UPDATED: B17 Declaration Grooming Vis-a-vis B2-16 Releases

Thanks for that Danny boy. I hope you have a gun safe for that DG collection.... Worthy of protecting.

The longer I shave and absorb the forum - the more I a aporeciate the worn out acronym YMMV. My preferences in this thread had no intended ding on Scott. The quality from his product from my experience is certainly top notch..... top shelf.

I have weird preferences and public admit them. As an example, some of the Quinn knots are what many would deem thin and sparsely packed-with no significant backbone...... Those are my favorites as I value splay and lather flow through. Nice luxurious dense knots like DG don't hit my weird idiosynchocies. Face feel, gel and dense knots are not an important factor for me either. My skin is like leather and I enjoy a decent about of scrub commonly. The little Simpson T3 is a go to...... Weird right.? Paladins seem to hit all my targets for handle shape and knot characteristics.

I have 3 [8, 9a] DG brushes. - and even though they aren't my favorites, they are saved for special shaves and displayed prominently in the den for their aesthetic and intrinsic value. Perhaps I need to try a B16 or B17. You can help me with funding the addiction? . I find the opp to purchase his tools extremely difficult however.

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Just to be clear I wasn't asserting that he treats you specifically with any preference. Rather I've just found he never replies to my emails lol. Could be he doesn't use it anymore, I dunno

If you have faceBook Messenger, he is there daily as Scott Stewart.  Really Scott a decent guy if very reserved.

Thanks for that Danny boy. I hope you have a gun safe for that DG collection.... Worthy of protecting.

The longer I shave and absorb the forum - the more I a aporeciate  the worn out acronym YMMV. My preferences in this thread had no intended ding on Scott. The quality from his product from my experience is certainly top notch..... top shelf.

I have weird preferences and public admit them. As an example, some of the Quinn knots are what many would deem thin and sparsely packed-with no significant backbone...... Those are my favorites as I value splay and lather flow through. Nice luxurious dense knots like DG don't hit my weird idiosynchocies. Face feel, gel and dense knots are not an important factor for me either.  My skin is like leather and I enjoy a decent about of scrub commonly. The little Simpson T3 is a go to...... Weird right.? Paladins seem to hit all my targets for handle shape and knot characteristics.

I have 3 [8, 9a] DG brushes. - and even though they aren't my favorites, they are saved for special shaves and displayed prominently in the den for their aesthetic and intrinsic value.  Perhaps I need to try a B16 or B17. You can help me with funding the addiction? . I find the opp to purchase his tools extremely difficult however.

Sent from my SM-A536U using Tapatalk

My rotation has been about halved trying to raise money for Coco.

Suspect you are a candidate for a B16, probably his least dense knot.  Agree floppy knots do lather better and release well too but yet prefer dense with backbone.  You definitely not a B17 guy. Do you have a B9a that is not a B9a+?  B9a were great nongelling knots but likely too dense for you. 

Really, favour many of your preferred vendors and shapes: most notably that collection of custom M&F Sabinis - please reach out if ever moving any of those considering them sold, of course Elite is the best handlemaker in the business working every media and ferdmin is just classic.  Not to disparage Bob but almost certain he buys his knots - could be wrong.  Rudy Vey, whom I also respect deeply, swears by ShaveMac and that is good enough for me. 

Will get a B16 down your way at some point - pretty sure you'll take to it.  Another brush you should consider is an old BK8 or BK12 Kent in SilverTip - that would be right up your alley.  Sold one a while back or would gift it to you  Amazing brush and the presentation case was striking - just no backbone but it could lather a brick and a 5 sec load would easily do 3 passes.  Really should have retained it.

Fair enough. I do not mean to pour harsh judgement on him. Once again love his work. His knots are good if variable. His pours are second to none. His brush shapes are basically perfect. And his soap is one of my all time favorites. So I definitely support him regardless of my surface level assessments of him lol

Thanks for that Danny boy. I hope you have a gun safe for that DG collection.... Worthy of protecting.

The longer I shave and absorb the forum - the more I a aporeciate  the worn out acronym YMMV. My preferences in this thread had no intended ding on Scott. The quality from his product from my experience is certainly top notch..... top shelf.

I have weird preferences and public admit them. As an example, some of the Quinn knots are what many would deem thin and sparsely packed-with no significant backbone...... Those are my favorites as I value splay and lather flow through. Nice luxurious dense knots like DG don't hit my weird idiosynchocies. Face feel, gel and dense knots are not an important factor for me either.  My skin is like leather and I enjoy a decent about of scrub commonly. The little Simpson T3 is a go to...... Weird right.? Paladins seem to hit all my targets for handle shape and knot characteristics.

I have 3 [8, 9a] DG brushes. - and even though they aren't my favorites, they are saved for special shaves and displayed prominently in the den for their aesthetic and intrinsic value.  Perhaps I need to try a B16 or B17. You can help me with funding the addiction? . I find the opp to purchase his tools extremely difficult however.

Sent from my SM-A536U using Tapatalk

My rotation has been about halved trying to raise money for Coco.

Suspect you are a candidate for a B16, probably his least dense knot.  Agree floppy knots do lather better and release well too but yet prefer dense with backbone.  You definitely not a B17 guy. Do you have a B9a that is not a B9a+?  B9a were great nongelling knots but likely too dense for you. 

