Recommend me a Synth

You've made the age old internet mistake of asking for opinions, Shubs. You've now got lots :)

I'll now add mine.

Always a gamble with glue bumps when buying from AliExpress so I'd avoid buying from there.

If you're after a soft fan(ish) at 24mm, I'd recommend this brush:

shavingstation.co.uk

Amber Aerolite Synthetic Shaving Brush

The Amber Aerolite is another great addition to the Retro line from Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements, a homage to the classic Erskine B-200. The solid acrylic, Amber coloured handle is aesthetically stunning and the chunky, octagonal shape ensures a solid grip even when encountering the slickest of...
shavingstation.co.uk shavingstation.co.uk

Handle is slightly larger than what you're after but it's comfortable.

This brush is 26mm but very nice to use and comfortable to hold. I think it has the characteristics you're after:

shavingstation.co.uk

Plissoft Monster 26mm Synthetic Shaving Brush

The RazoRock Plissoft Monster is the latest addition to the Plissoft range and features a huge 26mm synthetic fibre knot with a 63mm loft set in a heavy resin, faux Ivory swirl effect handle with the RazoRock logo stamped on the base. The Monster is perfect for those wet shavers seeking a larger...
shavingstation.co.uk shavingstation.co.uk

If you want to buy a Limited Edition Trafalgar T3 with the 'no refund Emporium guarantee', PM me ;)
 
I am using mainly boars because I like their splay and backbone but i have tried several synths from yaqi as well. Tuxedo seems to have nice backbone and was my favorite synth till i purchased a Kent BK8S. Not sure where do they get their knots (seems like Plissoft to be honest) but this brush is very nice. The knot splays nice, no springiness, no lather around and have good backbone. Also no glue bump. And the handle is a typical Kent ergonomic handle.
 
donnie_arko said:
After seeing Boycie's thread about his synth brush choices, I've been thinking about adding another to my selection of brushes. My collection of brushes is a little binary, mainly Omega boars and a few Yaqi synths.

I have a few Yaqi synths, but the ones I use on a regular basis are the 24mm Plissoft bulb knot of theirs, the 24mm bulb Sagrada Tuxedo, and the 26mm bulb Faux Horse Rainbow handle brush. The Plissoft and Tuxedo brushes are fairly similar in the shave, both are excellent all round performers. The Faux Horse knot might be the best performer of the 3, but I find it a touch too large for face lathering. I've got another Yaqi brush, which has a 28mm fan Tuxedo which is a little too much to manage, but I really enjoy the properties of a fan shaped knot, possibly down to my favourite boar brushes largely have a fan shaped knot as well (the Zenith Euro X).

If I had to pick one brush out of the ones I own, I'd pick the Yaqi Sagrada Tuxedo mainly down to the others having handles which are on the larger side of things, I generally prefer smaller handles, again mainly down to being an enthusiast of the small light handles used by Omega/Zenith for their boar brushes.

It's been a few years since I last bought a synth, and since then there have been countless new brushes released, and I know almost nothing about how they perform, I've read some of the G5 style ones are supposed to be trying to recreate the feel of a dense badger brush. Then there are the other types of synths, Synbad, Cashmere to name a few, I've read good things about the Synbad seemingly the favourite synth of a few here.

So, I'd like something with a fan shaped knot, sized 24mm or so and that doesn't have a huge glue bump (like a number of Yaqi brushes I have bought).

What should I go for?

Right now, I am leaning towards getting a 24mm Fan Synbad from ApShaveCo. I know this knot is popular with a number of people here. If you were ordering this brush, what loft height would you recommend? I'd be face lathering and using shaving sticks if it's any relevance.

Are there other options I am overlooking? The PAA brushes look nice, the Doppler has something that looks like the Synbad knot but a touch larger than I'd like that.

Sorry chaps, I seem to have written a minor essay. So if you have made it this far, thanks for taking the time to do so, and I apologise for robbing of vital moments of your life that could have been spent looking at nature websites involving a letter towards the end of the alphabet and Hamster.
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I promised you a brush a long, long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). I will finally make good on that promise once my pension lands. Plain, hand-carved beech wood with a 27mm Boti N3C bulb knot. It’s a G5 going by the texture pre-use and quite a pointy bulb. I can’t guarantee you’ll like it but it’s been marked as yours since @Satanfriendly first discovered Japanese girl bands. My apologies are profuse and profound; my excuses pure pish.

Bad Gairdner
 
There was a guy over on ATG a few years back that was seeking the ultimate Cashmere brush and left no stone unturned in his quest to the extent that he bought different knots and set them temporarily to experimental heights to purportedly find the perfect "Goldilocks zone". It was an exhaustive project to say the least. I have set one synth knot myself to what I thought would be perfect height......and I was wrong. I set it too damn deep. Oh it works, but I almost never use it.

My point is that every YaQi synth brush/knot I own can all give the same results which are far more dependent upon me. A few are "scritchier", but I quit chasing that rainbow awhile back. I quit looking for problems for my purported solutions you might say.

In the end it's your money. ;)
 
Gairdner said:
I promised you a brush a long, long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). I will finally make good on that promise once my pension lands. Plain, hand-carved beech wood with a 27mm Boti N3C bulb knot. It’s a G5 going by the texture pre-use and quite a pointy bulb. I can’t guarantee you’ll like it but it’s been marked as yours since @Satanfriendly first discovered Japanese girl bands. My apologies are profuse and profound; my excuses pure pish.

Bad Gairdner
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Hello Graeme, thanks for the reply and no worries at all. I'm always amazed at the generosity in this little pocket of the internet!
 
Bogeyman said:
There was a guy over on ATG a few years back that was seeking the ultimate Cashmere brush and left no stone unturned in his quest to the extent that he bought different knots and set them temporarily to experimental heights to purportedly find the perfect "Goldilocks zone". It was an exhaustive project to say the least. I have set one synth knot myself to what I thought would be perfect height......and I was wrong. I set it too damn deep. Oh it works, but I almost never use it.

My point is that every YaQi synth brush/knot I own can all give the same results which are far more dependent upon me. A few are "scritchier", but I quit chasing that rainbow awhile back. I quit looking for problems for my purported solutions you might say.

In the end it's your money. ;)
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On B&B someone posted a screenshot of their conversation with Yaqi that they used two fibres for all their knots but they had been dyed differently. They can all make great brushes, but from my experience some of them had glue bumps that were so high they were near enough unusable.
 
donnie_arko said:
On B&B someone posted a screenshot of their conversation with Yaqi that they used two fibres for all their knots but they had been dyed differently. They can all make great brushes, but from my experience some of them had glue bumps that were so high they were near enough unusable.
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I believe that.

Bumps never bothered me.

 
Well, I have 2 WCS synthetic brushes and both of them are excellent for bowl lathering. Very soft on the face with good backbone and do a great job with soft/creme soaps. I wish I'd tried them earlier.
 
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