Handtied bulb knots ?

Hello Gents, I really love handtied badger knots and I own a few, however my favourite knot shape is bulb and I personally much prefer it over the fan or hybrid shape. Unfortunately though IV realised all the top handtied knots are fan or hybrid shape and never bulb for example declaration grooming, Simpsons, Varlet, Black eagle, mozingo. Just wondering do you think there is a reason for this and does anyone know and handtied knots who do bulb shape knots ?

The reason more people are making fan shapes is because backbone and density have become so popular and are taken to extreme degrees and to allow that, if you make it into a bulb, you won't have any splay, flow through and you will lose some of the softness. I really like a smaller and less denser 2 band fan but there are some really nice 2 band bulbs that don't have the high density. This is nice in my opinion because it helps the knot produce lather and work a bit more dynamically on the face.

P.s.- this isn't to say anything is bad with a denser more modern brush. They just aren't my preference. If you want a 2 band bulb, maybe check out a Shavemac or maybe a Vie Long.

The newer ones are more likely to produce fan or hybrid knots. I believe I've seen mentioned in the past by those that self taught brush tying, and also by Simpson that tying knots is a hard process, and bulbs are mentioned in particular. Add to the fact that the brushmaker does take into consideration what the best knot shape is for the hair they use. The bulb shapes are out there. What you see posted in the various forums isn't all of what is being produced, and we don't even see a 10th of everything, just what us hobbyists share. I've had several recent purchases I haven't bothered to share.

If you like 3-band badger, I would suggest going to The Superior Shave. He'll be taking delivery of some new 2-band badger brushes for his TSS brand soon and stocking them. The Simpson brand in particular you can see pictures of what you are buying ahead of time. Paladin would be the next best option there for seeing what you buy before buying. Myself, I wouldn't overlook BST sales, and honestly is my preferred way to buy. Shavemac does good bulbs. Sometimes they can be a bit off and get too pointy, but that is rare. I've had some Simpsons in the old 2-band Super suffer from that. From my personal experience German brush makers seem to do the bulb shape the best. I would put Plisson next but quite spendy there.

I would agree with kooshman7 that the German's make a good bulb and yes, sometimes pointy. I actually like the way those work really well and maybe in the future, I can try out a 2 band pointed bulb. Joe made some other great comments as well. He has a lot of experience with brushes!

I think bulbs are a bit more difficult to tie as well. That’s ultimately the answer I suspect but that’s speculation.

Brett at Mozingo Brushworks has started doing hybrid knots. I’m sure bulbs aren’t far behind.

I made a post about this exact topic like a month ago, let me try to find it and copy/paste the link here:

https://damnfineshave.com/thread-high-en...-fan-knots

You could always contact Bernd at Shavemac to hand-tie you a bulb knot of your choice. His bulb knots can be superbly done.
I have a few of them.

Wow yes very funny you have the same thread. I have a shavemac bulb knot but it's very scritchy and don't really like it, I'm hoping it will soften as it breaks in

Wow yes very funny you have the same thread. I have a shavemac bulb knot but it's very scritchy and don't really like it, I'm hoping it will soften as it breaks in

I would assume you have the D01 2-Band hair. If you do, then you may want to try the Silvertip 2-Band hair which is much, much softer. 
Good luck.

If you want bulb hand tied I believe black eagle does them and shavemac for sure.


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