Morris & Forndran shaving brushes

I'm not here to make excuses for Lee, he'll have to do that for himself, if he cares enough to do so.
I've also heard people dripping venom for years on the boards about his business practices .. It doesn't seem to faze him, and that's good, IMHO.
He may have alot on his plate .. he singlehandedly resurrected two venerable British brands, and brought their names back to the prominence they deserve. He backs up his names also. I had a brush that was a slight shedder. He promptly put a new knot in that brush, and made me another at no charge!

I'm not going to rush to judgement on the myriad of new brushmakers, either pro or con, but they have to prove themselves to me first .. the way Lee Sabini has.

Just one man's opinion ..

Yeah, he's an eccentric guy, no doubt. I think of him as wet shaving's version of the soup nazi. Honestly, his brushes are responsible for turning me into a brush geek a few years ago. I would be embarrassed to admit how many hours I have spent digging through old forum posts trying to learn about all the different models and making sense of the old legendary knot batches. And of course the famous M&F threads were the highlight of the brush forums for a long time. If you ask me about my favorite brushes, they are pretty much all from Lee Sabini's brush companies.
But all of that said, he doesn't reply to any of my emails, except for one time in 2014. That's once in probably 20 emails. I feel the frustration just like many others, and really can't justify it. It is such a pleasure buying brushes from the other brush companies that are truly outstanding in their service. Simpson, Shavemac, Paladin, etc. I do hope Lee continues to produce brushes for a long time, and will always be thankful for the ones in my collection from his efforts. But I will not defend his poor customer service. He really should have figured out a better system after all these years.

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said and his brushes from a few years ago where the best I have ever seen and used. They were magnificent and he had a talent when it came to setting knots into his handles.

I wish I would have kept a few of the older ones I had in my possession, but I was a newbie and naive. Nonetheless, I still enjoy the sole remaining one and it is a wonderful brush/knot and a joy to use.

Of course I wish Lee ran a business with a website like Paladin, with the super fast responsiveness of Mark Waterson from Simpson and the customization of Bernd from Shavemac, who doesn't? However, this is not the case. Unfortunately, you can't dictate how another man runs his business, and If he just wants to stay small, and snub the majority of his potential customers and many of his loyal customers as well, I guess that is his decision and his alone to make. I do not condone it, but it seems to be the business model Lee is working with. I wonder how many emails the poor man gets on a daily basis from all of us brush addicts? I'll bet it is an insane number. I for one, like shevek, prize his work with Rooney and early M&F above all other brushes. I wish the man well, he has definitely left his mark in the world of wet shaving, a REALLY BIG mark, and for that I thank him.

Of course I wish Lee ran a business with a website like Paladin, with the super fast responsiveness of Mark Waterson from Simpson and the customization of Bernd from Shavemac, who doesn't? However, this is not the case. Unfortunately, you can't dictate how another man runs his business, and If he just wants to stay small, and snub the majority of his potential customers and many of his loyal customers as well, I guess that is his decision and his alone to make. I do not condone it, but it seems to be the business model Lee is working with. I wonder how many emails the poor man gets on a daily basis from all of us brush addicts? I'll bet it is an insane number. I for one, like shevek, prize his work with Rooney and early M&F above all other brushes. I wish the man well, he has definitely left his mark in the world of wet shaving, a REALLY BIG mark, and for that I thank him.

You're right, he's going to run his business his way and it's his right to do so. I can't get all that upset, given how much I enjoy my Rooney and M&F brushes. And when I did have the chance to buy from him, he was very friendly. It is what it is

i have some older morris + forndran brushes, i don't think i have any of those first ones that are LEGENDARY... but the ones i have i adore. the current ones are great, too, but badger hair is badger hair - which is to say that it all varies wildly and consistency is difficult at best.

Never replied to me as well. Oh well, I'd rather support those who need my support anyway.

There are so many great new brush makers, M&F is just one more.  Before?  Sure, but now you can get brushes from other makers just as good or even better.

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.

I'm so glad that you can share your honest thoughts here. I appreciate them. Hopefully this forum is a place where that can happen, as so far, I've been enjoying it.

I tried emailing Lee as well and I failed and had an experience with someone that reached out to me for him. He seems to make brushes for big group buys that I can tell. After reading some information from Ken about Lee' and quality control, I decided not to partake in the group buy and went another direction because I did not want to pay that much for a low quality knot, even if it did say Morris and Forndran on the handle.

I decided like you, to go with Shavemac and at this time, I have three very nice Shavemac brushes (one is a custom from Rudy Vey) that I cannot imagine an M&F being any better than. Shavemac is awesome.

I respect everyone's views and understand differentiating view points. I have seen these boards light up with excitement when Lee is responding to emails. I have bought a dozen give or take brushes from Lee in the past year , all have been exceptional. I've never encontoured a faulty knot , and all knots had very soft luxurious hair. Lee has been responsible for the most legendary brushes in the shaving business (imo) and if there are times where he is a bit harder to reach I can respect that. For me what adds to the excitement of purchasing a Morris & Forndran brush is the emails, the response , the shipping , and finally laying eyes on one of the most beautiful brushes you can buy. Just wanted to add my experiences over the years to this conversation. I hope everyone continues to enjoy there experiences within the hobby and community.