Semogue boar brushes deteriorate

I know this may get some people angry and may create some debate but in my opinion the only good thing about Semogue brushes is the looks and the handle that's it. I agree it may sound bit harsh, unfair but I'm saying this through my experience ( I got a SOC, 2000, 1250, 820, 610,1438, 1460 and the famous 1305) 1305 being the only one that I would choose among my collection if I had to use one brush for every shave. While Omegas perform way better than Semogues in my opinion, Omegas consume or would create and keep more lather per shave than Semogues.
If we were living in the heyday of wet shaving and no canned foams/jells were available, semogues would loose the market to omegas.
So my advice is; if you want a good performing boar brush, buy an Omega. Buy a Semogue to place on the shelf with a Rolls Razor standing next to a shaving scuttle just for the looks and decoration.
 
Sezer1974 said:
I know this may get some people angry and may create some debate but in my opinion the only good thing about Semogue brushes is the looks and the handle that's it. I agree it may sound bit harsh, unfair but I'm saying this through my experience ( I got a SOC, 2000, 1250, 820, 610,1438, 1460 and the famous 1305) 1305 being the only one that I would choose among my collection if I had to use one brush for every shave. While Omegas perform way better than Semogues in my opinion, Omegas consume or would create and keep more lather per shave than Semogues.
If we were living in the heyday of wet shaving and no canned foams/jells were available, semogues would loose the market to omegas.
So my advice is; if you want a good performing boar brush, buy an Omega. Buy a Semogue to place on the shelf with a Rolls Razor standing next to a shaving scuttle just for the looks and decoration.
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I'm not angry, you have the right to hold your opinion but I have to say that I love my SOC boar's and I also love my 2000 and my 1305. I also love my omega's and my Zenith boar, I think it is a little harsh to say that Smogs are only good for looking at but as I said at the beginning you do have the right to hold your opinion. :) P.
 
Sezer1974 said:
So my advice is; if you want a good performing boar brush, buy an Omega.
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Well, my absolute favourite boar brush is in fact my Omega 81054. I really love this brush! It has exactly the right size and backbone for face lathering. The bristles are now well broken-in and their spliced tips gives them wonderful softness.

But unfortunately this brush doesn't have the handle that it deserves. If it would have the handle of my Omega 31064, it would be the absolute perfect boar brush (for me of course). But the funniest thing is, if you compare an Omega 81054 and an Omega 31064 just visually, you might expect that both of them have the same knot but that's absolute not the case. The bristles of my 31064 are the finest ones I ever saw in any boar brushes knot. And soaked wet they are, at least for my personal taste, way too soft.

Ok, I could transplant the 81054's knot into the handle of the 31064. But most predictable, I would end up with two destroyed boar brushes. I have learned to accept that there is no such thing like THE ultimate shaving brush. But who knows?
 
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I hate such temptations ;-)

This brush seems to have the same knot as the 20102 that I bought recently. But it is not broken in yet so I cannot tell about its qualities until now.
 
@Batou :
Your Semogues don't sound like being deteriorated... Most probably they just need some cleaning, due to soap and hard water residues accumulating on the knot. That's why they don't lather (or hold the lather) properly.

The same happened to my Semogue 830. I did some cleaning on it and it became as good as new, lathering like a champ. Still going strong with +8years of use.


Give them a good soak with water. Then, wash the bristles with water and some hair shampoo. Add a dollop of shampoo to the bristles and wash them with your hand, as if you were trying to lather in your hands.


Then, a good long soak for with a solution of sodium borate, or with a vinegar solution. If the residues are resilient, let it soak overnight.


Finally, rinse the brush with warm water several times, shake the excess of water and leave it to dry. Be sure to rinse it well because vinegar tends to kill any lather. First latherings after this procedure may be less than good because of this vinegar effect, so be sure to rinse it well.


There is a more detailed explanation of this procedure here: https://www.luxurybarber.com/blog/clean-shaving-brush/
 
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Ok, many thanks for this advice. I'll try this. It came already to my mind that some kind of cleaning could help. Although my other boars from Omega don't show this kind of performance loss.
 
oversaturn said:
@Batou :
Your Semogues don't sound like being deteriorated... Most probably they just need some cleaning, due to soap and hard water residues accumulating on the knot. That's why they don't lather (or hold the lather) properly.

