Preliminary thoughts on Strike Gold Shave hand-tied knot

As you may be aware, Alex ANG69  held a generous raffle of a restored Turn & Shave handle that was fitted with a hand-tied knot from Frank at Strike Gold Shave. I was the very fortunate recipient of this brush, and Alex asked that I share my thoughts and a review. I plan to use the brush a bit longer before submitting a full review, but did want to share some initial impressions.

I must state that I have not used many brushes, and this is my first use of a higher end brush fitted with a hand tied knot. Up to this point, my brush usage has all been badger (haven’t tried synthetics yet). I currently have three other brushes, two of which I use on a very regular basis. My first brush was a gift, a hand made brush with 24mm “Silvertip” knot (no idea of the source of this knot). Second brush was a great handle made by Graydog  and gifted to me, which has a 26mm Maggard SHD knot. Third brush is an Elite handle with a 26mm Viking Odin’s Beard knot. The latter two are fan knots, are fairly well-respected, and have performed well for me. Between the two, I have a slight preference for the Odin’s Beard, but honestly they perform very similar to one another, and are close in backbone. I find the Odin’s Beard to be just slightly softer than the SHD.

I give all of this background so that you understand the baseline from which I draw any comparisons.

So, I have used the Strike Gold Shave hand tied knot about 3 or 4 times, really just beginning to break it in. In the past, I have questioned whether a knot could be THAT much better than the ones I mentioned above. Now, my answer to that question is ABSOLUTELY YES they can. The first time I used this brush, I was blown away with this knot.What voodoo is this? SO much softer, SO much backbone, a combination that seems to defy logic, but here it is. The individual hairs seem to be a bit more fine than in my other brushes, and I think that is part of the magic. The first use, I was a bit worried that it would hog the lather, but I was able to get a really nice, thick lather from one of my usual soaps. The brush does seem to be breaking in, so I only expect it to get better.

As I said, these are some initial thoughts. I will update as time goes on, but so far I am beyond impressed with this knot.

Thanks again to ANG69 , and if anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to answer what I can. Also, to strikegoldshave Frank, incredible job on this brush!