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24mm best badger shaving brush with boxwood handle by Chris (neocaligatio)
I have very little experience of quality shaving brushes up till now, in fact I was using a Culmak Spartan exclusively until fairly recently when I moved up to a huge, floppy Omega 49 Pro. To use the currently popular car analogy, the latter is an unwieldy but comfortable Sierra estate; the former a Hillman Imp.
Obviously I was in need of a decent badger powered shaving brush, but what to go for? Prime contender was the Kent BK4, and I'm still confident that Santa will oblige, but then I stumbled through the door to The Shaving Room, saw Chris' brush making thread and decided that was the way to go. After a few good natured PMs we settled on a 24mm best badger knot, and Chris agreed to use a billet of boxwood which I duly sent off. At first I thought I wanted a Chubby type of handle, but the blank wasn't quite big enough, so I wound up leaving the design in Chris' hands: wise choice, and what I should have done in the first place. The result is the brush you see (Chris' photo).
As far as I'm concerned, the brush is a thing of beauty, and the elongated Persian jar shape works very well ergonomically too. The knot is soft enough for the brush to stand upright in a bowl of water for soaking purposes, and it started to bloom after the first use: it's considerably wider now after just three shaves. It's no great wonder that it outperforms my other brushes, but I was surprised at the way it produces a lot of lather very rapidly, to the point that I'm having to adapt my technique to avoid too much wastage. The bristles feel very soft when dry, but have a pleasant prickle to them when wet. All in all I'm delighted with the brush, and I can't think of any niggles at all. Chris provides an excellent service, and if he thought that I was a troublesome customer (I was), he didn't let it show. The price? Well, I'm not going to tell you that, but I will say that I feel almost guilty at how little he wound up charging. Anyone who's in the market for a custom brush really should not hesitate to put some business his way.
So what kind of car is this? Unique, made to order, British ... sounds like a Morgan to me.
I have very little experience of quality shaving brushes up till now, in fact I was using a Culmak Spartan exclusively until fairly recently when I moved up to a huge, floppy Omega 49 Pro. To use the currently popular car analogy, the latter is an unwieldy but comfortable Sierra estate; the former a Hillman Imp.
Obviously I was in need of a decent badger powered shaving brush, but what to go for? Prime contender was the Kent BK4, and I'm still confident that Santa will oblige, but then I stumbled through the door to The Shaving Room, saw Chris' brush making thread and decided that was the way to go. After a few good natured PMs we settled on a 24mm best badger knot, and Chris agreed to use a billet of boxwood which I duly sent off. At first I thought I wanted a Chubby type of handle, but the blank wasn't quite big enough, so I wound up leaving the design in Chris' hands: wise choice, and what I should have done in the first place. The result is the brush you see (Chris' photo).
As far as I'm concerned, the brush is a thing of beauty, and the elongated Persian jar shape works very well ergonomically too. The knot is soft enough for the brush to stand upright in a bowl of water for soaking purposes, and it started to bloom after the first use: it's considerably wider now after just three shaves. It's no great wonder that it outperforms my other brushes, but I was surprised at the way it produces a lot of lather very rapidly, to the point that I'm having to adapt my technique to avoid too much wastage. The bristles feel very soft when dry, but have a pleasant prickle to them when wet. All in all I'm delighted with the brush, and I can't think of any niggles at all. Chris provides an excellent service, and if he thought that I was a troublesome customer (I was), he didn't let it show. The price? Well, I'm not going to tell you that, but I will say that I feel almost guilty at how little he wound up charging. Anyone who's in the market for a custom brush really should not hesitate to put some business his way.
So what kind of car is this? Unique, made to order, British ... sounds like a Morgan to me.