OK Jared, so do I lather the horse with my boar brush and any particular soap? I did start a project good while back; I have both mane and tail hair to try making my own knots. Haven't yet figured out what to use for the glue plug. When I read about anthrax it slowed my progress.
Guess it depends on the brush. My Omega 49 took about a month of daily use. My Omega 98 took about two weeks of daily use. My Omega 11574 seemed almost perfect right out of the box. My Semogue 2000 took about 2-3 weeks of daily use. For all my brushes I did nothing special to speed up the process. I just used them.
I don't know. Maybe it's just me. But, something makes think that a zebra brush might be akin to the push broom you use for the garage floor.
Again another vote to use it..... May take a while but man they are nice when fully broken in. Also if your new and over excited about the new wet shaving hobby. You could also use the boar to make a practice lather every now and again on your hand. Kills two birds with one stone. Helps break in the boar and helps you practice making nice lather. Either way welcome aboard
I did the refrigerator treatment on my last Omega 49 for two days, as well as rubbing it on a towel for 5 minutes once a day during the fridge time. I would say that it did make a noticeable difference in the break in.
Used the Thater Beehive Boar again and even more impressed with its performance. After the 2nd. shave:
I have several boar brushes and all were pretty well broken in after about 20 shaves. Although with one I took a short cut which worked. I soaked the new brush in a mug of hot water with a bit of the wife's shampoo with conditioner in it. Let it soak for about 30 minutes - rinse and let completely dry. Then I did it again. Worked pretty well. I almost exclusively use boar now - the badgers, synthetics, and horse just sit there unused.
Simply drop-ship your boar brushes to me, and when they are broken in, I'll send them on to you. I can do the same for badger and horsehair brushes. It takes some time, though. Cheers! Tony
I've looked at those... One day the city street sweeper stopped out in front of my house. I got a look at those bristles, too. Plenty of loft and the ends were splitting nicely for synthetic bristles. Paint brushes that are labeled "China Bristle" are boar hair. Haven't found one to my liking yet.
I think Ernest and Julio said "No wine before its time". Unfortunately it's the same with boar knots. It takes time. Use them and let it happen. When I was messing around a lot with boars and was trying to break in a couple of brushes at the same time I would hand lather the brush I was going to use the next day and soak it overnight with a squirt of Dawn in the water. The next day I'd clean the Dawn out of it make my lather, shave, clean out the brush and put it back in the water with the dawn in it, repeated the process the next day but after using it the second day I'd let dry good and put it in rotation. Can't say if it helped, maybe a better first bloom but I don't believed it hurt anything either. I just wanted a consistent process. The only thing I know is that you could make 2 brushes on the same day and put them in service on alternating days and each brush will have it's own schedule.
An old barber once said: stick it in ice water in the refrigerator and then dry it vigorously on a towel; repeat twice.
If you skip the conditioner the hairs will split sooner and will still be soft. Clayton Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
I can see the logic in that. Conditioner replaces the oils stripped during a shampoo. Most shave soaps contain something to moisturize so a similar effect. Maybe if someone was a committed Arkoholic break-in might be hastened since it tends to be a little drying. Similar with Dawn since it's a detergent rather than soap. Less so with Palmolive?
split hairs are caused by mechanical, thermal, or chemical stress. Chemical and thermal will obviously damage the brush unless we're talking about stripping oils with something like dish soap/shampoo. Simply soak the brush and then go to town on a towel for 20min. Repeat as necessary. Should take a couple days tops.
Breaking in through use is my practice. However, if the brush has funk, I set it next to my turntable and play a George Clinton album on reverse.
It's nice and clean now, I would just start using it. The hairs will split as it goes through wet/drying cycles. Clayton Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
