Recent Brushes

Drubbing

Drubbing

110% Smiley-Free
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Location
Perth, WA
So I recently got the Semogue 830 and Simpson Berkeley. I wasn't sure I'd get to really like the 830, as it appeared to be really softening up too much, but it's stayed on the very useable side, and the handle is really ergonomic for me. A keeper.

I'm disappointed with the Berk. I realise I'm a dyed in the pork boar bloke now, but I did want to have one nice badger that worked well. The Berk works, but not really to my taste. It's still too soft. I thought a shorter lofted, dense brush - which Simmo's are known for - was what I'd get. But if this is the best backbone a badger can muster, then it's not going to happen.

I will give it marks for being more user friendly than my T&H Rooney. The size is right, I just want something with some guts. Someone on B&B suggested a Duke, which is a bit bigger knot, but similar loft, and more dense.

I'm thinking about that, but the chances are that its just a badgerist overestimating the backbone properties of badger. Although he did single out the medium Rooney's for being very soft. My Rooney will have to sell to do so, I have too many other preferred brushes for it to get a run - even the Berk would get a nod ahead of it. As we don't have any formalities on that here as yet, I'l probably post it on B&B.
 
A week with the Berk and it's shedding 2-3 hairs per shave. This is what always shit me about badgers - they aren't cheap and they are always a punt for reliability. I'm giving this another week or so before getting back in touch with the seller. I did mention the loose hairs coming out during washing and he was dismissive of it, saying Simpson don't seem to be combing them well on finishing.

Crap. Dense badgers are known for shedding. There is an inherent "failure" rate that always makes its way to the customer.

Is it any surprise I'm always going on about boars? /rant.
 
Mate that's a tough break. I guess you can't do much but try each brush. So this isn't something all badgers do?
 
JugV2 said:
Mate that's a tough break. I guess you can't do much but try each brush. So this isn't something all badgers do?
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Only the expensive ones. I've only ever bought 3. The first was a vulfix, a bit long and floppy, fine with creams, not very dense. No shedding issues. Get into the dense, pricey ones and it's quite common. One reason I gave boar a go, you don't hear about it much with them.

I guess I just don't learn.
 
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I usually get 1 or 2 hairs falling out every other shave of my Shavemac177 - although come to think of it it's never been a problem with the shavemac travel brush that I've got. I just thought it was normal. lol. Oh well.
Definitely going to have to try a boar brush now. But not for a while. Ordered way to much stuff in the last little while....
 
Just got my special order Vulfuix 2189 in. I thought I'd ordered a pure white boar version but somehow ended up with a boar/badger mix. Looking back at the e-mail I sent I can see how it got confused. Now there's something you should consider Drubbing as you're forever on the boar/badger cusp. I actually like it a lot. Stiff little bugger. Needs some serious breaking in. Nice weighty handle. And in keeping with all the others, another travel brush.
 
$qwuzzy said:
I usually get 1 or 2 hairs falling out every other shave of my Shavemac177 - although come to think of it it's never been a problem with the shavemac travel brush that I've got. I just thought it was normal. lol. Oh well.
Definitely going to have to try a boar brush now. But not for a while. Ordered way to much stuff in the last little while....
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Yours is pretty new, from memory? A few hairs from new isn't a problem. If it's still happening a few weeks later it is. Even more so in a pricey brush.

Pjotr said:
Now there's something you should consider Drubbing as you're forever on the boar/badger cusp. I actually like it a lot. Stiff little bugger. Needs some serious breaking in. Nice weighty handle. And in keeping with all the others, another travel brush.
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For a bloke that never goes anywhere, you get a lot of travel brushes. I'm not on the cusp of anything. I'm trying to keep my perspective. I think it's because I realised I've nothing in the post, and cold turkeying.
 
Must admit that my Semogue 730HD has only shed 2-3 hairs all up thus far after about 10 latherings. Pretty happy with that. Lost more out of the 830... about half a dozen.
 
