Omega Boar Brush - Small Brush Quartet

I see no difference in putting the brush in the fridge. I broke in two Semogues side by side one over night in the fridge and one for shorter soaks at room temperature. The room temperature brush broke in better.

If you are using the traditional muslin / heat method all you need is to saturate the bristles and dry rapidly to split the ends.

At the weekend I broak in an Omega 10290. It took an afternoon.
 
Nisse said:
To me the traditional method is just shaving and playing the waiting game.
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The method I use was shown to me by my Grandfather and he by his. In fact there was always a concern about hygiene regarding animal hair brushes. You can't sterilise them in hot water because it it melts the glue in the knot. You can treat them with dry heat without affecting it.

I remember discussing the method with an old barber up in the Lake District back in the 90s and he had always done the same - he was the one that tipped me off to using a hairdryer. When I was travelling in asia in my early 20s I picked up a brush in a shop and they prepared it by soaking it and fanning it over a stove. I think the practice used to be widespread.

My family have been using this method for 5 generations and over 130 years. That's the provenance of this as a tradition for me.

When people assert that the traditional method is just to use brushes I doubt it. I strongly believe this is a modern invention and only comes about with modern standards of treating the hair in manufacture.
 
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Omega 10108: I bought one of these from Connaught two years ago and it really could take a beating without really affecting breaking in period, not until the Omega sticker was gone after maybe fifty shaves knot really started to shine.
 
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New Omega brushes 24/48 mm recieved from Connaught posing with a 24/57 mm broken in Zenith boar. Will compare green using traditional break in ie just shave and hope for the best with orange using fridge method of turbo charging break in. Both will initially get the same shampoo and rinse plus 30 min soak in water before test lathering.
 
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Hmmm, after giving the green Omega the initial treatment I would say no need for a fridge method or any other method for that matter to break in this knot because it is already softer overall than my 10108 Omega that I have used for about 100 shaves so definitely different quality of hair used in these two also apparent by the fact that the newcomer lost seven hairs during initial treatment while the old one has lost none that I recall.

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my old Omega 10108 knot looking for a new handle, flames would be nice
 
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