Badger Cull To End

[drmoss_ca]

I think it is pretty well known among the general population that tuberculosis is a disease that has spread from cattle to humans - and if that idea is new to you, you really ought to rush off and read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. Spread initially by milk as intestinal tuberculosis, it moved on to infect our lungs and become an airborne disease, at which point it graduated to being a major cause of death among 19th century city populations. The "White Plague" or if you prefer, "consumption" became a pretty common mode of death. Even in the twentieth century, you may view it in such wonderful films as the third part of Trio by Somerset Maugham, or Twice Round The Daffodils if you can find legal copies to watch.

So back in the dark ages, when I was a medical student, TB and syphilis were common, prevalent, and things we were taught to look for. We can now ignore a great deal of this ancient history, except for just one thing: even then, we were taught that on the one hand tuberculin testing to prove a milk herd was free from TB was a good thing ("a TT herd" - tuberculin tested), this was later used by farmers whose herds would not and could pass the tuberculin test. "It's the badgers!" they said, claiming that badgers somehow passed TB on to the cows they had originally caught it from. Whether badgers bit or mated with cows was not explained, and has not been explicated since. Subsequently, badgers were gassed in their tens of thousands in their setts with a cyanide-based gas. And so we lost proper Simpson badger brushes, and have badger brushes containing the hair of Chinese cage-grown badger youngsters, stripped of their skin whilst still alive as shown in many furtive videos, as a substitute. "Super" indeed.

Apparently, there may be some hope for the badger. Despite the kind of TB suffered by badgers being "bovine" it may be that some civil servants are, dimly, recognising that as such they are victims rather than perpetrators. Apparently only two more years of cyanide gas might be used, as a way of recognising their victim status:

Badger cull to be effectively banned from 2022, Environment Secretary announces

You may need the Bypass Paywalls extension in Firefox or Chrome to read that.

So, eventually, there may be proper badger hair available once again, in the far future. Perhaps something approaching the good stuff that used to go into the Somerset Simpsons, if you can wait that long. Otherwise, we must depend on the oil industry to make a better synthetic hair, which has, so far, been beyond their efforts. What a shame.

[CMur12]

Thanks for the informative write-up, Chris.

I had no idea of a connection between badgers and TB, however fallacious, or that their numbers were low in Europe (?) and Great Britain because they were being exterminated.

I'm not sure I'll see this resurrection of the badger population and the availability of quality badger hair during my useful shaving life. Then again, since I'm not a face latherer, I don't require the more exotic forms of badger hair. (Also, I'm sure they would still be killing the badgers to harvest the hair.)

- Murray

[fallingwickets]

thank you for this thread

clive

[Rufus]

That is very good news. Not because we’ll have non-Chinese badger hair in our brushes sometime in the indeterminate future, but because the badger cull was as needless as it was thoughtless.

[TRBeck]

Great info, Chris. Thank you.

BTW, until you have tried the Muhle/Edwin Jagger silvertip fibres and/or the Simpson synthetics, I think your comment regarding alternatives to badger may be premature. Some don't like them as well as badger, but they are vastly different to the cheap synth knots used by other brushmakers. Both Simpson and Muhle use proprietary fibers that are quite distinct from the makeup brush fibers stuffed into $20 shaving brushes these days. For me, the Edwin Jagger synthetic brush is all the brush I'd ever need (not to say it's all I have, but a large sale is on the horizon, as it's what I've mainly used since 2013).

[kronos9]

Agree with Tim. I have a synthetic from both Jagger and Simpsons. They may not eat up soap as easily as badgers but performance is excellent.

[brothers]

Regarding synthetics, it's been my experience that they're still evolving as Chris says. They are getting better.

[Rufus]

I can’t say that I’ve come across a synthetic yet that satisfies me. To date I’ve tried Muhle V1 and V2, Kent, Simpson Classic I and AP Shave Co SynBad. The only one I still use, and that’s for travel only (none in past 12 months), is the SynBad. The Classic I I re-knotted with a Muhle V2 and it now sits in its box in a drawer in the bathroom next to the V1. The Kent and the old Classic knot are used to dust the dash and vents in my cars and computer keyboards. I don’t find any of these synthetics lathers better than my badgers and boars; I face lather and use shaving cream. The one advantage they do have is that they dry quickly; hence they are useful for travel.

