My Semogue 1460, is barely three months broken in and the tips are splinting. Very impressed with the brush.
Justin, Other than my Muhle Black Fibre (and hopefully a Silvertip Fibre soon enough) the Semogues dominate my rotation. The SOC boar and 2-band badger are amazing. I just need the 2-band to soften up at the tips a touch more and it will be awesome. It started with a decent amount of scritch and now it's much softer with a hint of scritch. I don't want it to lose all the scritch, but just a little bit more and it'll be perfect. If I'm feeling badger-ry it's the first one I want to reach for above my Simpson Commodore and Vulfix 2234. The SOC boar is amazing with the 830 slightly behind it. If you're enjoying the SOC boar as much as I think you are, then you really owe it to yourself to pick up their 2-band. Here it is all lathered up and purrty!
Based on the performance of the SOC Boar, I'm most likely going to sell off my other brushes (Simpsons included) and just get 1 of the Semogue 2 band SOC's. The manufacturing quality and price is just hard to beat!
I'd probably do the same thing Justin, but most of my brushes have been gifts so I'm not going to sell them. I've only traded away one brush and then given another away that was PIF'd to me. All the others will stay I think as part of my almost done growing collection.
I have a VDH boar, I know it's a super cheap brush but I do enjoy it. It feels like it is starting to break in and soften up. I prefer it to my tweezerman...
God bless you! The VDH boar is what kept me away from Semogues for way too long. I just hated that brush. But if it's working well for you that's great. Mine just never softened up and I tried everything!
If you enjoy it, that's all that matters in the end! Everyone has their preferences be it Boar, Badger, Horse, Mix, Synthetic, etc. If I had tried a Semogue earlier, I probably would have never purchased Omegas or Simpsons brushes at all, the quality is on par with brushes that cost 2-4 times more. I can't complain about that.
I liked the VDH. I didn't like the Semogue 1305. But my shaving opinions are generally contradictive to most other folks. <shrug>
I'm still trying to understand boar... I have 9 brushes - only 2 of them are badger. Some of the boars are quite good - but none of them is any better than even a cheap "Best Badger", Vulfix, which was my first brush. And none of them even approximates my overstuffed knot "Finest" from Franks Shaving. I use them all, and enjoy them all, but none of them is as soft, or has the lather capacity of the badger. However, I understand that lather styles differ, and personal preference is just that. I'm one of those guys who feels cheated if I don't have abundant lather left over when I am done, and who doesn't consider a coat of lather adequate unless it fills my ears... My more conservative brethren would probably consider me wasteful and extravagant!
Jerald, both my Semogue 830 and OC boars can easily produce abundant lather; enough dense, creamy, & slick lather for 4-6 passes. The 820 can also do this but my 1438 so far seems to hold a bit less lather but can still do good for 3-4 passes worth. To be honest, my 830 and SOC both have softer tips with better backbone than most of my badgers. The only badger that is softer is a Vulfix 2234 in Super which while extremely soft retains very little backbone. If you're boars aren't holding on to enough lather for you then I have to wonder if they've broken in at all, if you're soaking them prior to loading, and if you're loading enough or possibly using too much water. As mentioned before I prefer the softer tips and great backbone of my boars compared to my Simpson in best, Vulfix in Super, and Frank's Finest. The only badger that I'll leave in to even compete is the Semogue OC 2-band. Better backbone than the Frank's, better handle for me, and almost the perfect amount of scritch for the massaging action I love while face lathering. If your quality boars can't even come close to a Frank's Finest then I suspect something isn't firing on all cylinders just yet.
Could be, Brian. I think they are fairly broken in now - the 2 boars I use the most have each been used 15 times or so, after test lathering them literally another 20 times before using them to shave. I don't have a frame of reference though; is that enough? Understand, I enjoy the boars, particularly the Omega Pro 49. It really is a great brush! And I make great heaps of thick lather with them. I use the wet method, and load and load until my lather is actually right where I want it. I have wondered about what sounds like a denser knot on the Semogue brushes though - I don't have one of those yet. That may be what I am looking for. Anyway, all the experimenting is fun!
In my experience, boar brushes really reach their best after 3-6 months of use. The better boars become almost as soft as a badger. The main appeal of badgers is they don't require a long break in time and retain water better than a boar brush. I prefer badgers and don't currently own any boar brushes. Every once in a while I almost have an urge to buy another boar brush, but so far I've restrained myself. In short, your brushes are starting to get broken in. If you think you like them now, just wait another 4 months.
With daily use, my Semogue 1520 was beautifully soft and broken in within about a month or so. It's still in my rotation but I'm having a hard time using anything but my SOC right now, partially due to wanting to break it in, but mostly due to the comfortable handle and great feeling this brush gives. I've owned 3 Omegas and 2 Semogues thus far, and much prefer the knots that Semogue uses - by a great deal. Something about the boar bristles they use is also very appealing, they split at the tips fairly quickly and just break in wonderfully. Pricetag can get a bit high on them but to me the higher end boars are worth every penny. Hell I can get a SOC Boar and 2 Band Badger for the price of 1 Simpsons or Thater badger lol.
To speed up break in you can repeatedly soak the brush in hot water for a day. Take a hard shaving soap( one you don't care for much) and use the brush to make lather. Work the brush over the soap hundreds of times in several sessions . Don't own Semogue but for my Omega's this break in process helps. I have had a white 49 since 2009 and it works fine and is super soft. Break in is essential to enjoy boar because of how it feels on the face.
Thanks! I have worked them all some more, and they truly seem to be broken in. My main complaint is that they don't have the lather capacity of badger - but I have 2 Omegas (can't remember what models) that seem to have very fine bristles compared to the rest. These seem to perform very well - as well as badger. I've never seen a discussion of grading boar hair like we do badger hair... but it is now obvious to me that there is a great variation in grades. Thank you to all for all the help and suggestions!
