Muhle 21mm STF splay

MrT

MrT

Commander of Soap
State Rep - NSW
Group Buy Associate
Joined
Nov 24, 2014
Hey everyone

I got a muhle 21mm STF knot today and fit it into my kosmo handle. I have already had my first shave.

I was a little disappointed with the splay. I found that the only way I could build a lather was to paint it vigorously over my face. If I pushed it hard enough to make it splay, it just moved the lather over my face, leaving behind unlathered skin.

So, will this brush break in, bloom and give a bit more splay eventually? I otherwise liked the brush: very soft, but string backbone.

Matt
 
No idea myself. Can't imagine that synthetic knots, unlike natural fiber ones, would change much but what would I know. Have you got a picture? Maybe you set it too low or something.
 
I would say no. I have a $45 omega synthetic Hi brush and experience the same as yourself. It it really soft and nice feeling. But perhaps to soft to make a good lather. I would much prefer to use a pifed omega boar with a price tag of around $20.
 
So synthetics are really soft lather hogs with strong backbones that just push the lather around your face? Can't be right. Where are all the synth-sads?
 
My experience with a 23mm STF2 is very different to yours - the control I have of my lather with this brush is one of its greatest qualities. I hope we can get to the bottom of your issue. Are you bowl or face lathering?

Do you see the issue your experiencing replicated with any of the STF2 knot sizes here?

 
I face lathered.

That video was interesting. The splay was much more than I was getting...

I'll have a few more practice lathers tomorrow and let you know how I go.
 
So, just did half a dozen practice lathers. The first few were face lathers, but the last few were palm lathers, as due to my face being a little irritated at the moment from some cream I'm using to get rid of a little bit of acne, it was getting a little upset from the punishment.

The virdict? I think it is a combination of bad technique and false expectations. In terms of expectations, I was expecting this brush to behave like a badger or boar brush. But it isn't a badger or boar brush, and as I'm becoming aware, it behaves very differently. It seems to retain almost no water, and so I have to constantly at water, little by little, until the desired consistency is achieved. With a boar brush, I just keep working the brush until it releases enough water to get it to where I want it.

Secondly, it doesn't seem to swell like an animal brush, which means it is not holding all of that newly created lather inside it. The difficulty I'm having is that the lather wants to reside either on my face (or hand) or around the outside of the brush near the handle, but not much in the bloom of the bristles... This may make it difficult for me to get 3 or 4 decent passes worth of lather, but again, I think this is probably just a technique thing that I need to get used to and adapt to. Maybe reload after 2 passes? I feel like it is precisely this property which people praise when they say they need to use very little soap to lather this thing. This makes sense, because a badger brush will 'waste' much soap as it creates heaps of lather inside the brush, rather than on your face... I guess I was used to that and used that lather up later, and so maybe I need to adjust technique. I suspect for bowl lathering none of this would be a problem, and this brush would be very very good.

Perhaps I would do better with a 23mm rather than 21mm... would that make much of a difference?

One thing I must say is that it developed lather very quickly. You add the soap, and some water, and this thing explodes with lather.

So, in summary, I will keep working at the brush, and will keep you posted.
 
I think it's just your technique. The vid above shows they're all going to work the same regardless of size, and are very quick to get lather going. If synths don't hold a lot of water, that's not a problem, most boars and badgers hold too much and can make a sloppy mess if not used just shaken or squeezed.

Adding water little by little to a damp brush is the better way to make lather anyway - for any type of brush.

I think, like the dude in the vid, you have to be firm with them. None of this painting strokes stuff.
 
@Drubbing said exactly what I was going to. @MrT , mate, load up well, persevere, and don't baby it. Yes it doesn't hold water and this is a good thing once you get used to it and once you do you'll have a greater deal of control - and I've found it actually helped improve my lathering with animal brushes. Please abandon any thoughts of using the Marco Method. My contention is that it is a shit technique no matter what brush you're using. I've come to prefer 'quite a dry' to 'slightly damp' knot and build with water rather than spewing the contents of my brush and bowl around the bathroom.
 
I've had nearly the same experience my first shave with the simmo.

Did one flick and it didn't release enough water, so when I was loading it was foaming up the soap and water spewing out. When it came to face lathering it was way too wet and making light flimsy foamy rubbish out of the soap. It wasn't building much real lather at all, and what was, was foaming down the handle around my fingers. I reloaded mid lather and squeezed out some water and things picked up a bit. With a bit more aggressive working the brush was splaying better.

When I was rinsing out the brush I squeezed it and realised how much water it had been holding. The classic is a far thicker knot than the ol boar I'm used to. No wonder I had lather foam to my elbows and none on my face.

It really shone when I flicked it dry and gave it a squeeze with a towel and it was dry. Bone dry. Ripper!

Lesson learned:

As above, way less water, adding by dipping bristles as we go, more loading and a bit of aggression on the brush?

Made the old mistake of trying two new products at the same time. I'll try the never fail occams tomorrow. A straw broom could make it into slick rich goodness.
 
Nonick said:
Made the old mistake of trying two new products at the same time. I'll try the never fail occams tomorrow. A straw broom could make it into slick rich goodness.
Click to expand...
and with that post, you have now became the first challenged to the scarecrow method challenge ;)
 
A la Worzel Gummidge? I hated that show.
 
It's the lion that manely needs to shave though
 
eggbert said:
A la Worzel Gummidge? I hated that show.
Click to expand...

What? How can you hate Worzel Gummidge? A classic concept done to a very high standard with excellent actors. One of the best British childrens series ever produced if you ask me.
 
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