Shavemac ATG group buy 2016 Brushes landing

[Dogsmro]

OK - here is the brush everyone has been waiting to see - Goosebumps in some marginal photographs. Includes extra flash to show the "luminance" of he brush and with my Peacock handle/Unique knot prior group buy. Arrived today FedEx - 1 day ahead of promise date as leaving for client. Special thanks to @Nishy, Shavemac, ATG and FedEx. Brush turned out very well - looks much better than the photos reflect -
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Absolutely gorgeous, it's a stunner

 

[Dogsmro]

Mine arrived today, Wednesday morning, that's crazy fast considering basic no frills parcel post Germany to California, US.
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I'm real happy with the chubby handle, shape, blank, and perfect fan shape pre and post bloom. Unfortunately I did not hit the lottery this time with the gel tips. In my experience the hair is stiff out of the box, and visually clumps with a gel-greasy texture after the first shave once rinsed. Crunchy when dry and gelled when wet. There's no, I hope it presents gel tips after several uses. I think that's where the term gel-like comes from. If it's gelled you know it right away. You don't think it's gel- like, it's gelled no doubt about it. My Unique 2BST knot is is different than my last group buy Unique which is gelled. ThIs knot out of the box was soft compared to stiff. It's ever so prickly on the face first shave and on closer inspection there are 10-15 black hairs intermittently infiltrating the cluster. You can see a few zoomed in on the pre-post bloom pics. My late model Rooney 2- band ST had the same issue with black hairs, it was prickly. I've been known to use a loop and tweezers to remove them, technique compliments of The Varlet, Aldo and his attention to detail. There's no reason why I will not do it with this beauty. It fixes the problem right quick. This knot is the first out of five Shavemacs 2BSTs that I've purchased that is not gelled. This leads me to believe that I got lucky and for that I am fortunate.
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Post bloom glory
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Cheers!
Royce

It's a gorgeous brush, you need to work it a little to get it to its best

 

[p.b]

Mine arrived today, Wednesday morning. That's crazy fast considering basic no frills parcel post Germany to California, US.
View attachment 2796
I'm real happy with the chubby handle, shape, blank, and perfect fan shape pre and post bloom. I followed Jaime's lead and requested the loft set at 50mm.
Unfortunately I did not hit the lottery this time with the gel tips. In my experience the hair is stiff out of the box, and visually clumps with a gel-greasy texture after the first shave once rinsed. Crunchy when dry and gelled when wet. There's no, I hope it presents gel tips after several uses. I think that's where the term gel-like comes from. If it's gelled you know it right away. You don't think it's gel- like, it's gelled no doubt about it.
My Unique 2BST knot is different than my last group buy Unique which is gelled. ThIs knot out of the box was soft compared to stiff even after dry down. It's ever so prickly on the face first shave and on closer inspection there are 10-15 black hairs intermittently infiltrating the cluster. You can see a few zoomed in on the pre-post bloom pics. My late model Rooney 2- band ST had the same issue with black hairs, it was prickly. I've been known to use a loop and tweezers to remove them, technique compliments of The Varlet, Aldo and his attention to detail. There's no reason why I will not do it with this beauty. It fixes the problem right quick.
This knot is the first out of five Shavemacs 2BSTs that I've purchased that is not gelled. This leads me to believe that I got lucky and for that I am rather fortunate.
View attachment 2804
View attachment 2798

Post bloom glory

View attachment 2811

Cheers!
Royce

Royce,
I have two other standard 2-band silvertips from Shavemac and both of those have very curled tip which clump together when wet and are also crunchy when dry and therefore qualify as gel-tipped. After two uses (face lathering) I've actually found the ATG unique to be (even) softer on my skin than the other two!

 

[Number Six]

Great photo and gorgeous brush

Thanks!

 

[Batch300]

Absolutely gorgeous, it's a stunner

Thanks - really pumped for morning shave.

 

[Wayne]

OK - here is the brush everyone has been waiting to see - Goosebumps in some marginal photographs. Includes extra flash to show the "luminance" of he brush and with my Peacock handle/Unique knot prior group buy. Arrived today FedEx - 1 day ahead of promise date as leaving for client. Special thanks to @Nishy, Shavemac, ATG and FedEx. Brush turned out very well - looks much better than the photos reflect -
View attachment 2806 View attachment 2807

Beautiful Howie.

 

[Wayne]

Mine arrived today, Wednesday morning. That's crazy fast considering basic no frills parcel post Germany to California, US.
View attachment 2796
I'm real happy with the chubby handle, shape, blank, and perfect fan shape pre and post bloom. I followed Jaime's lead and requested the loft set at 50mm.
Unfortunately I did not hit the lottery this time with the gel tips. In my experience the hair is stiff out of the box, and visually clumps with a gel-greasy texture after the first shave once rinsed. Crunchy when dry and gelled when wet. There's no, I hope it presents gel tips after several uses. I think that's where the term gel-like comes from. If it's gelled you know it right away. You don't think it's gel- like, it's gelled no doubt about it.
My Unique 2BST knot is different than my last group buy Unique which is gelled. ThIs knot out of the box was soft compared to stiff even after dry down. It's ever so prickly on the face first shave and on closer inspection there are 10-15 black hairs intermittently infiltrating the cluster. You can see a few zoomed in on the pre-post bloom pics. My late model Rooney 2- band ST had the same issue with black hairs, it was prickly. I've been known to use a loop and tweezers to remove them, technique compliments of The Varlet, Aldo and his attention to detail. There's no reason why I will not do it with this beauty. It fixes the problem right quick.
This knot is the first out of five Shavemacs 2BSTs that I've purchased that is not gelled. This leads me to believe that I got lucky and for that I am rather fortunate.
View attachment 2804
View attachment 2798

Post bloom glory

View attachment 2811

Cheers!
Royce

Nice write up and that is a lovely shape chubby. Sorry to hear about your knot. Mine is quite the opposite. I hope it breaks in and turns into the great knot I was lucky enough to receive.

