Mr Bigmem
Forum GOD!
@Nishy I think your post is a lil misleading. As others have pointed out the cost appears to be driven by the hand crafted handle and clearly not the knot. So IMO a better question would be how much would you pay for a handmade and hand-painted porcelain handle?
From a quick look at the Muhle site they stock The Muhle Sophist Porcelain Silvertip Badger Shaving Brush at £125 while the same handle fitted with a STF knot is £105. So Mule as stating their synthetic in the most cases is £20 cheaper and this is the same knot that is fitted to the £540 brush.
What price would I pay for the perfect synthetic knot? .....well for me the 3 kings of synthetics are the Synbad, the Cashmere and the Silksmoke. (Originals from AP shave). And they don't break the bank at under £9 plus shipping. So any other major or artisan manufacturer better work on their margins when importing synthetic knots or the fibers from china. I've seen so many pretenders be trying to sell the next greatest thing (emperors new clothes)
Me personally, i'd not pay that much for a brush, artisan or otherwise. The knot could be bound with unicorn hair and be rolled on the thighs of nubile amazonian ladies and it would mean nothing to me. Hand tied, machine tied either is fine as long as it is a good knot and doesn't break the bank
From a quick look at the Muhle site they stock The Muhle Sophist Porcelain Silvertip Badger Shaving Brush at £125 while the same handle fitted with a STF knot is £105. So Mule as stating their synthetic in the most cases is £20 cheaper and this is the same knot that is fitted to the £540 brush.
What price would I pay for the perfect synthetic knot? .....well for me the 3 kings of synthetics are the Synbad, the Cashmere and the Silksmoke. (Originals from AP shave). And they don't break the bank at under £9 plus shipping. So any other major or artisan manufacturer better work on their margins when importing synthetic knots or the fibers from china. I've seen so many pretenders be trying to sell the next greatest thing (emperors new clothes)
Me personally, i'd not pay that much for a brush, artisan or otherwise. The knot could be bound with unicorn hair and be rolled on the thighs of nubile amazonian ladies and it would mean nothing to me. Hand tied, machine tied either is fine as long as it is a good knot and doesn't break the bank