Anything that can go wrong will happen while I'm shaving...

Hey Paul, nothing wrong with reloading! We've all done it and I do it frequently with some of the boars that are still breaking in. But I know next to nothing about badgers, having only the T1 Manchurian from M. Trotter. Maybe Stubble Daddy and Dave in KY can chime in with their combined decades of experience! HighSpeed and Fluffy should swing by too and toss us some pearls of wisdom (sorry Paul, that last makes us out to be swine, I think, the old "casting your pearls before swine"   no offense meant, buddy!)
 
My only thought is about hard water, which I have. So I add a "pinch" of citric acid crystals to the basin of water and that is what the brush is dipped in as I load up. 
Hang in there, bud; that knot looks great in that handle and we ought to get it working well for ya!

mrdoug, I feel your pain. I've tried several badgers over the years and the results have always been the same. They've all been very greedy brushes. I load and load but they just won't give up the lather. In fact, they seem to drink it down. But I love the flow-through of my synths and boar brushes!

mrdoug,  I feel your pain. I've tried several badgers over the years and the results have always been the same. They've all been very greedy brushes. I load and load but they just won't give up the lather. In fact, they seem to drink it down. But I love the flow-through of my synths and boar brushes!

This is a very helpful post. Speaking selfishly (since I am about to change the topic!), how do I join the Loyal Order of Overlanders?  

mrdoug,  I feel your pain. I've tried several badgers over the years and the results have always been the same. They've all been very greedy brushes. I load and load but they just won't give up the lather. In fact, they seem to drink it down. But I love the flow-through of my synths and boar brushes!

This is a very helpful post. Speaking selfishly (since I am about to change the topic!), how do I join the Loyal Order of Overlanders?  

Oh, wouldn't an Overlander Order be grand! I think you can just pop that in your byline and you're good to go!

I have lathered it a few more times, just to get it some nutrients, maybe. Then I lathered some hair conditioner. It's definitely a good nutrient feed. Also, most hair conditioners have some sort of chemical to coat the hair so it doesn't split. While Badgers supposedly don't split like Boars, this will hopefully create a microfilm to allow more lather to stay on the bristles, not in them. 

With a shot.

So I used the Silvertip this evening. It was ok, but not great.

It was soft... pillow soft. However, despite loading and loading and loading, I couldn't get enough lather out of it. I got 1 good pass and a thin weak lather for the second. For the final pass, I had to reload again.

This is what I feared and why I asked if Badgers needed a break-in. I know Boars 'eat less lather' after you break them in. If this is the best it'll get, I don't know how this is going to work. My gut reaction is  badgers are crap. I can build 6 passes worth in no time with a synth. I can't muster 2 good passes from a badger.

Just not worth using. Sheesh.

There’s something not right going on there. Not sure if it’s water, soap or the brush but I’ve used badgers successfully for years from cheap EJ badger bristles up to two band silver tip etc. What knot are you using? Ive found that the more densely packed badgers (Simpson Chubby 2) can sometimes be problematic but they’re the exception for me. Thaters work well for me.

So I used the Silvertip this evening. It was ok, but not great.

It was soft... pillow soft. However, despite loading and loading and loading, I couldn't get enough lather out of it. I got 1 good pass and a thin weak lather for the second. For the final pass, I had to reload again.

This is what I feared and why I asked if Badgers needed a break-in. I know Boars 'eat less lather' after you break them in. If this is the best it'll get, I don't know how this is going to work. My gut reaction is  badgers are crap. I can build 6 passes worth in no time with a synth. I can't muster 2 good passes from a badger.

Just not worth using. Sheesh.

There’s something not right going on there. Not sure if it’s water, soap or the brush but I’ve used badgers successfully for years from cheap EJ badger bristles up to two band silver tip etc. What knot are you using? Ive found that the more densely packed badgers (Simpson Chubby 2) can sometimes be problematic but they’re the exception for me. Thaters work well for me.

It's a basic shaveforge Silvertip.

So I used the Silvertip this evening. It was ok, but not great.

It was soft... pillow soft. However, despite loading and loading and loading, I couldn't get enough lather out of it. I got 1 good pass and a thin weak lather for the second. For the final pass, I had to reload again.

This is what I feared and why I asked if Badgers needed a break-in. I know Boars 'eat less lather' after you break them in. If this is the best it'll get, I don't know how this is going to work. My gut reaction is  badgers are crap. I can build 6 passes worth in no time with a synth. I can't muster 2 good passes from a badger.

Just not worth using. Sheesh.

There’s something not right going on there. Not sure if it’s water, soap or the brush but I’ve used badgers successfully for years from cheap EJ badger bristles up to two band silver tip etc. What knot are you using? Ive found that the more densely packed badgers (Simpson Chubby 2) can sometimes be problematic but they’re the exception for me. Thaters work well for me.

It's a basic shaveforge Silvertip.

I checked out the Shaveforge website. Lots of knots for very reasonable prices. I wonder if you just got one from a bad batch.

There’s something not right going on there. Not sure if it’s water, soap or the brush but I’ve used badgers successfully for years from cheap EJ badger bristles up to two band silver tip etc. What knot are you using? Ive found that the more densely packed badgers (Simpson Chubby 2) can sometimes be problematic but they’re the exception for me. Thaters work well for me.

It's a basic shaveforge Silvertip.

I checked out the Shaveforge website. Lots of knots for very reasonable prices. I wonder if you just got one from a bad batch.

It's possible. I'm hoping it's just quite dehydrated and after some rehydration it'll get better.

If you think about hair, if someone tells you you're hair is dry and brittle, you don't just get it wet to solve the problem. You need a moisturizer, with vitamins to rebuild the hair (I'm looking at your Pantene commercial, lol).

Guess we'll know soon enough.

I wouldn't write off badgers Paul.  Better to try different tactics.  I have moved from floppy to stiffer badgers over time, and based on occasional vendor comments, I think that is a common trend.  Fortunately, you don't have to use a single brush in this day and age, and softer badgers can have advantages.  I use my softer brushes with creams and croaps.  I have at times (but not recently) gripped the the knot part-way up the loft, which effectively stiffens some of the bristles.  I imagine this was easier to do back in grandpa's day, when knot diameters and handles may often have been smaller, but in this day and age, I view it as a last resort while traveling or a ticket to be punched.  

BTW, I saw MaineYooper's call-out yesterday, and I am sorry to take so long to respond.  I also haven't read through the whole thread because we have a lot cooking here.  The main thing is a new computer arrived (after a two month wait), and I need to clean some crap out of the old Kernel and move my home folder before upgrading.  Notwithstanding the fact that backups are our friend, it is edging closer to white-knuckle time here at Casa HighSpeed.  BTW there is a rumor going around that we own our computers.  Don't believe it; the other way round makes more sense.