Well, my brush arrived today and I have the distinct impression they made this thing out of road kill picked up only after it had spent several days roasting in the sun to fully develop that special fragrance only squashed guts, poop and badger hair can impart. Yummy. :sick007 So, how to quell the smell of funky badger?
Mmmmmmm... First of all, don't waste it. A surefire way to make new friends of the canine persuasion is to let it soak, reserving the exquisite badger liqueur and allowing to evaporate to a concentrate. Apply like cologne. Eau (or eww) de badger cologne. Next, for those less appreciative of the aroma, simply do a dish soap and/or vinegar rinse as described at Em's place. They have videos. You can do multiple soaks.
I use a borax solution soak (vinegar works well also) and then just use the brush. The brush will smell like shave soap/cream in a couple weeks.
As has been mention, the smell will go. Just takes time. Some de-funk quicker than others. My badgers were unscented come the third or fourth use. Boars can take longer. My Omega 49 (boar) took a full month of shaves to get the stink out. For $12, it's one of my best brushes.
Well, I tried all that cleaning stuff and none of it made a dent in the eew de badger smell. I whipped up some TOBS Sandalwood soap and man I'm impressed! Awsome lather. I'm going to let it sit on the brush a while and see if that helps.
For some of my really bad badger I'll later up some of my cheaper soaps like proraso like 8 times in a row and let it sit for 5 minutes or so each time and then rinse and repeat.
I got my dad a tweezerman and that thing smelled. I soaked it with laundry detergent, then shampoo, then conditioner. did this for four days. then the smell went away.
I wonder what kind of brush you got. The ones I have (Rooney, Simpson, Saville Row as well as a handful of TGN knots in my custom handles) do not have any smell issues at all. When ever I get a new brush, I soak it (sniff it after it is wet, no smell - good) and them lather up a few times with a strongly scented cream, wash out and they are ready to go. The lather up/washing out routine is more for cleaning them out and remove loose hairs if there are any.
This one: http://www.supersafetyrazors.com/100-Pure-Badger-Bristle-Shaving-Brush/M/B002RJC1HC.htm It actually does a great job with soap. I thought I might have a problem because of hard water but it whips up an amazing lather in no time. I let it sit in a lather I whipped up last night for about three hours and the smell is mostly gone (or at least covered up).
