Wow, that is a lot of useful information! Many thanks for that! After doing some additional internet searches, it seems that all mention of hollow centers in horse hair brushes are for the Turkish variety. I could not find any reference to the same issue with a Vie Long brush. Or maybe it exists and I just didn't find it. It is starting to sound like the hollows are due to the construction of a particular brush, not the hair type. If the Turkish "horse hair" brushes are actually boar, then that would be rather convincing evidence. Brush wiki? The Shave Den has a wiki? I couldn't find any link to a wiki on the home or forum pages, but maybe that was just me being dense.
Sorry, I should have said check the Brush Section's stickies. It would be kind of cool to have a Wiki section, (...thinks about Badger & Blade's massive, hard to search clutter that passes for a wiki) but we get along fine with stickies. Here's the thread I was referring to: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/the-brush-basic-information-everyone-should-know.29125/ Besides, if all the info was organized and in one place, no one would ask questions.
I find the TSD stickies very concise, informative and easy to navigate, much easier to read and search for info than with the B&B wiki. Leisureguy did a pretty good job of that with his Guide to Gourmet Shaving. It makes a good companion to The Shave Den and Mantic's videos. Besides, the stickies here do a very good job of organizing key information in a very small number of places, too. Easy to search references that are well indexed are quite helpful to any shaver, especially newbies.
I have an Ever Ready 200 greenie with a Turkish #6 knot from bestshave.net that I traded for on the forum. I really like it. If has pretty well replaced my Edwin jäger badger.
I remembered being told something that surprised me, but I did not verify until now: http://www.islam-qa.com/en/40651 "Things which are to be used and which will be used up. If in the majority of cases a thing is used for haraam purposes, then it is haraam to sell it. For example, it is haraam to sell pork, alcohol and dead meat even though they may – on rare occasions – be used for a permissible purpose, such as eating dead meat for those who are in extreme need, or using alcohol to stop oneself choking or to putt out a fire, or using pig hairs for beading, or making use of the hair and skin of a pig – according to those who approve of that. But because these are not the reason for which these things are produced, and the usual use for pigs and dead meat is to eat them, and the usual use for alcohol is to drink it, so no attention should be paid to these reasons, and it is haraam to sell these things." Here is more opinions that state yes and no to boar hair use. http://www.islamhelpline.com/node/3145 So it seems to be a "grey area" in the Islamic tradition as to touching products made with boar hair. Up to interpretation it seems according to the information that I have found on the subject.
GD I'm more confused now than when I started.... I'm going to continue to take bestshave at their word for now at least and continue to refer to the bestshave #6 as horse..Believe me I could careless about alla or islam or what they believe or feel about anything...And so if the #6 turns out to be pig "so much the better"!! Either way it's still a "GREAT" little brush I.M.O. and worth the money!!!
Agreed! I got into wetshaving, with an idea that the more expensive, the better. But as it turned out, my absolute favorite brush is the #6. I can't believe how good it is, and it costs almost "nothing".
Since this one is cross threading with the current Synthetic Brush thread here is the continued discussion from that thread for clarity. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/synthetic-brushes.34651/page-2#post-608152 http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/synthetic-brushes.34651/page-2#post-608157
