I almost bought that brush. It was a steal at the $25 BIN price, but I'm trying to control my spending. Got my eye on something else. ...and yes, cased means boar on the inside, badger on the outside. could be, but on travel brushes, boar is more common from what I've seen.
I was thinking that the outer hairs might be horse, but @Darkbulb will find out soon enough ... and yes, I have gotten what I want so I need to knock off the spending for a while as well.
Ugh...I hope not...my only horse-hair experience was with a Vie-Long brush that ended up being the only shaving brush I truly dislike.
If it is horse it will be a thick sturdy hair more like boar. Again it depends on when this one was made.
You gents have sucked me back into research mode again. Here is a really good piece of information on Better Brushes and its founder. http://www.geni.com/people/Harry-Crook/6000000001621218982 The family attended South Baptist Church in Worcester and Harry went to Bible classes there. At one of these classes one of the young men, a student at Clark University, afterwards asked if any of them were interested in making some money. Harry said he was, and was told to meet the student in his room to find out how. The student showed Harry the brushes he was selling and taught him how to talk people into buying them. Harry said he would take a week off from his job to try it, and when he found he made twice as much in commission, he quit his factory job. In 1916 he started working for the Fuller Brush Co. where the brushes. were made. There he met Stanley Metcalf who started working for Mr Fuller in 1913 while he was still in college in Springfield, Mass. Mr Metcalf was an enthusiastic businessman and soon became Chairman of the Sales Management Committee. In this capacity he hired Harry whom he promoted to District Manager in 1919. That same year Mr Fuller replaced Mr Metcalf as Chairman so he resigned from the company. As soon as his friends learned of this, they also resigned because they felt the atmosphere at Fuller had changed and they were unhappy. This group of four and Mr Metcalf joined forces and on December 15, 1919 held a meeting to organize a new company. Space was found in an old factory in Palmer, Mass. and Better Brushes, Inc. was born. The men all worked at cleaning the factory. Harry's old Overland car became the company's first truck when they cut off the back seat and built a platform in its place. By the end of January they had gathered together some sample brushes and sold them at lower prices than Fuller's. Their ultimate goal was to make brushes of higher quality and lower prices than Fuller and their slogan became "All That The Name Implies". The business grew rapidly and Harry was elected Clerk and then Vice President. He moved to an apartment in Springfield where he often worked so that his wife, whom he had married in England, could live in a city rather than in the small town of Palmer which she disliked. She was never happy there and wanted to return to England where her family lived, so in 1922 Harry left the company and returned to England. They moved in with his wife's parents in Bristol. He had to wait five years to become an English subject again after it had taken him five years to become an American when we was an immigrant. So this company was founded while horse hair was still in vogue. So now you will have to see whether yours is cased in Boar or cased in Horse.
Thanks! I love research-Gary! Having information like that makes me look at the items I have in a completely different way and I appreciate them a whole lot more - so thanks!! I can now picture this being made in their cleaned up factory in Palmer with Harry and the guys walking around next to it (unless his wife had already taken him back to England at that point)
I don't know how I missed this thread. I bought a couple vintage travel razors last night. At least one of them is labelled Best Brushes. @Darkbulb pointed out this thread when I mentioned it to him. It will be interesting to see what I get. One of them looks to be the same model as @darkbulbs but not in as nice condition. At least I got them for a lowball price
I almost bought those too. These and his brush came up in a search for travel brushes on the bay. I'm not really into the hollow handle brushes though. The feel is different, and too light, (IMO).
These are my first. I wanted to try them. I bought something else last night that I will want your opinion on
Ok, here it is. I just really liked the look of this brush. I had to purchase a lot to get it. There is some junk in the lot, but I think I did well. The interesting thing is that I have not been able to find any info on this brush. Does anybody know anything about it? Thanks
Great shape to it - not to mention the color! Will you try and salvage the knot by soaking it (@PLANofMAN posted some suggestions in another thread how to revive an old knot)?
I might be able to help you there. If I remember correctly, Ever-last was a subsidiary of American Safety Razor (ASR) in the 40's or 50's. I'll do some checking around and see if I can verify that. Edit: Nope, it was Everready.