There is a more detailed explanation of this procedure here: https://www.luxurybarber.com/blog/clean-shaving-brush/
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Ok, I cleaned now two of my three Semogue boar brushes (Models 620 and 830) with the described method, using warm water with decent amounts of dishwashing detergent and vinegar. There was quite a noticeable amount of dissolved lime soap within the cleansing solution but unfortunately the whole procedure it didn't help anything at all. There was no noticeable change whatsoever.

For my opinion there must be some relationship to the pre-production processing of the boar bristles at the manufacturers site before the bristles are assembled to knots. And there must be a difference between the processing done by Semogue and Omega. If I remember, those Semogue boar shaving brushes behaved from the very beginning noticeably different compared to Omega's boar brushes.

Unfortunately now my third Semogue boar brush, a very old 840 that I bought as NOS, begins noticeably to deteriorate. This is really disappointing!

Noticeably some other users are happy with Semogue brushes. I have no explanation what makes the difference. But for me personally, I will stay away from Semogue shaving brushes in the future and stick to other companies products that I've found to be better and durabler in any way (i.ex. Omega).
 
Felix Groslerner said:
The best boar I have is Proraso Pro. It is a rebranded Omega 49 with a shorter loft. Leather machine.
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The Proraso pro has a 27mm knot where as the Omega 49 Pro has a 26mm knot so it's not the case that the Proraso is just a shortened O49 although Omega doe's make the brush for Proraso , both great knots.
I'm currently having a Proraso /Omega knot reset into a leadwood handle set at 53mm loft, should be a fantastic for face lathering. P.
 
Batou said:
Ok, I cleaned now two of my three Semogue boar brushes (Models 620 and 830) with the described method, using warm water with decent amounts of dishwashing detergent and vinegar. There was quite a noticeable amount of dissolved lime soap within the cleansing solution but unfortunately the whole procedure it didn't help anything at all. There was no noticeable change whatsoever.

For my opinion there must be some relationship to the pre-production processing of the boar bristles at the manufacturers site before the bristles are assembled to knots. And there must be a difference between the processing done by Semogue and Omega. If I remember, those Semogue boar shaving brushes behaved from the very beginning noticeably different compared to Omega's boar brushes.

Unfortunately now my third Semogue boar brush, a very old 840 that I bought as NOS, begins noticeably to deteriorate. This is really disappointing!

Noticeably some other users are happy with Semogue brushes. I have no explanation what makes the difference. But for me personally, I will stay away from Semogue shaving brushes in the future and stick to other companies products that I've found to be better and durabler in any way (i.ex. Omega).
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Repeat the process a couple times more ;)
 
I really don't think that repeating this process will getting any better results as the first try didn't gain any noticeable changes at all.
That's just a waste of time.
 
Batou said:
I really don't think that repeating this process will getting any better results as the first try didn't gain any noticeable changes at all.
That's just a waste of time.
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You say when you first cleaned your brush you saw quite a noticeable amount of dissolved lime soap in the cleaning solution which point's to the brush being in need of a good clean, that would have been the first step, you repeat this process until the cleaning solution is clear. So it's not a waste of time to complete the cleaning process because at the end of it you may well have a perfectly usable brush but be sure to rinse it to remove all traces of vinegar and any other cleaning solution as @oversaturn has already stated. This is only a friendly suggestion, if you want to give up part way through the cleaning process and throw the brush away then that's completely up to you . Good luck. P .
 
Blademonkey said:
This is only a friendly suggestion, if you want to give up part way through the cleaning process and throw the brush away then that's completely up to you . Good luck. P .
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I'm thankful for every advice as long as it makes any sense to me. I have a degree in Engineering and therefore quite some knowledge about technical and chemical things. If you could explain me in a comprehensible way, how boar bristles of those brushes that are now floppy like a cleaning mop when wet, can be restored to their original stiffness just by soaking them in a solution of water with vinegar and some kind of detergent, I will try this process again. But to be honest, I have strong doubts about the validity of this procedure. This has nothing to do with impoliteness.
 
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