I must admit, I have never been fond of the synthetic knot I had put in #220. After using it three days this week, today, I decided to take it to the next level. I removed the old knot and replaced it with a two-band badger. That will be a big improvement. Here is the brush with the original synthetic knot. Here it is with the knot almost gone. Here it is with the new knot set. I am looking forward to using it the rest of this week.