Morris & Forndran shaving brushes

Sorry for this I know this is a very old thread but I've been trying to get hold of lee's email to no avail, can someone be so king to give me his email? Thanks.

When is the last time anyone heard from Lee? I use to be able to get a hold of Lee without too much trouble, but now it has been over a year without any response.

Michael

I have heard from others that Lee has fallen off the map and is even less responsive than prior. I like his knots but there are so many brush makers producing great stuff (Wiborg, Shavemac, etc.) that communicate well that I have moved on in trying to get a return note.

Good luck and keep us posted!

I think Lee's reclusive nature is part of his appeal ... or mystique, if you will..

Today, most anyone can simply turn a handle similar to one of Lee's, but getting that Blonde Badger knot is another ball of wax altogether. I've got four Morris & Forndran brushes, and would not trade them for anything.

I think it's worth waiting for Lee to obtain one!

I have a few with the nice old knots, not the new knots. I don't like the new knots, something is lacking.

Whether or not the brushes are nice or worth waiting for, I won't be getting one, even though I've had an interest in M&F for some time now. When I finally managed to get ahold of Lee, and after he sent me a few pictures of a brush and quoted me a price, he completely ignored my follow up question in an email and I haven't heard from him since. I find this exceptionally rude.

For me, if an artisan doesn't have time to answer simple questions, I'd rather not give him/her my custom. Customer service is too important to me, and when I compare this lack of a response with the extraordinarily prompt and detailed email replies from companies like Above the Tie, Mystic Water, and Barrister & Mann, M&F simply isn't worth my time. What if I get a brush and the knot happens to fall out during the first use? Disappearing acts do not inspire confidence.

I'll deal with people who are polite enough to reply to my emails.

Whether or not the brushes are nice or worth waiting for, I won't be getting one, even though I've had an interest in M&F for some time now. When I finally managed to get ahold of Lee, and after he sent me a few pictures of a brush and quoted me a price, he completely ignored my follow up question in an email and I haven't heard from him since. I find this exceptionally rude.

For me, if an artisan doesn't have time to answer simple questions, I'd rather not give him/her my custom. Customer service is too important to me, and when I compare this lack of a response with the extraordinarily prompt and detailed email replies from companies like Above the Tie, Mystic Water, and Barrister & Mann, M&F simply isn't worth my time. What if I get a brush and the knot happens to fall out during the first use? Disappearing acts do not inspire confidence.

I'll deal with people who are polite enough to reply to my emails.

Interesting.......But I won't scold you over it  I guess we all have our brush makers that have hiccups here and there.  Yes, and he is famous for that, lol.....

I am not polite and don't reply to emails, it is called retirement.

I have five and would agree his knots from a few years ago were the best. I haven't tried contacting him in 2 or three years but he has made some wonderful brushes.

I used to called Lee the Hemingway of Brushes, in exile from the brush world. LOL......

I have heard from others that Lee has fallen off the map and is even less responsive than prior. I like his knots but there are so many brush makers producing great stuff (Wiborg, Shavemac, etc.) that communicate well that I have moved on in trying to get a return note.

Good luck and keep us posted!

I'm mildly warned on another shaving forum against posting my honest thoughts on M&F brushes, but I will give my honest opinion here.

If any mods feels this is too much of a personal attack against Lee Whodini, then I will edit this post or remove it completely.

In my view the best M&F brushes I have bought from Lee was the ones, that came from an old stock from a shaving shop in the US, Classic Shaving, where a bunch of Simpson Chubby like 2-banders with extreme density popped up out of nowhere.

They were pricey as heck, stout, fat and dense like no tomorrow, and I sold one of them to Merkur Man and the other to a guy called Bob, also a member on the forums.

I believe they had genuine Finest Rooney hair in the knots and they performed CRAZY GOOD.

But they were extreme dense and the 32-33 mm I sold, because it was just too much badger.
The 29mm I sold to Merkur Man, because he gave me an offer I could not refuse.

I will not bash these great brushes, because they were just simply outstanding brushes.

Then I ordered some in 2013 directly from Lee Whodini, and at first he responded within 1 month, then - when I became a regular customer - he responded within days. I bought 8-10 M&F's from him, the first were the best - the last brushes began to suffer quality wise, the quality of the knot was slipping and desnity started to lack IMHO

Still fine brushes, but the communication with Lee was always a problem.

At first I had to accept it, because I was a rookie and I knew this is how he is.

But at one point his replies to my emails were almost non existing. He normally would send me a photo of a handle or a brush he had for sale.
He even made me 5 brushes from scratch, based on my custom specifications.

But all of a sudden, he would reply to my email, then not send a photo, and not get back to me, then after a month or two I would all of a sudden get a reply from him.

Frankly this was at that time I had enough of this man. I know he runs it alone, and he is not IT savy and all, but come on - you can at least make sure to care for your returning old regular customers and not ignore them !

At that point I had dealt with Bernd from Shavemac, and he would reply to my emails within a day or two max.
I could order a brush, and have it within a week. The quality of Shavemac brushes - IMHO - now is a step above the current M&F brushes I have tried and seen.

I also could ask Mark at Simpson, and get a reply back shortly. Within the same day sometimes.

My final last try to deal with Lee Whodini was late last year 2015, and I won't go into further details here, but it was just so obvious the man either just does not care for certain of his regular customers, even us who have treated Lee with the upmost respect.

I can't respect that. So I have chosen to boycot the brand.

This is why I don't own a Paladin brush. As soon as Ken starts to use other knots I'm in.

But I will never have an M&F knot in my house again, because of the way Lee has treated me, a loyal regular customer of his.

This is why I have sold all my M&F's.

But to this day, I still rank the Finest M&F 2-band, Merkur Man bought from me, as the best brush I have ever owned.
It cost me $550 with tax and customs in 2013, but MerkurMan made sure I didn't take a loss, when I sold it to him.

I understand why some still love their M&F brushes, but I hope you all will respect my words and my reason for not being interested in this brush brand any longer.

As said, there are now so many other quality brush makers, that you actually can get hold of and communicate with.