Really, favour many of your preferred vendors and shapes: most notably that collection of custom M&F Sabinis - please reach out if ever moving any of those considering them sold, of course Elite is the best handlemaker in the business working every media and ferdmin is just classic.  Not to disparage Bob but almost certain he buys his knots - could be wrong.  Rudy Vey, whom I also respect deeply, swears by ShaveMac and that is good enough for me. 

Will get a B16 down your way at some point - pretty sure you'll take to it.  Another brush you should consider is an old BK8 or BK12 Kent in SilverTip - that would be right up your alley.  Sold one a while back or would gift it to you  Amazing brush and the presentation case was striking - just no backbone but it could lather a brick and a 5 sec load would easily do 3 passes.  Really should have retained it.

Danny, when you leaked your observation to our crew and to the Boukimsster that floppy knots make great lathers esp using hard pucks i grinned ear to ear - a sage observation that is not readily obvious. Might actually explain my predilections as I do use hard pucks frequently. Duly noted on the M&Fs, and we are on the same page regarding handles for sure. And you are right, Bob does not make his knots.

I need to get you one of my Allen Long knots to run. I think you would love it.

Off topic but gents chime in if you find the Fanchurian knots of Chiseled Hound familiar to Scotts DG knots.

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I suppose they could source them from the same factory. The fanchurian is a solid knot. I find that when multiple artisans get batches at the same time they have many similarities. So they probably buy them from similar people. The most important part though is the thoroughness of the sorting and the attention to detail with the knots itself. Honestly though regular factory made knots are amazing these days.

How long do the pre orders usually take? Ordered an ember handle with a b17 on I wanna say April 6th and I haven't heard anything lol

How long do the pre orders usually take? Ordered an ember handle with a b17 on I wanna say April 6th and I haven't heard anything lol

Cannot speak for Scott but suggest reaching out to him. He responds quickly to FB Messenger

I love my Declaration Grooming brushes… I truly do. I will however say, that imo the attention to detail isn’t quite what it once was, but believe it or not, while that sounds like a jab, it’s really not… when dealing with such tedious tasks, you can’t keep that perfection up for that long imo and it’s astounding Scott has done so damn well with his brushes. 

I personally prefer his older knots. I had a B1 (I think I was like the 3rd-5th person to have that hair) and I’m a complete fool for letting it go but our house burnt down (that brush wasn’t in it lol) so nonetheless I needed funds and had to sell that knot. It’s such a unique knot imo. First, it’s the most gelled knot ever! It’s so super soft, but yet it is also so incredibly dense especially at the bottom of the knot/base, almost seeming like it wouldn’t splay, but once wet it splays effortlessly and again those tips! 

However, as absolutely amazing as B1 is, my actual favorite knot that I’ve ever had the luxury to try from DG (and I haven’t tried them all) is B5! B5 is just an all around perfect knot! The only slight little complaint I have is I wish mine was set just a tad higher but back then everyone always was talking about “Backbone this and backbone that” and because B5 was so soft with an effortless splay (perfect scrub for me) I think a lot of people were inclined to request that their B5’s be set lower because of it’s less than strong backbone so I think some got set that way. For me, I now find that a mistake. After wet shaving over 10 years, I think backbone is so overrated (unless you have a shitty brush that’s like a mop… but for the quality of brushes we have today, backbone is just not that important to me… unless it’s on the side of too much backbone). I understand folks will disagree with me and that’s cool, that’s what makes a good community, debate, freedom to express ideas, & learn from one another. 

B2 and B6 were also great knots, but when I had to part ways, B2 was first (it was one of those great all around brushes that didn’t necessarily do anything to perfection except the fact that it was solid everywhere) so I parted with B2 first as I recall (my memory could be off but that’s how I remember it). Then, B6 was next and the only reason I got rid of B6 which was phenomenal but imo it gets all the hype when I think B5 should be getting the hype lol. So, I kept B5 and got rid of B6 mainly because they were quite similar to me except B5 was softer and more to my liking. 

I kind’ve wish I would’ve tried DG’s B13 is it? It’s the one that was fairly recently popular and very soft and almost 3 band like if I recall. But here’s the thing…1) I was on a hiatus from purchasing and not active and 2) While, I’m a big 3-band/HMW super dense kinda guy… my first top end brush was a Savile Row and I still recommend them if you can get one from around 2016 or so (or earlier of course) and I still own 2 from that excellent time frame. But my point is, I’ve seen a lot of these 2band knots that look and kind of behave like 3 bands. Now, I haven’t been nearly as active in wet shaving so maybe this has been addressed (forgive me if so) but I never once found one of these 2-band knots (that look and act like 3 band knots) that I actually enjoyed. I don’t know why… I don’t know what it is? I had a Mozingo (beautiful handle) that I had to let go of because it had one of those 2-band knots masquerading as a 3-band knot lol. I’ll be very curious if anyone else experiences this. My guess is probably not, as I’m quite fussy about brushes (and razors, and blades, and life lol just kidding about that). 

Apologies for the absolute lengthy post but I haven’t posted here for quite some time (I’ve been terribly inactive and I hope anyone who may have reached out to me will forgive me if I didn’t respond…. In the future if I’m unavailable here which is common, hit me up on Instagram). 

Lastly, just an FYI for those curious I am finding myself getting that “bug” and getting more active so maybe I’ll be seeing you guys! Since we are speaking brushes… I would like to get a DG 18 out of curiosity but my favorite brushes are Wald and Chisel & Hound (the absolute attention to detail that Jannik from Wald applies is unmatched but yet imo no one matches Rob’s handles!…. Rob is innovating almost every batch he puts out… his handles are my favorite and Jannik’s knots are my favorite)