New Stirling Finest Badger!

Mine arrived today.



The knot is very symmetrical. The handle is chunky on the bottom and it's nice and tall. I wouldn't call it a traditional butterscotch either. It's very attractive and I do like the color. I agree with whoever said that it's more like a tangerine orange. Nice.

I gave it a good soak. A wash with Agrume and another with brush cleaning soap. The very first lather was a little bit muddy. I've seen much worse than that. After a few hours I did another test lather and extra long rinse.



The best part, it hardly has any smell. Barely a hint of funk. What is detectable is very mild and normal. Not chemical type of odor or moth balls. Definitely not the vomit smell like the 24mm bulb had and still has after dozens of lather cycles. This brush is nearly funk free already!





The loft is pretty decent. The extreme fan shape makes for very little work with soap. Quick loading for sure.

The splay is really pronounced as can be seen above. Tips feel soft. Density is slightly more than medium. Hairs are very soft. Doesn't seem floppy though.

I haven't used it for a shave yet. It's blooming and drying overnight. On deck for tomorrow's shave.

So far I'm happy. Looking forward to using it and getting a better idea of what it's like in action.

Thanks for the review, my only wish is that the brush was a 26 or 28mm.

Thanks for the review, my only wish is that the brush was a 26 or 28mm.

It is a beautiful brush and performs just as well as you would suspect. The bloom on the 24 rivals the bloom of my 26. I remember when I spoke with Rod that he would explore additional sizes depending on the demand of the 24 mm fan. From what I am seeing, it is fairly popular and a lot of folks have been anticipating the release. Rod has done a great job teasing us for months to create that buzz about it.

I am thoroughly satisfied with mine. If you can't afford a Thater Silvertip 2 Band, then you can have 80-90% of the performance at a fraction of the cost. I have no plans on getting rid of my Thater but makes the cut of already being a rotation favorite after one shave. Can't wait to see how it breaks in after a few more shaves under its belt.

Had a great shave with it this morning.

The hairs are very springy. When lathered it looks more like it did when new than it does when rinsed and drying. They soap and lather are like a magnet holding the fan together.

Not sloppy or moppy for me at all.

Face feel is excellent. Flow through is too.

Rinsed easily.

It is an excellent all around brush I think. The near flat top shape means that lathering on a puck of soap was a sinch. It did well face lathering and on the second and third pass it felt superb using painting strokes. Holds plenty of water. Tons of lather too. Rinsed clean and when I flicked it and snapped my wrist the little tangerine handle stayed securely in my grip.

Two big thumbs up from me!

Sweet I'm ordering one right now

nice looking brush!

Well I can say that this brush is WELL worth the money. The only other high end brush I have used is a thater two band and I honestly didn't feel all that much of a difference. I sold that one and mainly use synthetics and my semouge 830 or 620. For whatever reason this one caught my eye. Get one you won't be disappointed. Especially for the price. Stirling could be selling this thing for $75+ and wouldn't get any complaints.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Stirling now has the 24 mm finest 2nds sale at $33.95. The 26 mm at $32.95!

https://www.stirlingsoap.com/shave-brushes/

I am so tempted to buy it and keep the knot for another custom job. FYI Rudy Vey does a fantastic job of removing the Stirling knot from the handle and reknotting them in a custom handle.

That's an awesome price.

I wonder what's 'second' about them? If it's just the logo or something else unrelated to performance it's a must buy.

Yeah its usually that. i bought a second of one of their kongs and it was just missing the logo.