Okay... you blokes have convinced me... what (reasonably priced yet minimum quality) synthetic would you recommend? I currently have a pure badger and a boar (which I'm not all that enthused about.) Thanks!
Well the knots seem to be super easy to get, so it depends on:
size of the knot
the quality of the handle
how much customisation you are after...
@bald as showed me a small Chinese synthetic which cost ~10$ delivered - I don't think you can beat that price and the knot looked and felt as good as any other synths I have experienced before. It is just very small - I'd say in the 20mm region?
The RazoRoock offerings mentioned by
@SpeedyPC seem to the be Vogue at the moment...not all in stock though and I have no idea about the shipping costs.
If you like large - my Stirling Kong is certainly that and well priced (~25$) - but I would definitely order some soaps to really make it worth your while...
And then there is custom handle: Wolf Whiskers look nice, Nathan Clark does some stellar handles, I received my Doug Korn handle today and it is out of this world...the world is your oyster - but they are not cheap any more...I would say 50-65US$ for the handle + another 20$ for the knot + shipping to you.
Now
@Drubbing might say this is a waste of money - all I can say is: when I showed my wife my new Doug Korn handle today her words were something like:
I didn't know there are so beautiful and
If I had known there are so beautiful I would have gotten you one of those (my answer was of course there is always another birthday and Christmas coming up)
So it depends what you are after and how much money you want to throw at it.