March 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Envy White knots are some of the finest available at any price. Good choice.

 

Day 3's delayed coverage:



*A quick caliper check confirms that the knot on this brush is actually set at 50mm, and not the 48 originally listed.

Sometimes a brush just jumps up and grabs a guy, says "Pick me, pick me", and that was the case with this one. When I look at the brush, with the look of the rod stock, the feel and heft of it, I have to keep reminding myself that it isn't turned actually from a chunk of jade. The handle is everything you would expect from a craftsman like Vey, not an imperfection to be found. The knot is a perfect bulb, and it's short loft pulls it in tight, giving it an extremely dense look when viewed from the top. The slight lack of contrast on the badger hair is the only thing it could be faulted for, and even that is a bit of a stretch. The handle is fat. Fat enough, it is at the very outside limit of what I would call reasonable for a natural feeling grip. A brush that stout almost needs a more pronounced shape. It fits the hand fine when loading and working up a lather on the face, but during a messy, sloppy lathering it is almost difficult to keep hold of.

The short tight bulb does a fantastic job at grabbing up lather out of a tub, and with some dribbling of water onto it between trips to the puck, easily fills itself with soap. A fairly easy splayer, the tightly packed two band combined with the short loft make it a seriously scrubby brush, but it is obviously some good quality hair because throughout three passes, there was not a single scritch, scratch, poke or prick. Like most quality, dense knots, especially those with shorter lofts, flowthrough is this brush's only weakness. But a knot so fat, it will hold enough soap to do its job, but you can't be cheap with your puck. I got three good passes out of it without working too hard, and was still able to paint on some touchups. It was still holding a lot of lather at rinse time, but if you wanted it, you were going to have to milk it out. So only its big boy size keeps it from being docked further than it is.

So the scorecard after a great face lather:

 

I think I paid $170 or $180 for new and honed.

 

@Drygulch
Adam

 

I would have chosen the Thater but decided to go big and validate my most recent purchase.

 

Happy birthday, Adam. I wanted it to be special, so I made you a present this year.

 

The Kent is every bit as soft if not softer, and considering all of the categories, maybe a better choice. I was just a little surprised that considering it's rep for 3 band knots that it (Thater) didn't get any love.

 

If the Kent is the real big one, your own posts suggested it was too big and that you likes others you had better so it was taken out of the running in my book.

Unless of course your opinions change.

 

Another great write up. I find all the chubby size handles have the same problem of getting soap all over the handle while loading and face lathering. Like you noted the size when paired with nice rod stock gives a solid hand feel that is difficult to describe but a pleasure to hold.

 

Day 10 of 30 days of straights

I decided last night that I will be switching razors on a daily basis throughout the remainder of my 30-day focus. Today I chose another 4/8 straight. I like the 4/8 size because I can get everywhere I need to and it seems to be a little easier to control the angle than with a 6/8.

BTW, why didn't anyone ever tell me that learning to shave with a straight really isn't any harder than learning to shave with a DE?

Definitely a DFS today.

I forgot the DIY Pre-shave Oil before the first pass and decided to skip it for the day.
MDC Face Lathered
30mm High Mountain White set an extra 10mm deep
4 passes, WTG, XTG, XTG, ATG
4/8 square toe Union Cutlery Wedge

 

What I was(am)most proud of for this morning's shave is how much of the TSD Lanolin/Russian Leather soap I was able to load. By far, my best loading effort since buying shave soaps. I do have to credit the Nivea bodywash(in the shower) as a great pre-shave item.

 

I almost certainly do have others I favor more, but when you break it down by category, and consider that softness, density, splay, handle shape and appearance are more than half the points, I think it is gonna be in the running.

That is the problem with little contests like this. This thing could end up being the winner on points, and right now I could easily rattle off 8-10 brushes I would keep before that one.

 

Thank you, this is fun. When I decided to do this it was mostly a goof. I think though, that having to try to remain so objective about every brush, and to really look at them in each little category is really going to make me understand what I like or dislike about them. So it really is a focus month after all.

 

Awesome.

 

Peter Wolf just called. He said that if you don't take a toothbrush to that brush handle pretty soon he's going to break into your house and take that brush back.

 

I missed the quote by 0.8%!!! Since when can you have decimals!!!! Augggh!

Still, it seems like a strong contender.

Great review Jared. You've pointed out a few things I would have never thought of when selecting a brush. It will be hard waiting for all the reviews to come in since they are so well done and informative.

 

Hey brush cleaning day is Monday so it's secure.

 

Frank, the most important thing I learned about selecting brushes is to decide what I wanted in the brush. Jared's scorecard serves as a good guide. Once the attributes are decided try to pick the brush that ticks most of them off the lists. For instance backbone and scrub are much more important to me than soft tips or flow through. So my choices could and likely would be much different than

 

Let me add:

.1 2 oz. Clubman Shave Soap. In the words of a maid, "There ain't much to this place".