High-quality brush, soft, nice lather, doesn’t stink…
This is a really nice shaving brush. On arrival it was already nice and soft, compared to some other badger brushes which can sometimes need to be broken in more before getting soft. The handle is made of nice wood, very much resembling the pictures in the item listing. I have uploaded a photo of the brush I received, next to my usual daily brush which I would consider to be of average size, so that you can see that the handle of this one is a little bit longer, and you can see the size of the badger hair plume which is a similar size. The materials all appear to be of high-quality, and it seems well-made. The wood is very smooth. and nicely finished. The handle might be a bit longer than my preference, though that may be because I am used to the other brush I showed in the photo which has a shorter handle.<br /><br />The brush lathers nicely. The bristles are soft, and only very few of the bristles came out when using this brush, noting that a new brush like this will usually lose a few hairs early on. So this is a positive comment not a negative one, meaning that it lost fewer hairs than some competing brushes.<br /><br />As badger brushes usually do, it did have a slight musky odor when wet initially.  This brush had less of that musky odor than the last new brush I got (not the one in the photo). This brush has just a very slight amount of that odor, which is already almost gone now that I have used it. These badger brushes typically have that scent initially and then it resolves naturally with use, usually within the first couple uses, but that process can be sped up, particularly if you happen to get a brush that has more of that scent. Because that scent is so slight with this brush, which is another positive for this product, I will add some comments here in case you happen to have more of that musky scent with your brush, even if it is a different brand brush than this one, in case this information might be helpful to you. Again this is considered normal and dissipates over time with use.  There a number of home remedies meant to speed up the process of getting rid of the odor from a new badger brush… People do any number of the following remedies, sometimes using combinations of them. These remedies include mixing a spoonful of Borax in a cup of hot water to soak the brush in for a few minutes, or doing the same with Oxiclean, or with vinegar. Others use Dawn dish soap. Others use two-in-one shampoo and conditioner, or deodorizing pet shampoo, and others preferred to lather up the brush with a more heavily scented shaving cream and allow it to dry on the brushes overnight. I have done a combination of almost all of these, with other brand of brushes, but I have not tried the vinegar or the pet shampoo.<br /><br />Just to be completely clear, I did not need to use any of these methods with this current brush, as it did not have a problem with the scent, but for your information this is what I did with my last brush (which had quite a stink)… I lathered the brush up two or three times with Dawn dish soap, once with Borax, twice with Oxiclean, twice with Pert shampoo/conditioner, and I lathered the brush up with Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Sandalwood shaving cream two times, then left the shaving cream on the brush overnight, and then after rinsing it in the morning the odor was gone.  If you have a badger shaving brush which has a strong initial musky odor then hopefully some of these tips might help.  You likely won’t need to do all of them, and based on my smell test after each of these methods, I think that the most helpful may have been the dawn dish soap and lathering with the shaving cream and leaving that on the brush overnight.<br /><br />This is a good brush, it makes a nice lather, the bristles are soft, it does not have any significant badger stink, it is good quality, and it will get good use going forward. I like it!
Rating: 5 stars