Old Town Shaving (Shavemac Brushes Now Available)

Hello members of Damn Fine Shave Forum!

My name is Zac and currently I am the manager of Old Town Shaving. Some of you may know me on a variety of platforms as "zaclikestoshave." We are a brick and mortar store in the city of Pasadena (Los Angeles area). If you are familiar with Southern California, we are very close to the San Gabriel area or along the Foothills. We are located inside of another business called STATS Floral Supply.  We have been open since Winter of 2013. Currently we have two rooms stocked with a variety of grooming supplies and shaving products. We have had lots of people visit from cities not too far away, folks visiting from out of state and some coming from overseas.

Here is a recent video we did so you can drag and look around as if you are walking through our shop with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-2JXQsP0h0

I wanted to reach out and start a thread on DFS because some of you may not know of us. We primarily serve customers in store but also send out orders. We currently have some of the more popular items available through our website. You can also email us or call us and we can answer questions about products we carry. We then can pack them up and ship them out if you are within the US. I am happy to take your feedback on anything that would help us better serve you.

Feel free to private message or comment below if you have any questions.

My best regards,

Zachery Hould
Manager
Old Town Shaving

I love Old Town Shaving. Ordered hard to get stuff from you guys in 2016!

Welcome!

Thanks for the intro.

I enjoy your website, Zac, especially your honest reviews of products you carry. Keep up the good work!

Welcome to DFS as a merchant, Zac.

Zac, welcome!

Very nice to have you here, welcome!

Thank you to grim , PickledNorthern , CCity , Freddy , SoapSmooth , and Matsilainen for your welcoming responses. They are greatly appreciated!

In regards to CCity , I will let the owner of OTS, Damon Stathatos, know that you enjoyed his reviews on the website. He is the one who created and manages the website.

Before you see all the fun pictures below, I can assure you all that after receiving the news of Martin De Candre producing two new scents, Rose and Vetiver, that we are already in the middle of placing our order to get them in stock. I will do my best to keep you updated on when we will be getting our shipment in.

I wanted to share what we got in earlier this week. On Monday, we received our shipment from Bernd Blos in Germany. These Shavemac brushes are a result of lots of emailing back and fourth but it was definitely worth the effort. My requirements to Bernd were to offer 2 distinctly different brush knots.

The first shot is a variety of three different handle shapes in a few different resin types. This is a 26mm (most measure above 26.5mm) knot diameter and with a loft at around 52mm. These are filled with grade of D01 Silvertip 3 band badger and are very nice for those wanting something firm to massage the face with.

Personally, I am not a user of very dense badger brushes and although these particularly are very pointed at the tip, they do open up slightly just outside of the tip top. I am very tempted to see how one of these breaks in and performs after 40-50 lathers.



The second group shot is the Silvertip 2 band knots. These were what Bernd suggested when I told him I wanted to offer a brush that had softness (gel tips after break in, around 5 to 10 uses) at the tips or face of the brush and great flow through release of the lather. These are still bulb shaped knots but they offer a bit of a flatter face in comparison to the 3 band D01 Silvertips above. These are 25.5mm knot diameter and about 52mm loft (some slightly smaller, ex. 51.7mm, some 53mm). I bring this up to offer if someone wants to really see exactly what they are getting, I am able to take pictures of a specific brush, get them the exact measurements, and do my best to offer them the best experience buying a quality badger brush.

These knots are very nice and offer a bit of resistance at the face of the breach and even after placing pressure behind the knot, you get a nice, balanced spring. These are of medium density feel very pleasant when you get the hair spreading out using back an fourth painting strokes. It does not splay out and bloom like fan but the badger hair does move slightly and compact into a flatter half circle as it's pulled across the skin.



Here is a close up of the D01 Silvertip 3 band knot and it's density.



Here is a close up to see the difference in density of the Silvertip 2 band knot.



When I was choosing the handle shapes, I wanted to first choose based on the ergonomics and then go based on which resins looked most appealing with those handles. The chosen handle shapes are #167, #173, and #386.

I describe the handle shape of #167 as "Groove". It has a nice heft and width as well as a nice notch to rest the thumb in a variety of positions. Here is a companion shot of the #167 in black resin with both Silvertip 2 band and D01 Silvertip 3 band knots. This shape is offered in Jade (mixed with a soft brown) and Faux Ivory.



The second handle is #173 which I call "Facet Octagon". This is a bit of a showpiece in the Blue Marble Resin. It has a bit of a curve to allow the fingers to rest in. This handle shape is available in Blue Marble, Black and Butterscotch. Here is a example of the compared knots.







The last handle is #386 is similar to some of the more recent synthetics available this year. I call it "Concave" and find it to be very comfortable to hold. This is very nice especially in the D01 Silvertip 3 band as it is very hefty in the hand. This handle is offered in Blue Marble, Black, and Butterscotch.







So again, it would be my pleasure to help anyone who wishes to inquire and ask about the available brushes. I can promise to make sure you get the exact brush you'd like.

Feel free to let me know what you guys think and if you have any questions, post a comment or PM me directly.

My best regards,

Zachery Hould
Manager
Old Town Shaving at STATS

Folks have been saying I should give Martin de Candre a try.  The Rose just might put me over the top and give it a try, though the glass jar leaves some doubt.  (wet hands, a hard sink, a hard floor )

Did they go back to glass? I read they switched to hard plastic Freddy.

Same dimensions and lid. Clear plastic.

I'm not sure about the two new scents though.

Regarding the Shavemac brushes;
OldTownShaving are these knots and handles different from ordering directly from Shavemac? Can't we get the same brushes on their website?