape. Do you know, is the Flat Top still available for order?
You should email Bernd Blos for that info. From "extreme flat top" I gather that he uses a flat sided pill bottle rather than any brush cannons (knot shape molds) for shaping that knot. Edit: in the knot descriptions side of the website, I see flat top there, and I know some people got flat top brushes when a forum did a group buy from Shavemac a few years ago.
The last 3 Whipped Dog Boars I've had, were shedders. I've had excellent results with all Omega brushes. Some I scavenge the knots, to put in other handles.
Yaqi produce good knots all around. I only have 6 badgers left, but of all the fancy badgers I have or have had, the Yaqi I paid $13 for is my favorite badger... Still rarely use it as I've long abandobed natural bad synthetic Don't DG they only have badger?
