Question about synthetics

The surface treating (nanoparticles, etching, etc) of each fiber It's the next big thing that hopefully will find it's way to synthetic shaving brushes.

With a rugged surface the mechanical proprieties will be even closer to the natural fibers.
Without the cons of the naturals, unpredictable and expencive.

I've recently spent a lot of time learning about synthetic knots in preparation to bring some new ones to market. My take is that there is so much variability in preferences that no one can make a definitive statement about whether synthetics are better than a badger knot.

The synthetics industry does a lot of R&D. I think of there being generations of knots that have incremental improvements. Several years ago, improvements were made that generated knots people would use, which was followed by incremental knots so that synthetics became really popular. These brushes have pricing that is very reasonable and have shown incremental improvements. To me the best of that generation was the Simpson Trafalgar.

A year or so ago they came out with the latest generation. These are knots like the GC5 and similar ones. For me, they are noticeably better than the previous generation. The difference being improvements in the combo of softer tips and good backbone. My personal preference is that these are starting to really give great badgers a run for their money. I'll touch bases back to my earlier comment that there is a lot of variability in preferences. I think there are plenty of folks that would consider Badgers better.

Now there are knots that combine synthetic and badger fibers. I thought this sounded like marketing BS. Then, I got Richman Shaving's Innovater knot. I like a combo of good backbone and soft tips. My issue with badgers is that I've bought a bunch of them and have two that are really good in both of these aspects. The Innovaters have very good tip softness and backbone and every knot is consistent.

Right now, the Innovater is the best knot I've personally tried. It's better than most recent generation GC5 synthetic knot, though they are close. I'll also say that I have no problem using a $15 synthetic knot. The latest ones are better, though not 'must haves' for those with a budget.

Which is the GC5 knot ?
Is it the G5C ( made in Japan) knot from AP shave Co. ?

My personal favorite synthetic brushes are
the :

1) Muhle Silvertip Fibre v2 ( STF 2 ) at 23 or 25 mm .
A great knot for bowl/mug lathering of hot water bloomed
Italian ,triple-milled ,non-tallow soaps ;-)

2 ) Omega EVO ,for face lathering the soft ,tallow-based croaps .

3 ) A.Simpson's Trafalgar T2 ,for face lathering
those "harder-than-croap" shaving soaps.

About the SynBad - I like the appearance (even though it looks nothing like a badger), but I find that it has too much splay for my tastes.

Which is the GC5 knot ?
Is it the G5C ( made in Japan) knot from AP shave Co. ?

My personal favorite synthetic brushes are
the :

1) Muhle Silvertip Fibre v2 ( STF 2 ) at 23 or 25 mm .
A great knot for bowl/mug lathering of hot water bloomed
Italian ,triple-milled ,non-tallow soaps ;-)

The G5C is the APShaveCo knot... Last I'd heard, and I could be wrong, but I thought Rudy Vey made mention that there was no V2 for the Muhle STF. Its exactly the same knot he'd been buying and selling for quite some time.

Synthetics are great because they’re designed to be super easy and work really well. Those that prefer natural hair that I’ve talked to have told me they prefer a few things

1) The heat retention of natural hair tends to be better generally.

2) The art of building a lather with natural hair can be fun. Synthetics are so easy some people find them boring

3) The process of breaking in a natural hair brush can also be something users look forward to, whereas a synthetic brush doesn’t give you that journey

I think the new gen of synthetics have made these arguments a little less convincing, but still interesting.

Well ,I happen to have two EJ STF XL ( 5EJ ) brushes  that were produced  some years apart.

The older EJ STF brush is DEFINITELY different than the newer.
The fibers on the older brush have a more yellow / hay tint on their lower white part,
while on the newer one that "zone" is clearly more "white" .

The older brush sometimes is  " stinging " ,while the newer has so soft fiber tips that I can't get enough of it.
The older brush has definitely more "springy" knot ,with a bit more backbone than the newer brush.

I do not trust Muhle .
Do not forget that for Muhle there are not any different Rocca versions ,also.
While ,we all have seen at least three different "updates" of that razor.
Same thing happened with R41 .Over the years the beast was tamed at it's birth.
There are at least three known different variations of the ZAMAK R41,with the most recent one having
less than the 0.3mm blade exposure ,the post-2011 model had.

The STF v1 is long gone.
It 's been almost a decade ago that became obsolete.

AP Shaveco sells the CG5 knots, though it isn't an APShaveco knot.  I find the GC5 knot to have softer tips with less scratchiness than the Trafalgar.

Well ,I happen to have two EJ STF XL ( 5EJ ) brushes  that were produced  some years apart.

The older EJ STF brush is DEFINITELY different than the newer.
The fibers on the older brush have a more yellow / hay tint on their lower white part,
while on the newer one that "zone" is clearly more "white" .

The older brush sometimes is  " stinging " ,while the newer has so soft fiber tips that I can't get enough of it.
The older brush has definitely more "springy" knot ,with a bit more backbone than the newer brush.

I do not trust Muhle .
Do not forget that for Muhle there are not any different Rocca versions ,also.
While ,we all have seen at least three different "updates" of that razor.
Same thing happened with R41 .Over the years the beast was tamed at it's birth.
There are at least three known different variations of the ZAMAK R41,with the most recent one having
less than the 0.3mm blade exposure ,the post-2011 model had.

The STF v1 is long gone.
It 's been almost a decade ago that became obsolete.

I need to clarify what I said about the GC5 being sold by AP Shave Co, but not being an AP Shave Co knot.  Here's the clarification.  I don't know where APS sources their knots.  There is a knot manufacturer that markets a knot which they call the GC5.  I don't know if they are the same knots.