I am a fan of the HIS synthetic brushes. For me, the knot is the perfect combination of softness and backbone for face lathering. I love the performance of the HIS knots, but the handles.... well, the best I can say is that they are large, heavy, black, and functional. Not attractive or fun in any way. Here is my original HIS brush with its factory handle. I loved how it performed, but not how it looked. I mailed that brush off to Doug Korn, and here is what he created from it. He cut the wonderful knot free from the ugly handle and re-mounted the knot in one of his elegant D7 handles made from an acrylic material called "blue steel". It is a swirl of blue, black, and silver. Here is my HIS brush family portrait. Left to right, Bethlehem olive wood, Doug Korn custom, Oscar11 custom, and Oscar11 custom. Hmmm... you know, I'm thinking that maybe I need another one in transparent amber, and maybe something in red, or green, or ....
very nice family portrait. May I ask which loft setting your prefer the best? They all look a little different.
I like the full standard loft best. The Bethlehem olive wood handle has one of the less common smaller HIS knots, 24mm rather than the 28mm of the original extra large brush. The loft is slightly shorter and the density is slightly less. Still excellent, just not as good as the bigger one. The ivory Oscar11 brush was an experiment by Steve at setting an HIS knot deeper. It feels great, too, just a little more backbone. Steve gifted that brush to me.
I did add some metal washers to the bottom of the olive wood handle to raise it up to the level I wanted for the HIS knot. I believe that the custom handles were drilled to the exact depth needed.
hahaha for some reason that "family portrait" comment made me laugh pretty good.....but, i must say that is a good looking family
