Struggling with handtied dense knots

Hi guys, I have a big brush collection and alot of them are handtied knots for example declaration grooming, black eagle, Varlet, however I'm really struggling with some of these knots to get a great leather due to it being so dense it's hard to splay the brush and I have to use more of a painting motion. I have a few brushes witch are not as dense and they seem to work alot better. Has anyone got any advice how to achieve a better lather with a really dense knot?

I usually start with a hand lather. Easier to splay the bristles on your fingers if you open your hand up a little. Once I have a decent lather started I'll transition to my face and add a little water to finish the lather.

Ok IV never tried that, I am a face lather so just go straight to my face. Thanks for the suggestion but would prefer not to lather on my hand to start of with

Ok IV never tried that, I am a face lather so just go straight to my face. Thanks for the suggestion but would prefer not to lather on my hand to start of with

Why not pre-lather in a bowl? I'm a face latherer too but I like to use the bowl to at least get a nice consistency going. I'll pre-lather in most tubs if it's a harder soap but Sebum and Ethos for example get scooped out in a bowl.

I just make sure to load heavy -- preferably straight from the tub and even build a lather partially within the tub before bringing it to the face.

Load more soap

Use less dense badger. I don’t know what others like but for me our chase for super dense brushes has surpassed usefulness. I like more hair than was used in many vintage badger brushes but l like much less hair that super over-stuffed brushes of today. In fact I find myself having to loft knots higher and higher as knots get fuller and fuller. I never set super dense knots for my own use anymore.

Splaying never the answer, ever. Can force results but will be suboptimal at best at a terrible cost

Yeah, I'm not one for splaying due to manufacturer advisement not to, but everyone can make their own decision. Typically best results with denser brushes is more product.

Ok I thought most people splay there brushes rather than just using painting strokes, will definitely try to load more product