New SV brushes

Redrock

Forum GOD!
"The knots are tied by a company whose job is precisely that."

The knots, the source, and the manufacturer have always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I have a number of LE brushes that have great knots. I also have a number of re-knot vintage handles I did that also have great knots. For the re-knots, I purchased the knots from VIG shaving. I rate them as very, very good; no complaints on their quality and performance. The main difference is cost. I have been able to purchase excellent badger knots in the $17.00 to $25.00 price range. It makes me wonder if the person making the $25.00 knot is sitting beside the person making the $100.00 knot?

Here is a picture of a couple of the knots.

Ed K.

Knots.JPG
 

Rowlers

Massive Member
Staff member
"The knots are tied by a company whose job is precisely that."

The knots, the source, and the manufacturer have always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I have a number of LE brushes that have great knots. I also have a number of re-knot vintage handles I did that also have great knots. For the re-knots, I purchased the knots from VIG shaving. I rate them as very, very good; no complaints on their quality and performance. The main difference is cost. I have been able to purchase excellent badger knots in the $17.00 to $25.00 price range. It makes me wonder if the person making the $25.00 knot is sitting beside the person making the $100.00 knot?

Here is a picture of a couple of the knots.

Ed K.

View attachment 40682
My thoughts too Ed. I have had a couple of bad Vig, Frank etc... "Chinese" knots, but I have also had some marvellous knots too. At least as good as the Shavemacs I have had. I think you may pay for a little more QC with the "branded" knots, but other than that I believe hey come from the same of very similar places... That SV knot looks like any other knot I have ever seen.
 

R181

Grumpy old man
Yes, some of the cost differential may have to do with better QC such as checking one in ten instead of one in a hundred regardless of where the brush is made.

OTH, if the brush is made/assembled outside of China all the other costs of doing business are greater also. People in North America and Western Europe don't work for the same wages as the Chinese workers do, corporate taxes may be higher, more and tighter workplace standards to follow along with more and tighter environmental laws. All add up to more costly brushes.

There are also vids showing Simpson workers hand tying knots which adds to the cost.

Bob
 

Nishy

Forum GOD!
Staff member
Having spoken to Bernd (Shavemac) about this before, I was told he hand ties his D01 2 band knots. Hair sorting is also something he does by hand for some of his knot options.
 

Dr Watson

James
Having spoken to Bernd (Shavemac) about this before, I was told he hand ties his D01 2 band knots. Hair sorting is also something he does by hand for some of his knot options.
For anyone unaware of the visual difference, here is a hand tied Shavemac D01... Notice the glue plug is incredibly small.

Untitled.png


With these new revelations I'll quietly withdraw my previous assertion that the knots are produced by one of the top EU companies :D Direct from China with high QC seems to be most likely.

The next question must be... If the SV knots are so nice to use, are hand tied knots still a viable selling point and justification for high(er) prices? Sure it's more traditional but if the end result is no better who cares?
 

Redrock

Forum GOD!
Not sure which of those three Italian artisans is responsible for drilling the hole in the collar but they need to work on their concentricity
All of this in one brush? Makes me wonder about their quality control. How has SV responded? I hope with a postage free return and a replacement? You should not have to pay this much for a brush and repair it yourself.

Ed K.
 

R181

Grumpy old man
"The next question must be... If the SV knots are so nice to use, are hand tied knots still a viable selling point and justification for high(er) prices? Sure it's more traditional but if the end result is no better who cares?"

Yes, my view exactly. The same could be said just about any high end product. If the differences are minimal why pay the extra.

Bob
 

Wayne

Forum Sod
I have Shavemac Unique knots, a TGN and some Maggards. The SV has more in common with the TGN than the Maggards in that the Maggards are well stuffed and stiff in use, not scrubby but with no flop. The SV and the TGN do not seem to be as packed with hair, not lacking at all just not as full or they could just be better quality hairs. They both are floppier in use they splay much more and both have better lather release than the Maggards. I honestly do not have a knot that builds a lather like the SV does. I'd love to know the origin as one or two of those knots in a nice hand turned unique handle would be awesome. As indeed the SV is in use.
 
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