Recommend a boar brush

After years of using only badger and an occasional synthetic, I just tried my first boar. It's a 10049 Omega. I wasn't expecting to like it. To my great surprise, I love it! It's been soft from the get go and face lathers great. One thing is that it does shed a bit. I've tons of fancy badger brushes. Does anyone make nicer boar brushes? I'd like to find one with a nicer handle. Other than the shedding, I love the knot on the Omega. Any suggestions would be great.

Semogue of Portugal makes some of the best, in my opionion.  Leon (Bruno) of the Vintage Scent is one of our merchants and has one of the finest collections of Semogues.  Prices run from quite reasonable and go up from there.  His site is: http://www.vintagescent.com and I highly recommend it.  Keep in mind that if you do not live in Europe then you will not pay VAT and that will mitigate the cost of shipping.

Remember, there are as many different lofts, backbone feels, handle sizes, etc. as there are with badger brushes so each may impart a slightly different experience.  The choice is yours.

Semogue is always recommended for boar brushes. Anything I've ever heard or read about them has been good as long as you don't mind the breaking in process. I don't actually own one, but have been interested in either the 620 or 830.

I can however recommend an excellent boar that I do have if you like BIG brushes. It's an upgraded version of the Zenith B03-A26. It's that brush minus the metal ring between the knot and handle allowing for a 28mm knot. The loft is about 53-55mm. After being soaked in warm water, it's as soft as anything right out of the box. Never had any funk either. It's huge and it's fun to use, IMO.

Send your Omega Pro #49 to a brush artisan to extract the knot and have them make you the handle of your choice in style and colour.
There are some wonderful artisans, out there, nowadays.

Plenty of good makers of boar brushes.

Semogue makes great boar brushes as well. The Semogue 2000 and 830 are personal favorites of mine. If you want even fancier and can get your hands on some of the Limited Edition stuff, they were/are well worth the price.

Omegas are another personal favorite. Semogue handles typically outshine most of the Omega handles, but since you like the Omega so well, and want something nicer, I suggest this beauty.

[Image: omega-razor-brush-fb-group-special-limit...boar-3.gif]

I love the higher quality handle of this in the colors of the italian flag

It was first introduced as a Limited Edition, but it is also sold as a regular model brush right now. The regular brush model number is 21762. Interestingly enough, you can still purchase the Limited Edition model and it's cheaper than the regular model.

Zenith and an unnamed Indian boar that TSS doesn't seem to sell anymore would be some other choices I'd recommend. The transplant method I would recommend too, but overall I like the instant-see, instant-buy option I guess.  lol

Omegas are cheap, a bit scrubbier, and shed a bit at first. The knot construction leaves a more controlled splay. They have more of the thick hairs that don't split (which some describe as the "clipped" hairs.) Their break-in isn't super long, usually 4-6 months.

Semogue is middle of the road for price, shed a little at first. They bloom a fair bit, especially the higher lofted ones, and have a noticeable glue bump that assists in this. They tend to have very good quality control, and different grades that cater to what you're looking for. They also take forever and a day to break in (6+ months for most of them, more for the SOC.)

Zenith is higher priced, probably due to distribution not being readily available stateside. Knots are more similar to Omega, but they definitely splay more. The hairs are very fine, and shed the least of the boars I've tried at the beginning. I've had one for about 3 weeks, and I would say these will likely break in the fastest of these three brands. Out of the box, it's useable, unlike Semogue (for my skin at least.) It also doesn't seem to contain any of those thicker hairs that don't split. Go for a lower loft than normal, though, these things have flexible hairs.

I'd recommend the Semogue 1305, I love it. There is a series of comments on LeisureGuy's daily shave blog where he expresses his intense unhappiness with the Semogue 830 and a few comments concurring with his appraisal of that brush. I stepped in to defend Semogue as far as the 1305 is concerned because I like it so much. I've not tried the 830 so I can't comment one way or the other. I have a Semogue Owner's Club boar in waiting that I'll likely start breaking in this week. I have some Omegas as well, the 10049 which I really like, a synthetic boar which is nice and even a $10 boar from the drug store which also performs really well after soaking and breakin. For me it was a revaluation how good and reasonably priced boar brushes can be if used properly. I have a razoRock boar blondie that I've retired due to excessive bristle loss - those bristles can create tenacious clogs in a drain that require lots of drain opener to deal with. I have little patience for shedders. A few bristles when new and that should be it.

Good luck, there are so many great boar brushes out there and they are so reasonably priced that you can afford to try a few if you want without risking too much. BTW - Italian Barber has a decent selection of Semogue brushes.
Marko

My personal favorite is the Antica Barbieria Colla boar brush. It has the highest quality boar hair I've ever seen, and the handle is both beautiful and functional. Some have said that it is a rebranded Zenith. I can't speak to that, but I really enjoy this brush.

I'm with the OP here. I proudly own a few brushes, and while each different type of knot has it's own qualities, there is just something about a boar brush that I love.

Omega makes some nice boar brushes, and you can not go wrong with a Semogue. My personal favorite are the Semogue Owner's club.

Another nice boar not to be overlooked are the Razorock Blondie and Natural Boar brushes. They perform very well, and the price is pretty tough to beat too.

TL;DR

I didn't read the whole thread yet, so this may be a repeat of a previous answer...

In my humble and inexperienced opinion, you simply cannot beat the Razorock boar brush in olive wood handle for $19.99. Extremely soft out of the box, with great backbone. No smell or "funk" like you can get from some natural brushes. Excellent lathering, fantastic scrubby feel, and very easy to work with.

You *might* get a better boar brush if money were no object, but for $20, you simply are not going to find a nicer brush, in my opinion.