Some of you might remember from another post, that I received an AOS kit from my wife for Christmas. In the kit, along with pre-shave oil, shaving cream, and after shave balm, there was a brush. She opted for the "pure" badger brush, but told me that if I wanted something different I could take it back and exchange it. Well I finally got around to doing just that. The guy that helped me was great and offered no attitude or unwillingness to make the exchange even though it had been about 40 days since the purchase. I chose to exchanged the pure badger brush for the fine badger brush with the ivory handle. I was looking for a soft brush that still had some backbone and I think I have found it with this brush. I took it out of the packaging and expected it to weigh more than it did, but by no means does it feel cheaply made. In fact it feels pretty solid and the handle feels really nice in my hand. From what I can tell with my calipers (which are digital but the battery is dead so I have to read them manually) the brush measures as a 23mm knot with a 58mm loft and a total height of approximately 107mm. It sounds like it would be floppy, but being "fine" badger and being, what I think is, densely packed, it has enough backbone to keep it from being floppy. I soaked the brush to get it ready for some test lathers and I noticed that this brush held a lot of water; way more than my Tweezerman, boar, and even my silvertip brush - I had to give it a few good shakes to get the extra water out of there. After I soaked it I had no problem getting the soap to come to a nice lather in my bowl. Compared to my silvertip brush, it was rather easy as I have trouble sometimes getting my silvertip to bowl lather. I made 3 or 4 lathers, using a TSD soap, to test it out and to get it cleaned up. After a few test lathers I made one and went to the face with it. Overall it felt pretty dense and fairly soft. It definitely has some scritchyness, but I like that; I was looking for that. I continued on one side of my face with the AOS brush and went at the other side with my Tweezerman. As expected, I could tell a big difference. The Tweezerman was almost rough while the AOS brush felt really nice. It had the slight exfoliation action I was looking for, but at the same time felt nice and pliable. Not nearly as soft as my silvertip, but a nice middle of the road feeling. I used it this morning for my first shave with it and the brush did not disappoint. It performed great. It held plenty of lather for my three passes plus enough for a couple more. While I don't have a lot of experience with brushes and can't really compare this brush to anything but a Tweezerman, I can say that, so far, I really like this brush and I look forward to using it for many years. Oh, and here are a few pics of my new brush. Added for Brian.
thats a really, really nice brush....I am so overwhelmed by all the brushes out there, not because of my experience or anything...I know exactly what I want, But there is just SO MANY!....this one you have has really caught my eye though...thanks for sharing!!! do you happen to know if they sell just the brushes alone?
They sure do. I know they are fairly overpriced on most of their stuff, so just keep that in mind. I only got this particular brush because I exchanged it for something my wife bought. In all honesty I probably would have bought a brush from somewhere else had I bought it. That's not to say their products are inferior or anything; I happen to really like their products, they are just a little pricey.
Congrats Tom, she's a real looker! Something odd I noticed though was that the new brush apparently sucked all of the color out of the pics. Did you get a magic brush???
Yeah, Brian, some brushes are water hogs, some are lather hogs, mine is a color hog. ***See original post
Very nice. How is it after a month? I believe my wife is going to do something very similar, as she hinted at something AOS for my birthday, and knows that I want a different brush... Maybe I can give her some pointers before she purchases...
The Art of Shaving products are very good, but also very expensive. Cutlery stores often sell razors and brushes, so that is another place worth investigating. Strange thing though, I went to my local Art of Shaving last weekend and the store had transformed once again. The razors were in small displays on the wall and not prominently displayed on the floor anymore. I did not notice any brushes, although they used to have a fairly large selection. The main focus now seems to be on straight razor shaves and their creams and soaps.
