Hello. I'm back crapping on about brushes again. Feel free to read some old posts if you're into something else.
So Pj said to me one day, 'I'm thinking of getting some knots in. You in?' I was. I sacrificed a Smoggie and it was returned as a Blobbie. You'll have to ask Pj.
The Semogue I gave up for the handle was the 1460. It was in the Best bristle grade and I found it way too noodly for me. It was one of their cheapies so it didn't really matter.
Pj had a bugger of a job cleaning out the knot and getting it ready for a new knot, what with the hardness of the glue at the base. We both went for a TGN knot in Best. Size wise, I could only select what would fit in that handle. This is an 18mm knot @ 45mm loft once set in the handle, I believe.
It's not particularly dense, in fact not at all. It doesn't have a lot of backbone, but enough - it's not floppy. We were both disappointed in the feel of these initially too. Mine was like face lathering with select hairs rigged up to 10v battery. It was stingy. It also shed like an Amish barn-raising festival. Mine still loses at least 3-6 every shave, but only the fine ones, the wiry buggers appear not to be interested.
So this was the bad news early. The good news is, it's softened up noticeably - as in, a lot. Which is good, as I was as near to calling it unusable as I could get at the start. I can also live with the shedding. Why?
i) It was cheap. Pj works for shave sticks and costs. The knot was $20.
ii) It lathers like a frickin madman.
This thing seriously works a puck of soap and cranks out some mean lather. I'll go as far to say it's the only badger I have that will get stuck into Harris Arlington. The Simmo's just can't cut it. I hate to say it, but they can't. I'm not blaming the soap, cos boar will do the job too, my water probably doesn't help, nor does small wooden shave bowls, cos some brushes need a bit more room to move. But those small variables mean nothing when this thing goes to work. I put it down to the lack of density - that enables the hairs to move and agitate better.
A dense, fat badger will get soap off hard pucks if you get them just right for dampness, which isn't always easy to get right. I find for me the best lather is one that starts creaming up off the soap into the brush - not foam, bubbles or paste, but cream. The smaller Simmo's will do that easily on soft soaps, but not Tabac or Harris. What that means is, longer to load up enough product, make lather, get it slick, and have enough. I like to get right first time, every time.
I can see why it drives some obsessives to have a certain brushes for certain soaps. But the Blobbie is a do it aller. Wet, shake, load and it's full of Mr Whippy in no time, and it makes nice, wet slick lather, real quick.
Why can't all brushes do that? I've paid some top cash for nice brushes, but there's a few products they simply don't work as well with, and are plain finnicky. The Chubby being at the top of that list. Give it creams and you can't complain; it's a luxury lather machine, but buggered if I know how people get this thing working well to load soaps, it's just too frickin fat. Sure, with a bit of patience and leaving the others alone, I can make the Chubby work as it should. I know. It's my own fault for buying too many brushes. Shut up already.
The only thing I'd change about the Blobbie, apart from the shedding, is the grade of hair. TGN Best certainly isn't a patch on Simpson for feel. I think their Silvertip might be more comparable. They come in around $20 too.
So Pj said to me one day, 'I'm thinking of getting some knots in. You in?' I was. I sacrificed a Smoggie and it was returned as a Blobbie. You'll have to ask Pj.
The Semogue I gave up for the handle was the 1460. It was in the Best bristle grade and I found it way too noodly for me. It was one of their cheapies so it didn't really matter.
Pj had a bugger of a job cleaning out the knot and getting it ready for a new knot, what with the hardness of the glue at the base. We both went for a TGN knot in Best. Size wise, I could only select what would fit in that handle. This is an 18mm knot @ 45mm loft once set in the handle, I believe.
It's not particularly dense, in fact not at all. It doesn't have a lot of backbone, but enough - it's not floppy. We were both disappointed in the feel of these initially too. Mine was like face lathering with select hairs rigged up to 10v battery. It was stingy. It also shed like an Amish barn-raising festival. Mine still loses at least 3-6 every shave, but only the fine ones, the wiry buggers appear not to be interested.
So this was the bad news early. The good news is, it's softened up noticeably - as in, a lot. Which is good, as I was as near to calling it unusable as I could get at the start. I can also live with the shedding. Why?
i) It was cheap. Pj works for shave sticks and costs. The knot was $20.
ii) It lathers like a frickin madman.
This thing seriously works a puck of soap and cranks out some mean lather. I'll go as far to say it's the only badger I have that will get stuck into Harris Arlington. The Simmo's just can't cut it. I hate to say it, but they can't. I'm not blaming the soap, cos boar will do the job too, my water probably doesn't help, nor does small wooden shave bowls, cos some brushes need a bit more room to move. But those small variables mean nothing when this thing goes to work. I put it down to the lack of density - that enables the hairs to move and agitate better.
A dense, fat badger will get soap off hard pucks if you get them just right for dampness, which isn't always easy to get right. I find for me the best lather is one that starts creaming up off the soap into the brush - not foam, bubbles or paste, but cream. The smaller Simmo's will do that easily on soft soaps, but not Tabac or Harris. What that means is, longer to load up enough product, make lather, get it slick, and have enough. I like to get right first time, every time.
I can see why it drives some obsessives to have a certain brushes for certain soaps. But the Blobbie is a do it aller. Wet, shake, load and it's full of Mr Whippy in no time, and it makes nice, wet slick lather, real quick.
Why can't all brushes do that? I've paid some top cash for nice brushes, but there's a few products they simply don't work as well with, and are plain finnicky. The Chubby being at the top of that list. Give it creams and you can't complain; it's a luxury lather machine, but buggered if I know how people get this thing working well to load soaps, it's just too frickin fat. Sure, with a bit of patience and leaving the others alone, I can make the Chubby work as it should. I know. It's my own fault for buying too many brushes. Shut up already.
The only thing I'd change about the Blobbie, apart from the shedding, is the grade of hair. TGN Best certainly isn't a patch on Simpson for feel. I think their Silvertip might be more comparable. They come in around $20 too.
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