Thursday, October 28, 2010

New Forest Brushes - High quality, low prices.

The idea of establishing New Forest Brushes emerged from the research I did for Fido's Shaving Brush Blog. I knew from the wide variety of shaving brushes  I tried what worked for me. I thought it would be fun to specify my own brand of brushes, to have them made by an established manufacturer and to sell direct to enthusiasts without involving retailers. As a one man business with no significant overheads or the need to add a sales tax because of low turnover I knew I could sell at an attractive price. And make a fair profit for the effort involved.

I plan to use only the three highest quality badger hair grades in the making of New Forest shaving brushes

Super Badger two band

This hair is redressed and resorted long best badger hair. Short or twisted hairs are removed, leaving the hair softer and giving the brush a lighter appearance, almost white at the tips. The brushes are firm at the base, yet incredibly soft at the tips. Nearly half the hair is wasted in the production process.

Finest Silvertip

This is redressed and resorted silvertip. Short or twisted hairs are removed, leaving the brush feeling softer and given a lighter appearance. It also gives the brush better lathering and water retention capability.

High Mountain

This is long finest silvertip hair from the back of a rare breed of long haired badgers found only in remote high mountain areas. The hair is in limited supply and therefore the most expensive. The hair is redressed and resorted and nearly half the hair is wasted in the production process.

My first brush, the New Forest 2201 was a Superior Badger two band.

My latest brush, the New Forest Finest Silvertip 2211 is described below.

My next brush, the New Forest High Mountain 2221 is being tested and will be released in the new year.

Thanks for visiting.

Fido

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

New Forest Finest Silvertip 2211 - SOLD OUT


 New Forest Finest Silvertip 2211

This brush is now sold out.

New and bloomed!





And the knot after regular use:



This is a brush for the shaving enthusiast who wants a top quality brush capable of producing great lather from creams and hard soaps. And of a size and with sufficient backbone to make it suitable for face lathering in comfort while providing an exfoliating massage.
The handle is 50 mm high and the brush has a knot of 22 mm with a loft of 48 mm. When dry, the tips feel quite "scritchy"  yet exceptionally soft when wet.
The brush has a new logo which will still be durable after a long period of regular use.
Finest Silvertip is re-dressed, resorted silvertip. Any short or twisted hairs are removed, leaving the brush feeling softer and giving a lighter appearance. This also gives the brush better lathering and water holding capability.
This is a high quality brush that compares favourably with those of other famous brands. Take a look at how the appearance of a well used New Forest 2211 compares with some other brushes I use regularly. The NF 2211 at £35 compares well on price with the others which range from £65 to £190 plus shipping!



Left to right: Simpsons Tulip T1 Super, Rooney 3/1 Silvertip, Plisson HMW, NF 2211, Savile Row Finest Silvertip 3824, Edwin Jagger Silvertip.



The brush is lathe turned and individually hand made. There will be small variations in each brush and the actual loft height may vary. If you would like the loft to be slightly higher or lower please indicate when ordering and I will try to meet your requirements.

Specification (approx.)

Handle 50 mm
Loft      48 mm
Knot      22 mm

Price inc. worldwide shipping  £35

Why so low?

I deal direct with my manufacturer, sell direct, don't have to add VAT, have negligible overheads and seek only a fair return for my effort.

Return unused within 7 days of receipt for a full refund if not entirely satisfied.


To purchase:

Paypal (with shipping address) £35 to NFB@padh.co.uk

The brush will be shipped within 24 hours First Class UK and Air Mail elsewhere.

Packaging - to keep costs low and to avoid waste I use simple but secure packaging - no gift box is included.

Reviews


Apart from me, no one had tested my latest brush, so although confident that the brush would be well received, I have been relieved to read some early very positive reviews.

This is typical (from a member of The Shaving Room forum:

"The new brush arrived in the post this morning, and promptly got the breaking in and deodorising treatment by knocking up a bowlful of Taylor's sandalwood cream. Entirely unnecessary, as it turned out, although it did shed a couple of short 'n' curlies in the process. On first inspection, I understood the point of Fido's "labels" thread: it did look very similar to the 2201 brush, but not any more. "Bloom" is the delightfully poetic expression which is used for the way silvertip brushes open out and relax with use - well this one looks like a blooming tom cat that's just had a fright. Already. I really am going to love this one.

Other people have covered the performance angle and I concur with what has been said: it holds a lot of water and not too much should be shaken out, and it produces, releases and at the same time retains more lather than one could reasonably expect for such a modest sized brush. It's far stiffer than a BK4 (which remains my benchmark for softness of tips, though), and gets stuck into the soap as well as any best badger or boar I've come across.

So there you go, a rave review, all on the basis of one shave. I don't like to be negative, so my reviews tend to be enthusiastic, but generally there's some criticism to leaven the upbeat tone. Not in this case: in a year's time, unless it disintegrates, I fully expect to be saying that this is the best brush I own.

Now, Fido, would you mind giving it a rest for a while, please? You're eating into the cut throat razor fund."

And some more here:

New Forest Silvertip

New New Forest

New Forest 2211 Brush





Tuesday, October 5, 2010

New Forest 2201 (2 band)



In my latest shipment I had just 10 new New Forest 2201 2 band brushes. These were to compensate for some problems I identified with some of my early brushes. Two have been sold already. The other eight are available at a price of £30 inc worldwide shipping. If interested email NFB@padh.co.uk to check availability and payment details.

BRUSHES ALL RESERVED! WILL POST AGAIN IF ANY ARE NOT TAKEN UP.