Zenith Horse Brush Review

You don't hear much about horse brushes, so I'd though I should write a quick review. I've always been put off by horse brushes since I've mostly read bad things about them. But I decided to try one at the recommendation of a friend.

I have the Zenith 507N with the extra soft hair which has a 27mm x 51mm knot.

It has less backbone than your typical 2-band but slightly more so than a silvertip. The tips are soft, but not as soft as a synth nor a badger, but not scrubby like a boar either. I think it has the perfect balance between softness and scrubbiness. There's a small amount of scritch, but it's a different kind of scritch which doesn't feel bad at all, unlike poor quality badgers and synths. The brush is fairly new so that scritch may go away, but even if it doesn't I don't mind it at all.  Again, it's hard to explain, but it's a "good" scritch.

I haven't experienced any tangling at all, neither has my friend which has had his a lot longer than I've had mine.
Where I think this brush truly shines is in its "flow through". This thing holds on to zero lather! I has much better flow through than silvertips and even synthetics.

I was not expecting to fall in love with this brush, but it is now my favorite brush ever. I like it more than the B8's I've had, more than my ZT2, and more than my premium synths.

Edit: Forgot to mention that it builds a lather in no time!

Whisker_whacker I think you'd like this one a lot.

Whisker_whacker I think you'd like this one a lot.

Very interesting. Ill put this on my list. Lately I like a bit of variety. Sold off a bunch, kept a few. #1 quality I’m into nowadays is good flow thru that doesn’t hold lather so this would be right up my alley. So far I kept...

synthetic - PAA Starcraft - good flow thru, decent backbone, high loft for painting strokes but splays well for circular lather production, soft but not too soft

synthetic - elite razors mother lode - not as good of flow thru, very little backbone, painting works ok, circular lathering results in pillowy cloud soft feel, softest brush I have for those days I don’t want scrub but rather want something soft as hell. Usually have to squeeze some lather out tho, holds it like a sponge. 

boar - mondial - becoming my fav handle. Simple, but works so well. Been breaking it in to where it now exhibits nice strong backbone, splays well at first 1/4 of hair length, has become soft after breaking in but a hint of scritch for lifting hairs if I haven’t shaved in 2 days, picks up lather the fastest out of any of my brushes, and was $13 off ebay. 

Badger two band - Paladins - these are a bit dense for me so they like to hold onto lather, but Have a great mix of backbone, scrub, and softness. Plus handles they make are the best looking in the bizz to me. Cleo is very form fitting to my hand and my #2 handle design.

Badger HMW - elite razor HMW fan in a Viking soaps handle - newer and not sure how I feel about it yet. I useto have a Maseto 26mm silvertip and have been chasing that soft suction feeling that brush useto give me. I don’t think this knot has that tho. My synthetics had me thinking I didn’t want a lot of backbone but latley I like backbone. Prolly because my previous high backbone badgers were rough. Just received an elite razor Manchurian knot, need a handle to stick it in. 

a year ago I believed a person only needs one brush. Same way a chef really only needs one knife. But helps for different circumstances to have different tools. Some could get away with just using a pearing knife, some would prefer a boning knife if they had to choose just had one. So subjective and it took a while to figure it out. Wouldn’t we all love a brush that’s soft but has scrub, good backbone but splays at the end, and has plush cloud like density but allowed for great lather flow. Boar is getting me close, but will never give that dense cloud plush feeling a badger gives.

Sorry for the rant. And what’s a post without pics.

Nice brushes! I ordered that same mondial but my ordered was cancelled due to covid. I'm also preferring flow through over any other variable when it comes to brushes. I hate having to squeeze lather out for my 2nd and 3rd passes.
I do like my elite HWW quite a bit!

Thanks for sharing your experience, shaveSymptomatic. I had an Epsilon horse hair brush some years ago, and did not really enjoy it, though it was definitely not the worst brush I’ve ever used. Remembering my experience, and reading your review, a couple of questions came to mind:

• Does the Zenith have a strong smell to it? (The Epsilon I had most certainly did.)
• Are you able to scrub the lather on with the Zenith, or can you only do paint strokes? (I’m not one to smash the brush against soap, bowl or face, but it’s nice to do a little scrubbing from time to time.)

Great post. I've always wanted to like horse-hair shaving brushes. I picked up two very nice Vie-Longs about eight years ago, but could never tolerate the scritch, to which I am highly sensitive.

I've heard about recent efforts to condition horse hair with an objective to improve its characteristics for use in shaving brushes. I'd guess this is largely driven by the diminishing supply of badger hair. I hope those efforts meet with success.

We had a chestnut/sorrel quarter-horse I bought in 1990 when she was a 2-year-old filly. Ms. Crocker died on Christmas day in 2017. We kept some mane and tail hair in the hope of someday having a few knots made from it.

Thanks for sharing your experience, shaveSymptomatic. I had an Epsilon horse hair brush some years ago, and did not really enjoy it, though it was definitely not the worst brush I’ve ever used. Remembering my experience, and reading your review, a couple of questions came to mind:

• Does the Zenith have a strong smell to it? (The Epsilon I had most certainly did.)
• Are you able to scrub the lather on with the Zenith, or can you only do paint strokes? (I’m not one to smash the brush against soap, bowl or face, but it’s nice to do a little scrubbing from time to time.)

My brush smelled like an industrial cleaning agent which went away after 1-2 lathers, but had no animal smell. It went away after 1 or 2 lathers.

I would rate the scrubbiness below both badger and boar, but slightly above a synthetic.  

I forgot to mention the fact that Bob at thegentleshave said horse hair does split at the end like boar does, but it takes longer. I'm guessing that scritchy feeling will probably go away.

Thanks again, shaveSymptomatic. Seems as if the natural smell isn’t as persistent in these brushes as it can be in certain others.

It also sounds like you have put this brush through its paces already, and have had no issues with tangled hairs, etc. I saw on another forum a comment about how these brushes are quite dense, and so the risk of tangled hairs may also be minimized by that feature.

My Epsilon horse hair had some scritch that wasn’t uncomfortable, but not something I’d necessarily seek out, either. It’s good to know that horse hair ages in a somewhat similar fashion to boar — losing any slight scritchiness it has, yet hopefully still retaining some scrubbiness, even with further use.

Thanks again, shaveSymptomatic. Seems as if the natural smell isn’t as persistent in these brushes as it can be in certain others.

It also sounds like you have put this brush through its paces already, and have had no issues with tangled hairs, etc. I saw on another forum a comment about how these brushes are quite dense, and so the risk of tangled hairs may also be minimized by that feature.

My Epsilon horse hair had some scritch that wasn’t uncomfortable, but not something I’d necessarily seek out, either. It’s good to know that horse hair ages in a somewhat similar fashion to boar — losing any slight scritchiness it has, yet hopefully still retaining some scrubbiness, even with further use.

No tangling issues for me. But keep in mind that I lather with very light pressure.