[LostInCincy]

I don’t prefer giant brushes, but I have a 28mm Synbad brush that I set pretty low. It has the closest thing to a badger feel I’ve come across. It’s still not quite the same, but it is great in its own right.

[LostInCincy]

For what it’s worth, I remain skeptical that any type of English badger hair will reemerge in brushes, or that it’s even something to hope for. It’s very hard comparing brushes of different eras, and there are an awful lot of good products that originate from China.

[drmoss_ca]

It’s very hard comparing brushes of different eras...

It ought to be very easy if there are actual differences.

[nav]

Great info, Chris. Thank you.

BTW, until you have tried the Muhle/Edwin Jagger silvertip fibres and/or the Simpson synthetics, I think your comment regarding alternatives to badger may be premature. Some don't like them as well as badger, but they are vastly different to the cheap synth knots used by other brushmakers. Both Simpson and Muhle use proprietary fibers that are quite distinct from the makeup brush fibers stuffed into $20 shaving brushes these days. For me, the Edwin Jagger synthetic brush is all the brush I'd ever need (not to say it's all I have, but a large sale is on the horizon, as it's what I've mainly used since 2013).

Hell yes!

The STF XL instantly became my favorite brush of all time!

I've easily used over a hundred brushes over the last 13 years and I love the STF XL!!

I have it in ej and muhle variants. Plus ej 23mm for the travel kit.

The $20 have their place and work well but if we are talking relatively, they don't come close to touching the STF XL!!

[Sam]

I have a synthetic, the tuxedo knot, made by a vendor in our forum, Verdman. About a 24mm knot. I like it and I sold off my Jagger silvertip and others. Would like to pick up a badger hair brush, since I got rid of all of mine, and read this and maybe I need to wait. I gave my father some of my badgers, the nice ones, and when I flew down to Florida to visit my mom this past December, could not find them. Then again, my sister went through his stuff, took his nice guns to the pawn shop and sold them (he wanted me to have them) and well, maybe tossed out all of his toiletries.

[TRBeck]

I object totally to badgers being skinned alive. I also object to the factory farming practices that yield boar meat and hair. I also object to the environmental degradation wrought by oil extraction and refinement, to say nothing of the fact that plastic bristles will inevitably wind up in the bellies of the last few Pacific fish and their predators.

I suppose the most environmentally and ethically sound brush would be horsehair in a wooden handle. I haven't found a horsehair brush I like or can use comfortably, but the possibility exists, I suppose. A second option is to buy and use less generally, and in the end, that's an avenue that seems tough for those of us who have shaving as a hobby. I have badgers, boars, synthetics, and mixed badger/boar brushes on hand, and I will probably buy more of all of them (because I am weak-willed), and there will be fuel to transport them and resins in the handles and so on.

In terms of quality, it's obvious to me that most of the badger hair now available so cheaply is...well, cheap. It's poorly dyed, chemically treated, and doesn't feel right on my face. Good badger hair is still good, whether from Simpson or Shavemac or one of the other established brushmakers. Is it ethically sourced? Dunno. But I know the rare earth minerals in this computer aren't. Nor are the beans in the church coffee or the natural gas that has kept me warm all winter.

How to bring about systemic change? Well, that's an issue of scale, and as Wendell Berry perpetually reminds me, a large-scale solution will create a new large-scale problem. So I just make as many responsible decisions as I can, try to buy less and use things well and use them until their usefulness is used up, and I am helped by the fact that I have some disposable income and time to read and research. In the end, living in the United States means I will have a disproportionate impact on the planet, including badgers, boars, humans, ice caps, and all the rest.

I'll keep riding my bike for transportation as much as possible, living near my place of employment, eating less meat than I would prefer, and trying not to hit the "buy" button...and the world will still burn.

[brothers]

100% agree with you on all points Tim. Just doing the best we can as long as we can.

[CMur12]

As always, Tim, very well thought out and written. Thanks for putting the effort into sharing it with us.

- Murray

[Uluru]

A very interesting thread good reading

[woodsrider]

An interesting read...I had no idea that had been going on. Thanks for posting, Chris.