From the left, we have the Omega brush that has kept me away from badgers for several years. It has its attractions, but be careful; you might also be lured by the sirens of piggy goodness. Next is a Somerset Simpson Tulip T4 in Super - no explanation needed, this is as good as a badger brush can get (or is it? Read on...), then the Somerset Simpson Chubby 2 in Best, a heavily used brush as you can see, made in an era when 'Best' was best! Then comes the model 'A' or Major in Super, sold as a travel brush, but a strong contender for the best of the lot, and the utterly underrated Emperor E3 in Super, which combines good hair in the right size knot with a long-ish handle for good soap lathering. Pretty strong competitors, but can they beat out this lot:
Oh, my! Here's a Simpson X2L (Colonel) claiming to be in 'Best' but with a mere two bands of hair, nice size knot, but a little short in the handle, and then the mysterious Grosvenor brush, a Simpson re-branded for what may have been the first and only time. Knot's a bit bigger than the Colonel, and just about perfect, but the handle is still short enough to get slippery from all the lather. Well, enough of Corey Greenberg and his praise on shaveblog.com for the Wee Scot, this little Vulfix duplicates the size, with better hair quality, but f*ck me, didn't I just say something about short handles? OK, I did, and it's my punishment. My favourite Shavemac of all time, from memory alone I think it was the model #22368, and is NLA. I bought three, sent one to some guy serving in the Gulf (never got a reply), and still have two. The hair is a bit soft for me, but the handle length really lets you whip up lots of lather PDQ. I persuaded Bernd to make me a couple of custom brushes like this one, but with bigger knots and handles a bit longer to stay in proportion. They don't appear here, but I still have them and might be persuaded to show them off. Next comes a brush I do not recognise. It says it's a Simpson B6, and since the markings are black and not gold, it's a Somerset era brush. Looking it up, it was a 'Best' badger brush, aka the Beaufort. I'll be pleased to try it out. Who bought these things and how did they get in my basement? Finally, there is one of a pair of unmarked two band brushes with pretty good quality, maybe excellent, hair. These I remember as the prototypes of the Shavemac two band DO1 brushes, sent for evaluation and comments by Bernd. It's policy here that admins and mods may not review freebies, so it was never reviewed here, but you'll shortly get your chance to read all about it.
What's this? The shelf isn't quite full? Well, here's the rest of what will fit:
I see we start out with a pair of D.R.Harris brushes, probably the H3 and H2 if memory serves. I thought I had sent these off to Gordon, who was a big fan of them. Both look and feel like soft generic 'Super' brushes, but they deserve a chance. The final three are brushes you should pay attention to. Two claim to be from 'The Olde Apothecary Shop' (thanks be that wasn't a 'Shoppe'!) and the third a Rooney. R.A.Rooney was an old and respected brushmaker based in Bishopsgate from the late 1700's. They went bust, but the name was bought and used by a gent of the name of Lee Sabini. He had a source of the best badger hair in the world at the time, possibly in Russia, possibly not, He never declared where for sure, but simply indicated it wasn't safe to go there. No doubt we are in the White High Mountains of Super Silvertip Manchuria! Anyway, he made prototypes under the Apothecary Shop name, and they became the new Rooney, very briefly. Most of the new Rooneys were pretty ordinary super hair (including the third SMF club brush!) and it wasn't long before Rooney sank beneath the waves once again. Anyway, here are two Apothecary Shop brushes, and a neo-Rooney of the same hair. How white the tips, how soft they are! But under the soft tips, the hair shafts are stiff and resilient. That's the only way you get the softness on the face yet can still have the scrubbiness of a stiff brush. I know why they were valued so highly and I can see why shavers would mourn the passing of an era when a 'super' or 'silvertip' brush would mean exactly that experience. It is not one to be bought new at any price these days. You'd have to find an old brush and someone daft enough to sell it. Undoubtedly the most valuable brushes I own, though not perhaps the ones I enjoy the most. Secondhand, they have sold on eBay for >$800. That's silly. I'll use them and report on them.