Drubbing said:
..... For a bloke that never goes anywhere, you get a lot of travel brushes.......I'm trying to keep my perspective. I think it's because I realised I've nothing in the post, and cold turkeying.
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Oh dear oh dear. Nothing in the post? That's scary. Because even if you order something now, let's say from England, you'll have to wait anything up to a month before it arrives. Think about it Drubbing. Do you stifle a little, hopeless, teary eye every time you see a post man cruise past your house? Stop kidding yourself, any perspective was gone a long, long time ago. I love little travel brushes. Particularly boar ones. They're just such good value for money and they look cool. They're invariably big enough to hold lather for three passes so what's the point in getting anything too much bigger.
 
Pjotr said:
Stop kidding yourself, any perspective was gone a long, long time ago. I love little travel brushes. Particularly boar ones. They're just such good value for money and they look cool. They're invariably big enough to hold lather for three passes so what's the point in getting anything too much bigger.
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This, from the man who bought a brush so small you need laparoscopic tweezers and a thermal camera to find and use it. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm downsizing from a Rooney silvertip to something far more Pjotr-like, but without the search and rescue palaver beforehand.

I do think I'm hitting diminishing returns on my purchases now, at least if recent buys are a guide. I've only really trumped with the Berk (hopefully), the 830 (definitely) the Floid and maybe one of the blades. The Valobras are meh territory, and doesn't really offer anything Proraso or Cella do. So much for a P160 substitute.

I wonder if someone would sell me some more...?
 
$qwuzzy said:
So which Semogue brushes do you have, and which one do you like the most?
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Not sure if you're asking me, but I have the 1305, 830, 1460 and 620.

The 1305 and 830 gets used all the time, the others when I realise I haven't in a while. Hard to pick between the 830 and 1305, they're both excellent in different ways. The 1305 is soft and provides plenty of firmness in the knot, the 830 is a bit softer for backbone, but has a nice natural grip in the handle.
 
Drubbing said:
I wonder if someone would sell me some more...?
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ItalianBarber still has some Tipo Morbido, although the postage can get a little pricey...
Drubbing said:
Not sure if you're asking me, but I have the 1305, 830, 1460 and 620.

The 1305 and 830 gets used all the time, the others when I realise I haven't in a while. Hard to pick between the 830 and 1305, they're both excellent in different ways. The 1305 is soft and provides plenty of firmness in the knot, the 830 is a bit softer for backbone, but has a nice natural grip in the handle.
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Was a question to everyone.
I'm thinking of eventually picking up the 830. Maybe. We'll see.
I'm fighting the urge to buy anything at the moment.
 
Yeah, there's a couple of places that have it, but no one is splitting kilos anymore. That makes it pricey and a kilo is way too much anyway - unless anyone is interested in a 2 or 3 way spilt.
The place Razormonsta got his was charging more for postage than the product cost. That's just not worth it. They were good enough to contact previous Aus customers and ask if they'd like more with a shared buy, but got no takers.
 
No, it was less at TuttoItaliaOnline, up to 2kg of weight for 20 Euros. Each Kilo was about 27 Euros. They were quite cost effective in the end and great people to deal with. Lysbet speaks and writes very good English. They no longer have any 1 kilo Duro (they do have 200g blocks), but they do have Morbido kilos left.

ItalianBarber.com was the one with ridiculous postage costs (1 kilo was something like $80 postage). This is because the postage costs of sending parcels from Canada to Australia is prohibitive once the weight goes over 400 grams.
 
I spoke with Lysbet and she was helpful. They wanted 24 Euro for up to 1kg, which was a pain as I wanted one of their 500g cuts. She did check costs and they could do up to 2kg for 17 eur postage, but a kg was still too much and I had no one to split it with.

I think they're only able to do the 80g samples via letter post, and 80g isn't that much.
 
How much are we talking about if we go halves?

I'm in Perth as you know...might be an option?
 
If would have worked out at about $25 each, but we're too late mate, they've no kg's left, just 80 + 100g cuts. Shaving.ie had some but that's gorn too. I could email Chris and find out if he has any.

Italian Barber postage is a joke - just checked, $109. That just for the shipping.
 
Mate if you ever need someone to go in on a buy, always throw me a line, I will probably be up for it.
 
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