Dont get the love from boar

I love my boar brushes. Semogue or Omega makes no difference to me. It might be my water or that I broke in the brushes lathering in a fairly abrasive dirty bird scuttle but they produce a beautiful lather for as many passes as I want. They’re soft on the face but have plenty of backbone. I know that boars are a love it or hate it brush and I’m squarely in the love it camp.

I’m primarily a badger brush user with boars second. I almost never use synthetics. When I starting, synthetic brushes were inferior and even though they’ve improved tremendously and I can get a great lather with them They just don’t appeal to me.

I have a Semogue 610 that was a Christmas gift in 2016. I’m guessing it has about 50-60 shaves on it. I keep trying to use it to see what all fuss is about and I just don’t get it. It needs to be reloaded at least once every shave, the lather takes at least twice as long to make as my synthetics,  and face feel is no where near as luxurious as my synthetics.
Should I try a 1305, 830, or SOC before totally writing off the boar thing?

No you should not waste your time and money chasing rainbows.  I know that's harsh but the 610 is a reference standard in boar brushes.  Your trials are defining what you prefer, run with that.

Full disclosure: the 610 is one of the finest brushes I own.  Ruined it washing it in some fancy shampoo my wife has and immediately replaced it with a 1470.  The 1470 is the wood handle equivalent.  Could not 'boar' to be without it.  hehehe  Here's why:



That's the 1470 inaugural run - on Williams BTW.

God bless ya' whether you love boars or hate them.  I have tried hard off and on to love boars, but I don’t. I have not given up on them, but nowadays I only work with boars when things are slow - very slow.

I get all the backbone I need from two bands, with plenty of scrub, no scritch, no (or almost no) break-in, and some pretty lush tips.   The three two band silvertips I own are to-die-for lush.  Prices for good copies of these brushes have come way down.  Stirling, Yaqi, Maggard, DScosmetic, and perhaps others all have fine offerings for under $30.00 USD. (DScosmetic has crap quality control for the labeling on the handles, but the handles do hold the knots, and the knots are great.  Stirling calls their knots "Finest", but the two I have look and act like two band knots; they are under $30 on sale and under $40 at full price.)

I like synths too.  As others have pointed out, synths have come a long way.  Synths are great for traveling but except for that, I still seem to reach for a badger, and almost always a two band, or two band silvertip.

I have a Stirling and Omega Boar. The Stirling did break in faster than the Omega. It does take a longer time to make a Boar soft. When new, I do a 3 day cold soak in the refrigerator, followed by a soak in diluted shampoo water, followed by brushing it on denim and in a stone bowl while watching TV. IMHO the Boar is a "niche" brush. I use it exclusively on hard pucks and some soaps, which work great. Never with creams, since synthetics are instantaneous lather monsters with creams (and many do not have the backbone for hard pucks and some harder soaps). Most badgers are softer, more utilitarian, and can be used with almost any creams and soaps.

I've tried a few boar brushes, and found the Omega professional to work the best for me. It's a pretty cheap brush too. I have a few semogue brushes that I can't get to work well for me. I think it has to do with the thickness of the bristles. The Omega bristles seems to be thinner than the Semogue brushes I have. The Omega broke in pretty fast for me.

When I started, I knew I wanted to get a synthetic but the one I wanted wasn't sold here in Canada so I needed something cheap to tide me over until my online order for the synth from TheHandleBarSupply arrived. As the rest of my gear was being bought at the bricks & mortar Men Essentials shaving shop in Toronto (since RIP!), I got literally the cheapest boar brush possible, a $5 Vie-Long 0159 boar brush they stocked and had on sale. Being new, I didn't have anything to compare it to but it did the job - though in the 15 shaves I did with it before my synth arrived, the bristles did not split and the brush looked rather anemic. My synth was beautiful, nice and soft, easy to use, painted on lather softly & smoothly, just great. And for the next 2 years of near-daily shaves,, my synth was the only brush I used. But, earlier this year, it started to shed bristles and a month or two later, clumps of bristles were coming out on a daily basis. I have an identical (NIB) spare on hand but I happened to see a post about getting boar brushes to split their tips by putting them in a glass of water in the fridge overnight - so I tried it. Did it twice to get it nice. Looks better - more mushroom cloud like now - and it loads and lathers like a champ now.

So since April, I have been using my boar exclusively, and loving it. It does shed about 1 bristle a day, but then again it was a $5 brush. If/when it lets go completely, or cumulative bristle loss is affecting things I will put my new synth into service. Sure, I'd of course like to try a fancier higher quality boar brush, or a horse hair or blended bristle, or a badger, but I have no urge to go out and spend money on them. Perhaps it's a case of "don't know what you're missing until you try it" because I'm quite happy shaving with what I've got.

I like synth, badger, and boar. Not a horse fan though. But this is a thread about boar. I own several Semogues and Omegas and love them all. It's shocking how different the two brands behave but both get the job done with aplomb. Boar demands I use more product (but that's not going to cause a shortage). There is a lengthy break-in which I suspect might stymie some. It seems inevitable that I have to pluck out a few really coarse hairs from a new knot but in the end I find face feel to be very soft. I also find a boar knot to be esthetically pleasing. Can't imagine not having a choice of a boar for my morning shave. In fact my bride of 31 years, after having free access to my brushes, has unequivocally settled on an omega pro as her favorite.

Lipripper, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. PM me your address and I’ll be happy to send you this godforsaken pos.

Ha! Just realized I had already posted to this thread.

I bought an Omega pro from another member here pre-broken in and it's great. Just used it today.