My new brush

These are my comments on my Vie Long Horse hair shaving brush:

See here!

Shaving pics

Many shaving enthusiasts are also very good photographers. Reports on forums "Shave of the day" have many fine photos. I saw these today:

Vie Long Custom horse hair brush

My first horse hair shaving brush. A small brush with a 20mm knot and loft of 52mm. I'll post my thoughts about it in a few days when I have given it a fair trial. A brush made for the Pogonotomy Shaving Forum in limited numbers. It cost 26 euros delivered to the UK.

The brush store

I leave my brush to dry for at least 24 hours by an open window. Then it goes back into store. In my case, a bookcase doubles up as brush store. It works well and saved buying extra storage.

Brush advice

Spotted on a forum: advice from Thater, German brushmaker:

1) Face lathering will negatively impact the durability of the brush. the badger hair tips will wear faster as a result of rubbing against tough whiskers.Soap is traditionally lathered in a bowl.

2) Immerse the head in warm water, 104 degrees max. hotter water will curl the badger hair tips.

3) The brush should be soaked in water and then shake it lightly once, it should be dripping wet.Load the brush using circular motion, load only the tips of the brush with plenty of soap. 

4) Once you are done building the lather, apply it onto your skin using little pressure and circular sweeping motions . Massage lather into your skin for 2 minutes. 

5) Under no circumstances should you mash the brush head into the soap. this will only drive the lather deeper into the knot from where it is hard to transfer onto the skin. besides damaging the brush head you will neither produce more lather, nor will it have a better consistency.

6) Dried up lather is the most common source of badger hair breaking or shedding. you can verify whether your brush needs cleaning by bending the knot sideways and then letting it rebound. soap residue will become visible as a small cloud of white dust. 

Perhaps the most interesting observation is the advice to use the tips lightly for the creation of lather - mashing will lead to the lather being embedded in the brush and critisisms of lather hogging.

This thread produced an interesting discussion:

Brush advice

Sportsday

Anyone remember?

Old favourites

Top - Arko, bottom - palmolive. Best value commercial soaps?  Both are sticks which I stuffeasily into mini casserole dishes. They work really well as bowls.

Today's Shave

I bought several pots of the old Coats creams. As good as ever. Body shop balm, great value. My spatula and indispensable bowl, Merkur 38c and red personna. The brush is a prototype - a 48mm loft, 22mm 2 band knot with fan shape. I love it. Will be on a future production line.

Like other enthusiasts, I rarely use the same team two days running. And this is a guy whose wife bought him razors, blades and goo without consultation for over 40 years!

SOTD

It's a great thrill to see one of my New Forest brushes displayed on the Shaving Forums. Some shaving enthusiasts really are great photographers too! Here's a Tubby 1 set against an unusual background.