Semogue Owners Club

As boars go (I'm not a huge fan) I quite like 1305 which seems to have broken readily and feels nice on the chops. It still can't hold much lather and you have to constantly reload but that's to be expected.
 
In order of break-in from least to greatest

Vie-Long > Vulfix > Omega > Boreal > Smogue

Do you paint to and fro or face lather? If the former you can count on spending much much more time with the SOC. You're not flexing or forcing the tufts tips to split so the time it would take someone who face lathers will be shorter by comparison.

As far as giving it another go for 10 days-that's laughable. If you're the type to molest and beat the sh*t out of your brush ( like that idiot at B&B who claims Fido's brush was "floppy" compared to the 9000 reviews posted reckon he must be a giant mofo ) that's a possibly...then again who am I to contradict Mr. Stewardship? It is his experience and I shouldn't deny someone's right to their opinions however wrong or right they may be. Little digression but within confines of subject- I had 30 shaves with that brush and it's still hard as tits. Sure it would splay more if I forced it but I have respect for my own things. So much so the blasted logo is still intact ( they say it comes off very easily but it sure as hell no different from Omega ). In other words, after 7 uses one of my Omega brushes logo had met oblivion.

Anyway, if you actually care for and respect your brush it would take a bit longer. So much for Mr. Smogue's bright ideas-had you not quoted that insipid post my screen wouldn't need to be cleaned from spit.

James, you may as well give Urban Hermit your SOC and spare yourself grief if you think you're going to break-in a brush with additional 10 days. Here I sit thinking Mr. Smogue knew the characteristics of his own brushes. PM Leon/Bruno himself and ask him don't take any advise from "Mr. Smogue". Hell you don't even have to take any of my suggestions. One thing for certain, it sure as hell not going to take 10 days to break-in a Smogue. Anyone here who's not mental is going to tell you it will take more time.
 
I went the other way.

Had a 1250 (was more appealing to me than the 1305) but PIFed it to sunbury.
The SOC though is one of my favorites, at least from what I've tried and owned so far.
 
I do follow this process to break in a boar brush.Zach gave me the idea,but for some odd reason,I cant find his youtubes videos anymore so l´ll post mine.Basically you just need a bar of soap and your boar brush ( in the video Im using the Semogue 1520).Soak the brush in hot water,load the brush with the soap/cream and palmlathering from 30 seconds to a minute and repeat the same thing again:soak the brush,load it with soap/cream and palmlather,doing the same thing about 5 or 6 times (or as much as you want) and let it dry out at the end of the cycle.Some people even use a hand dryer to dry out the brush,but I have never done that,so I cant tell you how effective that is.So that proccess is called a "cycle" and you do like 3 or 4 cycles per day to ensure that the brush its fully break in,in less than a week.I did that the with SOC proto and the regular SOC brush and It was ready in less than 10 days.
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Also,another guy made this video about how to speed up the splitting of the brush tips using a comb:
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Again,I havent tried that method,but some people have reported that it worked really well with their Semogues 2000 and SOC after a couple days.
 
Dipesh said:
How do you know when it's broken in Teiste?
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It depends on the model and the boar hair used,but usually when the majority of the tips are split in a "V" form, and the brush makes lather really easy,without "sucking it" :lol:
 
Thanks for the tips Teiste.

I gave it a rough lathering with my Palmolive bowl before use tonight. I'll try and do this a bit more, I don't know why I should as the NF's will outperform it everytime, but thats the inexplicable hold this brush has over me :roll: I've no problem with the lather it produces, it's just the fact by the second pass it's all gone! Seems to work better with creams, although I'm always very generous with the amount of cream used - perhaps I just need to load the brush more......

This thread has made me more determined than ever to succeed with the brush! (Sorry UH) ;)

Research WILL continue.
 
