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"How
many badgers had to die to make this shaving brush"? Believe it or not, a young man actually
thought we killed badgers to get these bristles for our shaving brushes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The manufacturer of these superior quality
brushes maintains a flock of badgers that are more pampered and coddled than
any badger in the wild, or any domestic animal for that matter.
Three
times in the Spring and Summer, these badgers are sheared like sheep. Our Summer-coat Badger Brush is created from
these shearings. However, when the last
Summer shearing takes place in late August, something miraculous happens to the
bodies of the badger. As the badgers
are let out into their spacious pens after the August shearing, their bodies go
into overdrive because their natural instincts know that harsh Winter is on its
way soon, and the badger body is now shaved.
Within days, a new coat begins to emerge, and it is much more luxurious,
much thicker than the Summer Coat just sheared. This coat is called Winter Coat Badger, and holds twice the water and
heat of Summer
Coat Badger. This Winter
Coat Badger is the finest natural material in the world for holding water and
heat, and would never have been possible in the wild where the animals are
never sheared. Once the badgers go
through the Winter Season with this fine luxurious coat, they are sheared again
in the early Spring, just before this coat would become too warm for them. This is when we get the Winter Coat
bristles.
Why
is Badger the best material in the world for holding water and heat? The end of every Badger bristle examined
under a microscope looks like it has been exploded in all directions at once. These are called "flanges". In the wild, these flanges have been
designed by Nature to hold the water at the tips of the bristle, thus keeping
the body of the Badger dry and warm.
Therefore, since shaving demands a brush that retains both water and
heat, you cannot get any better material than Badger for a brush. Further, the Winter Coat Badger contains
twice as many flanges at each end than Summer Coat.
Boar
Bristles contain few flanges, so they are not nearly as effective in holding
water and heat as are Badger bristles.
However, Boar bristles hold a lot more water and heat than any man-made,
synthetic materials. We do not carry
any of the inferior synthetic materials.
Most
of our gift sets contain a Boar or a Boar/Badger combination brush. This feature allows us to keep our retails
lower on the gift set. Once you begin
to shave with one of these brushes that has come in a gift set, you might
want to trade up to a Winter or Summer Coat Badger Brush. You will not believe
the difference a pure Badger brush will make in holding heat and water so
you can whip up a frothy lather to soothe your face.