Has anyone ever seen a Vie Long horse brush get the center void when lathered? Just curious, as I have never seen that mentioned before.
Not to that extreme no, however when its dried and some hairs are tangled the center can appear to be a cavity. I believe the bestshave has the extreme cavity due to the fact that there is resin far up into the center of the knot.
The BestShave brushes definitely have a ton of resin far up into the knot. If I can remember, I will try to get a rough measurement of how high above the handle the resin goes.
I have been using the Turkish n°6 for 3 weeks now and I find it to be an excellent brush. My only point of comparison is a boar brush with very much backbone and a very dense loft. At first, I have taken the mentioned cavity for a sign of bad quality, but that reserve did not last long since the brush delivered from the very beginning a perfect job of producing a very good lather very quickly. The difference is especially strucking with the Monsavon soap : only 25 seconds of loading are required vs. 40+ seconds with the other brush. It also takes less cream to do the same job as the other brush. Bruce Everiss' recommendation proved absolutely justified as far as I am concerned and I do absolutely not regret my purchase.
Yes, Vie Long 13061 !!!!!!! I've had it a couple of years and I can't stand it. I love horsehair, but the 13061 is the two band dyed hair. I dislike the vie Long dyed hair. The best Vie Long to me is the natural brown. Way more backbone , but it takes a while to break in. The dyed hair is softer initially but it seems to lose it's backbone with use. At least that is my experience. The Turkish #6, I've also been a long term user and I do not believe it is boar. My hairs have never split like boar hair. IMHO, the #6 is a great brush. The problem is if you get a good one and invest the time to break in in it becomes an awesome brush, but if you get a bad one,,, it will suck. No matter how much time you invest. And the QC was total hit and miss.
The hair on the #6 brushes seems most similar to that on the vie-long Gonzolo ( a mix of boar and unsoftened horse ( most vie long horse brushes are treated to soften the hair), so I think that is is probably horse, albeit a very stiff horse. The center void is just a matter of shoddy workmanship (it is a $2.50 brush after all). On Vie-Long brushes... they have 3 basic hair mixes. The dyed are the softest, being 50% mane and 50% tail ( the mane is softer), the other unbleached are 35% mane, 65% tail, with the exception of their pro brush ( which is 25% mane, 75% tail). All of their brushes undergo a softening process, except for a couple of models of their pro brush.
Can't remember the last hair I lost out of the #6. Use 2 in my rotation so that's one every other week about. No real hair loss in either. The only brushes that I notice a loss on 2 or 3 a shave are my older 'drug store' boar brushes.
I've used my No. 6 about 10 times and it's still losing 2 or 3 hairs each time. I'm about to give up on it. It just doesn't seem to be able to hold enough for 3 passes.
