So I'm kinda new to this wet shaving deal and love it. I'm stuck on the old razors but have been looking at some of the newer ones. I started out with Barbasol shave cream. Moved on to TOBS and a Perfecto brush. Love that brush. Then I got to looking out for brushes at flea markets and sale barn type sales. I found a Burma-Shave brush still in the package with a mug and soap. I sanded the form mold lines off of it and polished it up nice and pretty. It works very well. I've got a couple of more that are going to have to be re-knotted. All that said to say I just got a brand new in the box Semogue 830 brush. It's a pretty little brush and I've read a lot of good thing about it so I wasn't worried about the quality. It had a very slight pig smell but a couple of lathering with Dawn and shampoo plus 2 with TOBS St. James Collection, no more smell. I soaked it in cold water for 24 hrs, dried it on a towel for 10 minutes and repeated this 2 more times. The brush is so soft and felt so good, the first 3 pass shave I used it for, I lathered my face 5 times. LOL. Amazing. I can already see this wet shaving is going to turn into another R/C car deal for me. Start out with a $100 car and end up with a $500 rig with all the stuff to go with it. LOL. Wet shave they said, It'll save you money they said. Here we go again
Nice job on the Burma Shave. For better or worse I remember those Burma shave signs on the highways when I was a kid. I have several Semogue brushes and like all of them.
You can't go wrong, when choosing a Semogue. I have three or four, but do not use them anymore. Shavemac flat top badger is the way of life.
It was a test mule. I have a Ever Ready 100 that I plan on re-knotting and polishing up and wanted to give it a go on something else. A confidence builder if you will. Today I was at a newer supermarket and went down the isle with the shaving stuff and low and behold, they had 5 or 6 Burma Shave brushes and 3 pucks of Williams. I didn't get another brush but I did get a puck of Williams.
It can save you money. But you have to step away from the shave forum, put you charge card back in your wallet. What fun is that? Guess I'm biased by my early shave experience. Two out of three of my first brushes were new Omegas. Stiff & scritchy? Yup and I liked it. I thought that was how they were supposed to feel. When I got my one and only Semogue, a 1305, it was already broken in with me being the second owner. Now I have a number of boar, synthetic, badger, and even a horse hair. I'll get the need one day for that new boar feel and buy a new Omega just to enjoy the breaking in. From those that have experienced both, I gather Semogue boars are softer from the start.
I noticed that my semouge brushes had a break in period. While they performed well, once they started splitting hairs on the ends, they kicked it up a notch to top shelf performance. As a side note, the semouge brushes always seem like the bristles were wild looking, reminds me of the ruffled little bird that follows snoopy around.