Boar, Synthetic, and Badger?

What is your preference?

Why?

What is your GRAIL BRUSH?

I have all three and use them for different purposes.

The synthetic I currently have is relegated to my travel kit because it drys quickly.

The boar I have is my most used brush, ten years old and wonderfully broken in. I use it to face lather hard and soft soaps (croaps).

The badger is used for hot lather shaves with cremes and very soft soaps that would overload a boar brush, and usually with a lather bowl. It works best when my beard is light and I don't need to work the lather in.

The boar is my favorite. It has the softest tips and I enjoy a good face scrub especially if my beard is more than two days old.

I have all three and use them for different purposes. 

The synthetic I currently have is relegated to my travel kit because it drys quickly.

The boar I have is my most used brush, ten years old and wonderfully broken in.  I use it to face lather hard and soft soaps (croaps). 

The badger is used for hot lather shaves with cremes and very soft soaps that would overload a boar brush, and usually with a lather bowl.  It works best when my beard is light and I don't need to work the lather in.

The boar is my favorite.  It has the softest tips and I enjoy a good face scrub especially if my beard is more than two days old.

Love your information, learn something.

I have all three and use them for different purposes. 

The synthetic I currently have is relegated to my travel kit because it drys quickly.

The boar I have is my most used brush, ten years old and wonderfully broken in.  I use it to face lather hard and soft soaps (croaps). 

The badger is used for hot lather shaves with cremes and very soft soaps that would overload a boar brush, and usually with a lather bowl.  It works best when my beard is light and I don't need to work the lather in.

The boar is my favorite.  It has the softest tips and I enjoy a good face scrub especially if my beard is more than two days old.

Love your information, learn something.

Thanks. I realize that I forgot to mention my "grail" brush. I don't have it but I aspire to the Semogue Owner's Club boar bristle brush with the butterscotch resin handle. Very handsome and gets good reviews. My only hesitation is that it looks like a larger brush than I would prefer for face lathering.

Anybody who has one like to comment?

I like pretty Handles.?

I like pretty Handles.?

That's as good a reason as any other. 
Find a nice handle (with no knot) and then decide on a knot (maybe from APShaveCo) to put in it. 
Best of both worlds, and it's a one-of-kind.

I like pretty Handles.?

That's as good a reason as any other. 
Find a nice handle (with no knot) and then decide on a knot (maybe from APShaveCo) to put in it. 
Best of both worlds, and it's a one-of-kind.

There is also a brush (I forget who makes it) with interchangeable knots, same handle. It is a metal brush with lots of dots on it.

I like pretty Handles.?

That's as good a reason as any other. 
Find a nice handle (with no knot) and then decide on a knot (maybe from APShaveCo) to put in it. 
Best of both worlds, and it's a one-of-kind.

There is also a brush (I forget who makes it) with interchangeable knots, same handle.  It is a metal  brush with lots of dots on it.

It's made by Tatara. Adjustable as well. Their Sylver synthetic was fantastic in the pass around. Actually, the knots are all Semogue. Both in Portugal and fantastic companies. If I did not have all my brushes, this is the thing I'd go for. One well made brush from two great companies giving me 3 wonderful knots with adjustable lofts.

I have all three and use them for different purposes. 

The synthetic I currently have is relegated to my travel kit because it drys quickly.

The boar I have is my most used brush, ten years old and wonderfully broken in.  I use it to face lather hard and soft soaps (croaps). 

The badger is used for hot lather shaves with cremes and very soft soaps that would overload a boar brush, and usually with a lather bowl.  It works best when my beard is light and I don't need to work the lather in.

The boar is my favorite.  It has the softest tips and I enjoy a good face scrub especially if my beard is more than two days old.

Love your information, learn something.

Thanks.  I realize that I forgot to mention my "grail" brush.  I don't have it but I aspire to the Semogue Owner's Club boar bristle brush with the butterscotch resin handle.  Very handsome and gets good reviews.  My only hesitation is that it looks like a larger brush than I would prefer for face lathering. 

Anybody who has one like to comment?

I have a Semogue Owners Club in cherry and the Taj one in cream resin both boar and they’re great brushes. Not an overly large knot. Smaller than the 2000 and with a little more backbone. I don’t hesitate recommend the SOC for either face or bowl lathering.

Seems the brush is the most personal part of the shaving experience. Synthetic, boar, badger are all brushes I like. Since the Plisson synthetic knot, synths entered the age of usefulness. Compared to pre-Plisson synths which were clumsy and closely related to tooth brushes, these new synths are simply awesome. Synths are predictable knot to knot. Unlike naturals that were made to keep badgers and pigs warm, synths are purpose built for shaving. Short to zero break in time. Crazy durability. And a plethora of shapes, colors, and fibers make synths the likely long-term winner in the shaving brush space and I have MANY, all of which explode lather for a super affordable price. Super easy care may be the biggest super power of synthetic knots.

Boar brushes are just awesome but they are also the most variable of brush knots. The same model from the same maker oftrn vary wildly in face feel and performance. Some boar brushes break in quickly while others seem to resist doing their work. I recall one porcine princess that was beautiful but just wouldn’t lather well and  after a lengthy period of time I chucked it. But when a boar brush is right, it’s really right!  I have a few knots that truly feel like it’s my birthday when I break them out.  I wish I was good at choosing a winner but my program now is to get my handle and set the boar knot with silicone. Use the brush and replace the knot if it’s not performing the way I wish it to.  It’s a fun process made better by my actually liking the funky barnyard scent of new boar bristles. Most knots will settle into very functional brushes. A few will blossom into exceptional brushes, and a few more will be chucked into the garbage. In spite all its variability, I am a huge boar fan.

Badger may be the most controversial for me. Our market for a while seemed to want density over any other characteristic. We stuffed and stuffed until the darned knots got so dense as to feel like lathering with a baseball.  Then came the full press of gel tips, generated through chemical processing of the tips. Soft? Yes, super soft but to me it feels slimy, a feel I don’t enjoy.  I really like badger brushes and would guess most of my brushes are badger but I personally like less density, less backbone, and natural tips. The old school silvertip knots suit me best.

And finally the hobby seems to have decided that only stiff and boney brushes can handle hard soaps.  “Boar” is the best choice for hard pucks. Well, nonsense! I find almost zero difference lathering hard pucks with stiff vs floppy, boar vs badger. In fact if fast lather is your grail then a synth makes the most sense. Another thing we often hear is badger holds heat and water better than other materials ….. which is true I suppose, but the difference in water or heat to my skin seems so inconsequential as to be moot. Synth, boar, and badger all act differently ut none of the differences make any significant benefit to accomplishing a great shave.  Grail brush? Nah, I don’t have one. I have a whole lot of brushes that please me but none I can’t live without.