"The silvertip badger hair for these unique brushes is gathered in Europe from native European Badgers and is much finer and far superior to Asian badger hair found in most all other shaving brushes. These European Silvertip Badger Hair Shaving Brushes are the very best available anywhere. The European hair combined with one-of-a-kind natural horn handles are truly unique and heirloom quality shaving brushes."
Hi, my name is Aaron and I'm the poster boy for Omega.
There is a great deal wrong with this description, most especially the use of superlatives where no measure of superiority is commonly acknowledged.
Second, natural horn makes just about the most appalingly bad handle material ever used in a shave brush, unless you want a brush whose handle will turn chalky and crack.
I do not know the provenance of this brush, but it sure sounds like standard issue e-Bay hype to me.
M6Classic wrote:There is a great deal wrong with this description, most especially the use of superlatives where no measure of superiority is commonly acknowledged.
Second, natural horn makes just about the most appalingly bad handle material ever used in a shave brush, unless you want a brush whose handle will turn chalky and crack.
I do not know the provenance of this brush, but it sure sounds like standard issue e-Bay hype to me.
Buzz
this is not offered by ebay but from a vendor i've used many times. of course, the vendor prints what he is told to him by the manufacturer i would suppose.
Gil
futur/EJ357/ gillette redtip
iridium ,blue IP
thater, shavemac.anchorset/tgn,sr3226
dirty bird
and a prayer
I have a M+F brush with a horn handle that is over 6 months old, which I realize isn't very long. But about once a month, I apply some jojoba oil, let it sit overnight, then wipe off the excess. So far, it still looks like new, and I hope that the oil applications will keep it from ever becoming dry and brittle.
Quarterstick wrote:I do not see this brush on the company website. Is it legit even?
It is one of the new Vie-Long brushes. You can now get them in an assortment of "exotic" materials like horn, Ebony wood and the like. I received an email from Oscar about these brushes several months ago and it is definitely a legitimate Vie-Long brush.
As for hair sourced from Europe...I don't know. The rumor used to be that Vie-Long sourced their badger hair from the same place as Plisson but, I was never able to verify.
http://www.bullgooseshaving.com -Rocnel, Barbaros, Boellis Panama, Savonniere du Moulin, Asylum Shave Works and so much more.
gil3591 wrote:
this is not offered by ebay but from a vendor i've used many times. of course, the vendor prints what he is told to him by the manufacturer i would suppose.
I still think that this kind of chest-thumping and self proclaimed superiority is what I expect from an e-Bay shill and not from a legitimate manufacturer. I could be wrong and maybe this vendor actually has a quality product. However, if this was a fine product from a reputable vendor, why the chest-thumping?
I have a M+F brush with a horn handle that is over 6 months old, which I realize isn't very long. But about once a month, I apply some jojoba oil, let it sit overnight, then wipe off the excess. So far, it still looks like new, and I hope that the oil applications will keep it from ever becoming dry and brittle.
Regards,
Stan
If you want to spend the next three decades oiling your brush handle, then I guess its okay. No one has ever been able to convince me of the qualities of horn that make it an admirable handle material. There were some very good reasons to turn handles from ivory, but that was long before modern acrylics and resins were invented. I think horn handles are a marketing scam whereby even venerable firms...including Plisson...can make a little extra money by offering a "natural" product that isn't ivory.
gil3591 wrote:
this is not offered by ebay but from a vendor i've used many times. of course, the vendor prints what he is told to him by the manufacturer i would suppose.
I still think that this kind of chest-thumping and self proclaimed superiority is what I expect from an e-Bay shill and not from a legitimate manufacturer. I could be wrong and maybe this vendor actually has a quality product. However, if this was a fine product from a reputable vendor, why the chest-thumping?
Buzz
if it is truely euro badger than i would thump my chest! you'd be the only one out there with euro. so the issue is the credibilty of the manufacturer
Gil
futur/EJ357/ gillette redtip
iridium ,blue IP
thater, shavemac.anchorset/tgn,sr3226
dirty bird
and a prayer
its Chinese badger from the Meles Meles badger type,for what I understand.So,as I said in a thread about the actual "european" hair used by Plisson,this hair has a chinese passport with european DNA.
