Van Der Hagen BOAR - some things that should not have been

The world has changed. I feel it in the water.
In years past, many have started their wet shaving journey with the Van Der Hagen Premium Shave Set.
The set with soap, bowl, and the lowly VDH Boar brush. I recently took this kit on a long journey away from home.
Many use the brush without incident, but many have had brushes that shed too much. I have such a brush.
In my attempt to resolve the problem, I aggressively combed the knot and pulled at the loose bristles.

To my horror, I pulled a chunk of bristles out of the middle of the knot.... but the rest of the knot remained.


This brush now has a hole in the middle - BUT - it is excellent at building a great lather on my face!
I've been using it like this for several months and it continues to perform and remain intact. To my surprise, this brush now easily out-performs my other boar brushes.

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.
It is a fluke, but I wonder if I have stumbled upon a long lost design for shaving brushes.

 

OUCH! If you need a new brush, I know a guy.

 

I started with one of those sets, I've since moved on but at the time every thing worked pretty well. Nowadays the bowl works fine for salsa or whatnot.

 

I had a cheap badger from Amazon. I tossed it after a couple decent boar brushes.

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My VDH board served well until I got a couple Omega boars. Then a synthetic, and a badger. When I brought it out for old times sake it shed a dozen or more bristles. It was a fine introduction to lather making. I passed it to a neighbor rather than reknotting it. The blue & green bowl is still serving me well.

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Mine did the exact same thing after I got my synthetic.

The VdH Boar is a moody bitch that only wants an exclusive relationship. The minute you spend any real time with another brush, she goes all to pieces.

(I assume that the glue holding the knot together doesn't take well to drying out after having been wet for any length of time. Personally, I don't have the patience to see if one can somehow rehydrate the knot to stop the shedding.)

 

I have a few "better" brushes- boar,badger & synthetic. But I am really enjoying this one for face lathering with soap.

While I think the QC on these may have been lacking, I have had 3 of them that I brought in the CVS kits on clearance 8 years ago.

Though they all have shed some bristle, this is the only one that lost a major chunk.

Funny thing, this is the ugliest brush I own, but it works great. Better than my others without the hole.

Thanks for your comments.
It's all good!

 

Not good. With the prices and quality of a lot of boar brushes available, VDH needs to step up.

 

I gave my luxury boar brush and apothecary bowl set to a friend over the weekend along with a long-handle Van Der Weishi, as I now have two Vie-Long horse hair brushes and an Old Spice shaving mug. The boar is a finicky thing, and depending on the manufacturer will be more prone to shedding than something put together by a more reputable company. The only really good things about VDH are their soaps/creams and their re-branded razors. Everything else is a crap shoot, I've found.

 

I think most horse hair brushes are knotted similarly-around the rim .

 

A bit of a follow-on to my older post...

A few weeks ago, I was reading something about brushes drying out and the bristles becoming brittle. Out of curiosity, I decided to try something I read and gave my old VdH Boar a good, long soak in water with a bit of glycerine. The result was nothing short of amazing as the brush all but stopped shedding. Since then, I've made it a point to give the brush a good soaking before using it, particularly if I haven't used it in a bit.

Night and day difference...

 

I had gotten lucky with my VDH boar brush. I must have used it 150-200 times over the last few years and it’s still in great shape. Plenty of backbone and hasn’t lost a hair in over two years. It’s a lather machine!

 

Thanks for sharing that tip. I'll keep that in mind when I bring one of my neglected boar brushes back into service.

 

John, how long do you let the brush soak?

I shave in the morning and start soaking my boar brushes before I get in the shower, so they get a 10 minute soak.

 

Except for a rehab soak, probably not even that long. I suspect that's why you've had such good luck with your VdH.

To be honest, before all this, I was more of a "hold it under the faucet" kind of guy.

 

I've had two non-vintage Burma Shave Boar brushes do that too. It's a shame, because they lathered and felt great, up until they fell apart.

 

With out a doubt boars are my favorite brushes to shave with.

 

You’ve sure shown it with some of them that you’ve built.