Your problem is you only have 1 Boar. Secondly, you can use any Boar in the world and they won't be ready out-of-box like some Badgers are ( 90%-95% of time ).
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Ivan I'm not sure why this would be seen as a selling point of a boar brush? I've have a couple of boars, Omega 10005 and Semogue 1305 but they certainly didn't perform anywhere near a badger or even a Vulfix 404 badger boar mix. Being ready out-of-box to me is better than having to bash it on soap half a dozen times making lather then drying for 5 or 6 times before it's ready for use. I tried all this. I used to keep a grated stick of Palmolive in a dish just to try and break in brushes. I used a hairdryer. I wanted them to work, to give u this great boar experience that some members like yourself find. In the end they ate lather and were crap. My badgers hold enough lather for 3 - 4 passes easily, they're soft but lather excellently. Why would I want a boar again?

Don't get me wrong I'm not having a dig for the sake of it I just can't see the oint in floging a dead horse. Yes you could buy 2 or 3 boars for the price of a decent badger but isn't that the case with most things? Two Fords for the price of a Mercedes? You get what you pay for.

In fairness I haven't used a boar that has been completely broken in as I don't know what that would look / feel like however I have no real desire to as reading Antdads post he has to relather after each pass. With a badger I don't and I refer that.

Sorry rant over!
 
If you found what works for you, great!
I facelather and enjoy soaps so a boar has very strong points for me.

Your example of being ready straight of the box and the cars can have a different approach: do you really think any car will be fully primed for ultimate performance with 0 miles?
 
I wish my "p" key worked more often :lol:

Your example of being ready straight of the box and the cars can have a different approach: do you really think any car will be fully primed for ultimate performance with 0 miles?
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No my point was that the Mercedes was always going to be more luxurious than the 2 Fords (I own a ford by the way). Neither would be broken in or primed from new but the Mercedes would be a lot nicer in my opinion than getting a Ford there. I face lather and prefer hard soaps too which is why I tried 2 boars before going back to badgers, and yes different strokes for different folks but it wasn't for lack of perseverance or wanting to get the boar experience that others tell of.
 
simmo3801 said:
My badgers hold enough lather for 3 - 4 passes easily, they're soft but lather excellently. Why would I want a boar again?
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This was the exact point I had in mind when I started the thread. I can work at a Semogue and make it useable, or I can just pick one of the New Forest's off the shelf and know it will outperform them anyway. That said, I like a challenge .....

I was very pleased with the 1305 I got from secret santa, and have mentioned before this brush has always appealed to me. I will hand lather it everyday for a week or so to start the breaking in process, and report back how it compares in due course. I've heard the term "Funk" mentioned in relation to new brushes several times on here, but never experienced it. But after the first go with the 1305 in Palmolive soap yesterday I now fully understand!
 
If you want another car analogy, then you could say that the badger is and automatic and the boar is a standard/manual transmission.

    • Though, for the most part I wouldn't compare them to cars, I'd just prefer to say that some folks like the feel and performance of something other than what they get from badger. Others prefer what they can get from something other than boar.
      • I use both, and even enjoy both, but most often, I go for the horse, or the boar before the badger. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, an' all that.
          • ... that having been said, I do use my Le Tuft Urban Hermit's Black & Blues badger a lot nowadays.[/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u]
 
Bit of an update here... and the SOC is back in favour!

It's been sidelined in a big way since I started this thread, the arrival of a 1305 from Secret Santa, and more recently the 2221 completing a trio of New Forest's put pay to that. However, as with everything the novelty wears off, and recently I've been seeing the new SOC crop up in SOTD pictures, so I thought I'd give it a second chance.

I've only used it with hard soaps so far, MB's, Trumpers, MWF, Barbershop Lime etc, and the results have been good. The two prinicipal changes have been to use a wetter brush, dipping it in the water while loading if needed, and to load, load, load & load some more! I've been seeing a comfortable three passes with enough left for a tidy up.

I'll give softer soaps such as Dutch Moss, Nanny's and Maca Root a try soon, and also some creams and see how they go.

:D
 
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