I have three synthetic brushes en route from Yaqi, two with 22mm knots and one with a 19 mm knot. I’m unsure how I can rearrange things to fit them in. That will be a total of 55 brushes, enough to cover shaves for more than two months given that I shave only 6 times week. The breakdown by type:
3 boar
1 mixed boar-badger
3 horsehair
1 mixed horsehair badger
1 disputed: either horsehair (my judgment) or boar (vendor’s call). It’s 5th from the left in the bottom row
19 synthetics of one sort of another (including the 3 Yaqi brushes not shown)
1 European Gray (from Plisson: top row, second from right)
26 silvertip badger
The Yaqi brushes not shown:
19mm Bunny tuxedo knot in blue
22mm Cola synthetic
22mm Soft cashmere synthetic, orange handle
A few points of interest:
Top row
At the left are a few miniature brushes: the Wee Scot (badger), a tiny Omega badger, the Omega Mixed Midget (badger and boar), and a small Vie-Long horsehair. The three boar brushes are all Omegas and well broken in and quite soft on the face, with the Italian-flag-handled one being extremely gentle with less resilience than the Pro 48 and the 20102. The European Gray has a wonderful pebbly feel on the face, very unlike a synthetic or silvertip. It’s not in the least harsh, but rather as if the bristles are blunt. The two Rooneys — Victorian and butterscotch Emilion — have hooked tips, resulting in a velvety feel along with good resilience. The snakewood handled brush I got from Strop Shoppe years ago (third from the right) is another very gentle brush.
Second Row
The two Mühle brushes, third and fourth from the left, are worth a note. The butterscotch handled one is silvertip badger and very gentle, with a fluffy knot of mild resilience; the other is Mühle’s Gen 2 synthetic, intended to mimic the feel on the face of a badger brush, and the Edwin Jagger synthetic, seventh from the left, is a knot much along the same lines. Both of these have good resilience. I especially like Phoenix Artisan’s synthetics — there’s the Starcraft in the top row (right after the three boar brushes) and in this row the Amber Aerolite (second from left), Solar Flare (fourth), and Green Ray (fifth). These all have 24mm knots are, though all are synthetics, their knots different somewhat in feel. The Fine Classic, at the right end of the row, is another gentle brush with a fluffy knot. I do like such brushes, and there’s never a problem in loading them or getting a good lather. (I do have soft water.)
Third Row
The first brush is the mixed horsehair and badger from Vie-Long. The last five on the row are all Wet Shaving Products, and I like them all. The two Monarchs have somewhat different feel, one being slightly stiffer/more resilient than the other. I in general like the gentler of the two.
Bottom Row
The first is a Plisson HMW 12 with a horn handle (horn being a material from Vietnam, once a French colony until, as they say, they threw off the colonial yoke). The next is a Plisson with a Plissoft knot, just when better synthetic knots started to appear. The third and fourth are knots mounted in a screw base; these two share the same handle, the synthetic being the Target Shot pattern (black or white in quadrants) and the other a silvertip knot. It’s a Yaqi brush. Sixth from the left is my least expensive silvertip, a $35 brush from Whipped Dog and next to ti is a Rod Neep one-off. Next to that, on the other side of the vertical bar, is an ebony-handled Sabini, and then my Rooney Style 2 Finest, my most expensive brush (north of $300 in today’s dollars). The two other Rooney brushes, Style 3 size 1 and Style 1, size 1 in Super Silvertip (as they call it) and two G.B. Kent brushes, the Infinity (a resilient synthetic) and the BK4 (a gentle silvertip).