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What is the difference in brush hair grades?
All of the shaving brushes will provide a lathery shave. However there are several different and distinct grades that determine price and performance.Unfortunately, there is no universal standard and bristle grading can be subjective. Nonetheless, the following is a good reference guide:
A) Synthetic bristles - Come in a faux boar nylon bristle or a faux badger synthetic fiber bristle and are alternatives to natural hair for making lather.
B) Hog bristles "boar" (aka pure bristle, white or sketched) - Stronger and thicker than badger hair. These bristles are not as flexible as the badger. When water comes into the hog-bristles they are not as elastic as badger hair and the user cannot make the shaving soap as creamy as he could do with a badger brush. That's why hog bristles are the least expensive class.
C) Standard Badger "dark solids" (aka dark badger) - This kind of hair is the under-hair of the badger. It is not as elastic as tapers for example. But it keeps it's flexibility much better than hog bristles. This hair is dark (nearly black) and has a cylindrical structure. That means each hair is the same thickness at both ends. They are typically machine clipped to shape unless noted otherwise.
D) Standard Badger "greys" (aka pure or grey badger) - This explanation is used for the hair from the tails and the back of the badger which has nearly the same structure as dark solids although it is from the upper-hair. This hair is more light than dark solids - nearly grey. They are typically machine clipped to shape unless noted otherwise.
E) Premium Badger "tapers" (aka fine or best badger) - This hair has the typical sketch on it (light-dark-light). It comes from the back of the badger and its structure is conical. That means that the tips are thinner than at the base of the hairs. This provides a softer feel while in use. Moreover it guarantees better foaming of the shaving soap. This hair is much more expensive because it is more rare than the types c) or d). These brushes are hand assembled or handmade.
F) Premium Badger "silver tips" (aka super badger) - This explanation is used for the neck hair only which is the softest, rarest and most expensive kind of badger hair. In the winter this neck hair gets extremely light tips. These brushes are hand assembled or handmade.
Note: It is important to understand that natural hair can vary slightly as to shading and attributes, even within the same category. Natural products will always have slight variations because they are not synthetics and this is considered a normal part of the product range.
Different hair types:
(Boar - white)
(Boar - sketched)
(Badger - standard darks and greys)
(Badger - fine, tapers)
(Badger - super, silver tip)
What is a "handmade" brush?
In classic shaving, you will come across the term "handmade" often. So what exactly does "handmade" mean?
Handmade means that the bundles are created by hand. The person takes a certain amount of hair in his hands and forms the typical round shape of the bundle. The reason is that fine badger hair is easily destroyed when made by a machine and also by trimming the fine badger hair tips (which are split) the most important part would get cut off. This would not allow the creation of a good lather as the split tip holds water and foam in the brush.
Standard qualities are less expensive due to automatic machines. (Boar and standard badger)
Hand crafted badger hair brushes is the only way to get this kind of quality. (High quality badger is hand knotted by the master craftsman.)
Hand knotting procedure:
Material is weighted depending on the size of the ring/knot.
The tuffs are carefully combed to remove wrong aligned hair.
The characteristic shape is achieved by striking on the top of the hair with the shaping box.
The excess hair is cut away.
The top of the brush is glued solidly in the ring to keep the hair in typical form. (Often referred to as a plug or knot.)
The tuft has now been carefully bound together with a tread and removed from the shaping device.
After the glue is hardened the brush can be combined with the appropriate handle made from different materials.
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