Official P&C Equine Brush club

Monsta_AU

Monsta_AU

...can I interest you in some vintage blades?
Staff member
Forum Administrator
Grand Society
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Location
Guildford.nsw.au
Well, it sounds like you all are quite enjoying your horses. You may even get me in on a few of these soon.

Discuss away!
 
Yep, tell me which one to buy!
 
I thought from the post that you had got one too, and it would end up with just Glen and I watching from the sidelines.
 
eggbert said:
I thought from the post that you had got one too, and it would end up with just Glen and I watching from the sidelines.
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No, and the 1305 is giving up badly .....
 
Well now that I am down to my last three brushes I should probably try a horse brush, if only because the popular kids on the forum have mentioned them.

In all honesty I doubt I will be able to tell the difference.
 
OK, my impressions, (which may be wrong).
They are scritchy/scratchy on the tips. That helps picking up hard soaps I think, a lot. But if you don't like that on your face, don't get one. The cause of that is obvious, they are cut from horses, so the ends are cut ends I think, not natural ends like they pluck from a dead boar/badger.
That being said, the hair itself is softer than boar, tougher than badger. It will lather like badger, but unlike a badger, it will not be a lather hog soaking it all up. I said eleswhere I had lather flowing over the handle today as the brush doesn;t want to absorb it, but it loves making it.
But it is cut/trimmed hair in the first place I think, so is a little scritchy/scratchy - but I hardly noticed it on the 4th shave.
I have one of the smaller sizes (I think the second size up from the travel size), it easily makes more lather than a soft boar like a smog 1305 with MWF for example. And when warmed up and full of soap/water, the smog feels like a paint brush. The little horsey still wants to scrub and dig in. Like I said, probably the nature of it's cut tips, I think the kent VS80 brush that RM likes so much was similar, though my Kent brush lost all of the centre of it's knot a few weeks ago even though I dropped heaps of glue down there to try prevent it. But anyway, besides from the tips the horsey is also a nice soft brush with a bit of backbone. Nothing so small as been so decent IMHO. Sure larger simmos are better (but won't lather hard soaps as well or give all that lather up so easily), and some boars have way more backbone (but won't hold as much lather, waiting for you to want it).
 
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Well, I've got the smallest Vie Long on offer and, as the other half of the currently active Equine Brush Club, I can say that based on my uses of it to date I think horse hair makes an excellent knot. It's very similar to a boar brush, really nice stiff backbone, a wee bit scritchy to start with but, as pablo has said, that seems to get less noticeable with use. Superb face latherer and if I was so inclined I wouldn't hesitate to get a bigger one for bowl lathering. Although I don't load much from a bowl, when I did do this, as you would expect from a "boar like" brush, it picked up soap without any problems. It, in it's natural undyed state, doesn't look as luxurious as badger (obviously) or even a well broken in boar but it's got a utilitarian look to it, which I like in a brush. I recommend horsey. And, no animals need to die if that makes you feel any better.

Now, who wants to try a Labrador hair brush? Golden no less!! Very soft and every day I collect enough hair to make a few dozen of the damn things.
 
Can I be a 50% member? I have the Horse Badger Hybrid :)

Improved flow through sounds like a good thing!
 
SmallYetDeadly said:
Can I be a 50% member? I have the Horse Badger Hybrid :)

Improved flow through sounds like a good thing!
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That makes you at best a 33.3333% member. However given that only half of your brush is horsey that makes it .......the math is too complicated.

Anyhow what's it like? Seems like a great combo. I've got a boar/badger brush that I'm totally happy with.
 
It's worth giving it a few shampoos to start with. It's a bit like sticking your head in a bag of horse manure otherwise.
 
Gave the brush a lather up, rinse and repeat.

The smell was just typical new brush funk IMO

Turned the lather a lovely shade of brown however!

Will give it another wash before I get into the shaving.

Tips felt reasonably soft. Good backbone. Should be a great little face scrubber. Quality handle!
 
Forgive me for bumping this older thread but just wondering how folks who bought these equine brushes have been getting along?

I was considering ordering one of the Vie-Long's from G&C today but would welcome feedback from folks on what they bought and how they find it prior to doing this. So love to hear what you bought and your thoughts on it so far.....particularly in regards to whether you use it with hard soaps or creams and also how you find it performs compared to other brushes have have in your rotation?

Much thanks in advance for any feedback you folks have.
 
My 13710 is the only thing that I use on my MWF puck now. Also the weapon of choice for P.160, Cella, Arko, any soap really.

Heaps of backbone, just wish they made them bigger. Great value for the ~$10 price.

It has been blown off the windowsill a few times with some of the storms recently. The handle is worse for wear but not broken. Just a little bit dinged up. But it is a $10 brush.
 
I only face lather with small brushes and the little Vie-Long (13120M) I got is a great little brush. Nice looking handle too. Like all my brushes I use it for cream or soap and there ain't nothing wrong with a horse hair knot. What brushes have you got now?
 
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Pjotr said:
What brushes have you got now?
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I've got 2 boars (Omega 10005 & Jaguar 117/24) and a Bestshave #6 'Mule' special! I used to have a mid-range EJ Best Badger but found it a tad floppy for my dedicated use of MWF at the time - hence flogged it off.

Interestingly I've just done some reading and also looking over the VL models and its curious that the cheapest and also the most expensive brushes have the 35% mane, 65% tail hair combo......most of the 50/50 ones are in the middle price range. I find that a lil odd.

Also from the reviews I've read it seems that the 35/65 blend is the one that gets the best feedback - obviously a classic YMMV thing but a lot of folks with multiple ones prefer their 35/65's over the 50/50's.

And finally where possible it seems its best to get the unbleached ones - these are apparently significantly softer and easier on the skin than their bleached siblings (and IMHO the unbleached also look much nicer).

The only slight PITA with the VL's is that their handles do seem all over the place. Not that fussed with a lot of the designs.........

Also is it only me that finds it AMAZING that you can set a custom loft height on a ~$10 brush!!!????!!!!!!???? :weird: Thats cottage industry type stuff! Very impressive.

Embarrassingly I keep finding exceptionally positive reviews of the very cheap 12705, also referred to as the Peleon in some circles. Leaning towards ordering it with the loft set to 54mm (which seems a very popular height amongst the brushes - particularly the more expensive ones.

I assume the grade of the hair is the big varying factor amongst these cheapies and the better ones...as everything else seems pretty constant (apart from slightly nicer handles). Hmm the postage basically doubles when you order 2 brushes instead of 1 so not much incentive to place multi-item orders (I know this isn't G&C's fault).

Thanks for the feedback guys. :)

PS. Ordered the 12705 with 54mm loft custom request. Approx. $17 delivered. Seems very good value even if it turns out to be no better than anything already in rotation. :)
 
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I agree with getting unbleached hair. Why buy a brush that's dyed to look like badger. Buy a badger brush instead.
 
Has anyone tried one of the Vie-Long white horse hair brushes? They're supposed to be a bit firmer and more densely packed, they sound like a nice accompaniment to a boar collection.
 
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