I made a video w/ a tip for breaking in boar brushes very quickly

You can view the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj_yK3f1...e=youtu.be

Some users on the wicked_edge subreddit have experienced some great results using this method. Let me know what you think

Antica Barbiera Colla said that their boar brushes can be soaked for 3 days upon arrival. Refrigerator for 2 evening is interesting even though I already have a well broken in 830 Semogue.

Great video Derek. Cheers!

Thanks for the heads up regarding Antica Barbiera Colla. I can't believe that I've never heard this tip until just recently.

Thanks for the video! I'm going to try this with my new Stirling boar brush. I'll report back here with the results.

i've heard nothing but great things about stirlings new boar brushes. let me know how it goes!

Very interesting method and thank you for the video.

Interesting video -- thanks for posting. I'm all boar, all the time. I've been alternating between an Omega 10049 and the even bigger 10098 for several years. Honestly, I don't remember the break-in period, but they're both nicely broken-in now.  

What I do is I rinse it really well and strop it on a towel. That gets the split ends really fast and omegas take a long time to break in whereas the Semogue happens very quickly. I also use a Sriracha Japanese herb Bowl and that accelerates the process really quickly some people will actually soap their Boars in hair conditioner haven't tried that yet

Ok, so I tried this with my new Stirling boar brush and my results were not as good. It did break in a little bit more but not to the extent of your Semogue. What is more troubling to me though is that I discovered that a lot of the hairs in this knot are UPSIDE DOWN. These hairs will never break in and develop split ends. It may be hard to see in the pictures, but all of the ones you see with a brown dot on the tip are the culprits. This coupled with the fact that this brush has probably shed about 30+ hairs and continues to makes me think that it's not such a great knot after all. I really do love the handle though. I may have to reknot it at some point. Any good suggestions for a stand alone boar knot?

Wow, wyze0ne, not cool that the knot has such a large amount of permanent scritch-inflictors… Reviews on Stirling’s web page for the brush indicate that shedding is a common occurrence with these brushes, although most users still seem to enjoy the brush overall.

It's not easy to find reviews about aftermarket boar knots. I’ve seen one very favorable review for the Whipped Dog boar knot. I would imagine that The Golden Nib also sells a decent boar. You could always buy a plastic handle boar brush like an Omega, and break the handle to extract the knot. Recently saw a video where I guy extracts a knot in probably less than 30 seconds, but couldn’t find the link right now.