Morris & Forndran Heritage II Blonde Badger reviews

Hello all,

I don't believe I have missed any other posts here about the new Morris & Forndran Heritage II Blonde Badger hair being introduced, and thought maybe I could start things off with a thread dedicated to them. I myself did order a brush. The Heritage II 2XL and Heritage II L7 were both tempting, but being as I already had those handles, albeit in just one color, I thought I wouldn't be tempted. Brad had to throw a curveball into the mix though and also introduced the Heritage II TH. After thinking it over, I finally decided I had to order one of those. Not often a new handle shape gets introduced, and the more I looked at it, the more appeal it had to me.

I need to use this brush more, and will try to temper what I will say about the brush, but frankly I am left quite intrigued by this brush the first time using it, and will need to use it more to see how it pans out. Upon arrival and feeling the knot dry it has a quite scratchy feeling to it like 2-band Heritage did when it first shipped for my Stubby 1, but it had a much thicker hair than this Heritage II has. When wet it developed a slick feeling in the tips that really was best described as gel tips and that became the consensus as to what to call it. That was at B&B at the time where I frequented. As to what members called it elsewhere I have no idea, but imagine they took that lingo on too. Viewing it wet the tips would clump together in tiny bunches and had a honeycomb look to it. Lathering performance was excellent which was uncommon with most of the 3-band Heritage brushes being so dense which surprised me at the time, and I believe others noting at the time. I kept mine for some time, but in an attempt to thin I ended up selling it as I had trouble getting used to that gel feeling. Later on, after the brushes stopped being available, I would purchase more 2-band Heritage Rooneys. I had heard of Rooney 2-bands that had finer hair along with less of a gel feeling, and didn't dry crunchy like the other 2-band Heritage did, but I wasn't inclined to believe it at the time, but have since learned through personal experience those reports were true as I have a 2XL in Tortoise just like that. It has a much finer hair, is softer dry, and it doesn't gel as much when wet and better matches my usual preferences and better tolerated. Batch variance is indeed very real. 

This Heritage II TH does indeed have a thinner hair to it, but has scratchy tips to it like the first Stubby 1 in 2-band I had. As to drying crunchy I can't speak on that yet as I have just used the brush and it still needs to fully dry. The brush has a bit better density than my 2XL does, and suffers slightly in terms of latherability compared to my now 1XL which is much like my Stubby 1 at the time is in terms of its hair vs my 2XL, but not by a great degree. I expect it will get better with time as the brush opens up. After taking the TH out of my scuttle and draining the brush, I happened to take a bit of time to observe the knot which surprised me. I had no plans to, and rarely do it, but noted it had a slight gelled look to it like my 2XL. Upon putting it to my face it was a familiar facial feel as the 2XL provides to me with just slightly less ease in lathering with it. Very smooth facial feeling with a slight presence. Handle ergonomics were wonderful, and much appreciated.

Where it surprised me the most is when I finished with my first pass, rinsed my face and started to apply my second coat of lather. It took a few second to realize something was different and then it hit me: I'm feeling the tips of the brush, and not just slightly. This is closer to what you would experience with Simpson 2-band Super/Silvertip, Blonde, and a few other grades. I was surprised and chalked it up to not having as much facial scruff on my face as before, but I really didn't have a great amount to begin with having last shaved 2 days ago. It's usually at day 3 and a half where it starts getting out of hand. It wasn't bad that I could feel the tips when using it, and pleasant for me, but I've never experienced any brush that even shows the mildest hints of gel tips exhibiting scrub for even the first few shaves when wet. Dry yeah it feels rough, but smooth as silk when wet. Even now with just a gentle swipe of the brush on my face it will go back and forth between feeling the tips for a quick moment, then back to no tip feeling. Almost like some little gremlin is inside the brush playing with a switch making it go back and forth. Looking at the brush visually it doesn't have excessive hooked tips, but I can spot a few here and there.

A curious thing to have happen, but I won't say it's outside the realm of possibilities. Brushes present themselves in various different ways, and for me it is part of the charm with them. I have multiple brushes from multiple makers and it is interesting to see how it is with them all. Some 3-band Silvertips are insanely soft, some others are rougher in usage and don't feel as soft, you have gel tips which while isn't my first preference, I admit there are times when that's just what I'm in the mood for. I hope some other people have bought the new Heritage II brushes and can share their experiences with it!

I'll include a few pictures of the brush as well. It's been awhile since I've done post shave photos as well. I realized today that the brush reminded me of something when holding it, and it occurred to me why it felt familiar. The TH is basically a souped up Special, but that isn't a bad thing at all. I appreciate Morris & Forndran's take on the brush, plus it has more flair with its Malachite band below the bead!

Am quite tempted to purchase a M&F

Beautiful brush

Congratulations on the new brush, Joe, and the hair sounds intriguing. 

Great writeup, very much enjoyed your thoughts and pictures. Sweet looking new brush my friend! Badger Badger Badger Badger!

Great writeup, very much enjoyed your thoughts and pictures. Sweet looking new brush my friend! Badger Badger Badger Badger!

Mushroom mushrooom, snaaaaaaake lol

I can state after drying for a bit the knot doesn't get near as crunchy as the typical gel tip brush does. More like a normal 2-band brush.

Never tried a M&F brush but enjoy their history along with Rooney.

nice brush i actually ordered the same one with the same color. im waiting on arrival.

Gave it another run today. Didn’t feel the tips as much for either pass but it the tips were still present. So unique to have both slight gel tip presence and a tiny touch of scritch. The brush already feels great and like a brush that has already had 50 uses on it. Just open feeling and a great pleasure to use!

I was perusing my saved photographs I have saved over the years, and was reminded of another model that reminds me of the TH: A vintage Simpson S9. Thankfully I can give credit to the person of who photographed it as I put it in the picture name: ssultan. This was probably back around 2011 when I first saw it. I think subconsciously I remembered this and was part of the reason I couldn't resist buying the brush. This isn't to take anything away from the TH, but thought others would find this interesting!