However,in the past, it seems than Vie Long sourced its silvertip and 3 band super badger hair from Rusia,or thats what I told me recently a person who has contact with Oscar,the owner of Vie Long.
Maybe Juanjo, from Gifts and Care ,could bring more light to this discussion.
gil3591 wrote:if it is truely euro badger than i would thump my chest! you'd be the only one out there with euro. so the issue is the credibilty of the manufacturer
I for one am not not sure who declared that European badger hair makes better shave brushes than Asian badger...maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. However, I suspect that it is the qualities of the hair and not its geographic origin that make a better or worse brush. That said, all of the recent Chinese made knots...not Chinese sourced hair...that I have handled have been of inferior brush quality. My guess is that selecting hair for high quality brushes involves a great deal more expertise than simply shopping in China, the Alps, or Siberia ( Siberia...Asia or Europe? Asia.). I would rather trust the judgment of known experts such as the management of Simpson or Plisson to exercise that judgment in my behalf.
Buzz
Last edited by M6Classic on Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
its Chinese badger from the Meles Meles badger type,for what I understand.So,as I said in a thread about the actual "european" hair used by Plisson,this hair has a chinese passport with european DNA.
However,in the past, it seems than Vie Long sourced its silvertip and 3 band super badger hair from Rusia,or thats what I told me recently a person who has contact with Oscar,the owner of Vie Long.
Maybe Juanjo, from Gifts and Care ,could bring more light to this discussion.
This could be the source of the hyperbole and confusion. It is quite possible that badger hair was procured from Russia and purchased in...say...Moscow or Leningrad. Moscow and St. Petersberg are most assuredly in Europe, but Russia is a vast nation and it is quite possible that badger procured from a European market might have come from the pelt of an Asian badger from out in Siberia or Mongolia. I am just guessing at this, I have no actual knowledge of the Russian fur markets other than what I learned reading Gorky Park.
I know this topic is from 3 weeks ago! As far as I know Vie-Long badger comes from China. It’s forbidden for some years already to capture / hunt badger in Europe. I guess what we have to differentiate here is who prepares the badger hair for each manufacturer. In the case of Vie-Long, the company that prepares their badger hair to be used for shaving brushes in also here in Spain. Then Vie-Long gets the hair and they make their own knots. That means that they have the expertise and know-how to make the knots for their shaving brushes. On the other hand we have manufacturers that buy the knot from China directly and they just need to glue it on the handle. I guess there’s been some misunderstanding on that shaving brush description.
Gifts&Care.com wrote:I know this topic is from 3 weeks ago! As far as I know Vie-Long badger comes from China. It’s forbidden for some years already to capture / hunt badger in Europe. I guess what we have to differentiate here is who prepares the badger hair for each manufacturer. In the case of Vie-Long, the company that prepares their badger hair to be used for shaving brushes in also here in Spain. Then Vie-Long gets the hair and they make their own knots. That means that they have the expertise and know-how to make the knots for their shaving brushes. On the other hand we have manufacturers that buy the knot from China directly and they just need to glue it on the handle. I guess there’s been some misunderstanding on that shaving brush description.
Sir,
That's not how I read it at all. Vie-Long is claiming it uses European badger hair (in a less direct, easier to fudge way so does Plisson) - but its certainly untrue that there is a meaningful demarcation between 'European badger hair' and 'pre-made Chinese knots'. For example, Vulfix/Simpson are one of the few makers who undoubtedly HAND make brushes in the traditionally understood sense, but will tell you the HAIR is sourced from China.
~ Infusing the irreducibly quotidian with sensual pleasure ~
Hi Louis "III", I'm not sure who is claiming what; I just mentioned what I know from one of my suppliers, in this case Vie-Long, and it's exactly the same situation as you explained from Vulfix/Simpson they hand made their knots and their hair supplier import it from China.... badger is a protected animal in Europe and can't be hunted. In theory there are no shaving brushes nowadays that carry badger hair from a badger grown up in Europe.