 

[RSSO]

WOW!!! @Nishy put me down for next group buy I missed too much , this is amazing , enjoyed browsing thru this tread

 

[RSSO]

Mine arrived today, Wednesday morning. That's crazy fast considering basic no frills parcel post Germany to California, US.
View attachment 2796
I'm real happy with the chubby handle, shape, blank, and perfect fan shape pre and post bloom. I followed Jaime's lead and requested the loft set at 50mm.
Unfortunately I did not hit the lottery this time with the gel tips. In my experience the hair is stiff out of the box, and visually clumps with a gel-greasy texture after the first shave once rinsed. Crunchy when dry and gelled when wet. There's no, I hope it presents gel tips after several uses. I think that's where the term gel-like comes from. If it's gelled you know it right away. You don't think it's gel- like, it's gelled no doubt about it.
My Unique 2BST knot is different than my last group buy Unique which is gelled. ThIs knot out of the box was soft compared to stiff even after dry down. It's ever so prickly on the face first shave and on closer inspection there are 10-15 black hairs intermittently infiltrating the cluster. You can see a few zoomed in on the pre-post bloom pics. My late model Rooney 2- band ST had the same issue with black hairs, it was prickly. I've been known to use a loop and tweezers to remove them, technique compliments of The Varlet, Aldo and his attention to detail. There's no reason why I will not do it with this beauty. It fixes the problem right quick.
This knot is the first out of five Shavemacs 2BSTs that I've purchased that is not gelled. This leads me to believe that I got lucky and for that I am rather fortunate.
View attachment 2804
View attachment 2798

Post bloom glory

View attachment 2811

Cheers!
Royce

What is this ? What kind of sorcery they used to put tea leafs in it , stunning

 

[Looney12345]

What is this ? What kind of sorcery they used to put tea leafs in it , stunning

Tea Leaves, It is ripped up money, dollars I believe!

 

[RSSO]

Tea Leaves, It is ripped up money, dollars I believe!

Nah I'm with tea leafs
If you go to bank and cash it I would believe you

 

[zealshaver]

That's my baby
(cell phone camera )

 

[Nishy]

Gents gorgeous brushes. A few questions and comments.

@N_Architect to be honest I didn't choose a fan for this group buy however for the last (unique 2 band 26/52) it was fully bloomed after 10-15 uses but has not bloomed further. It was the main reason I stuck with the bulb; preserving shape and backbone.

@DudeAbides I see where your coming from, as I mentioned before i'm waiting for the tips to crispen up. However, after 3 uses the tips have morphed form straight to curled and are continuing to do so. My knots have a few longer hairs poking up beyond the circumference of the bulb, not a halo effect but random hairs. Not an issue though scalpel and tweezers (only had 3 hairs max per knot).
I completely agree the last group buy was exhibiting gel tips from the second or third shave. However I could not describe it as having the levels of scrub or backbone that this unique bulb exhibits. Without any scritch after the first use. Now the interesting part. Which do you prefer? I prefer this group buys dimensions. It really is softening up with each shave and as a bulb knot the scrub and plump feel is delightful. I know now that the tips are curling the brush will only get softer. It isn't crispy as yet, I do hope after another 5 uses this occurs to present a gel like feel. Currently it's more a cloud soft feel. It has not bloomed a lot which again is my preference. In conclusion definitely give the knot some more use it should develop gel tips IMO.

 

[Acer89]

Mine arrived today, Wednesday morning. That's crazy fast considering basic no frills parcel post Germany to California, US.
View attachment 2796
I'm real happy with the chubby handle, shape, blank, and perfect fan shape pre and post bloom. I followed Jaime's lead and requested the loft set at 50mm.
Unfortunately I did not hit the lottery this time with the gel tips. In my experience the hair is stiff out of the box, and visually clumps with a gel-greasy texture after the first shave once rinsed. Crunchy when dry and gelled when wet. There's no, I hope it presents gel tips after several uses. I think that's where the term gel-like comes from. If it's gelled you know it right away. You don't think it's gel- like, it's gelled no doubt about it.
My Unique 2BST knot is different than my last group buy Unique which is gelled. ThIs knot out of the box was soft compared to stiff even after dry down. It's ever so prickly on the face first shave and on closer inspection there are 10-15 black hairs intermittently infiltrating the cluster. You can see a few zoomed in on the pre-post bloom pics. My late model Rooney 2- band ST had the same issue with black hairs, it was prickly. I've been known to use a loop and tweezers to remove them, technique compliments of The Varlet, Aldo and his attention to detail. There's no reason why I will not do it with this beauty. It fixes the problem right quick.
This knot is the first out of five Shavemacs 2BSTs that I've purchased that is not gelled. This leads me to believe that I got lucky and for that I am rather fortunate.
View attachment 2804
View attachment 2798

Post bloom glory

View attachment 2811

Cheers!
Royce

Great choice.....Not only gorgeous but also unusual.

 

[Nishy]

Random question that has been running through my mind. Do you think hard water attributes to crisp hairs? Or is it down to the hair?