Luxury Shaving Brush for Men by VIKINGS BLADE, Ultra Heavy Acrylic & 316L Steel Handle, Super Strong Knot Backbone, Minimal Shedding, Fast Lather, Extremely Smooth & Plush on Skin (Dark Stallion)

REVIEW UPDATE 3/12/17 I was contacted by Julian from Vikings Blade. Apparently there was a very small chance I received a brush from the old stock. These brushes have been upgraded and a new and improved batch came out Nov 2016. I was explained the old batch was removed and replaced by the new version but somehow I might have ended up with one of the old ones. My purchase came with a 30 day warranty so I was offered a free replacement but I was told that if I was looking for the "silvertip soft feel", the "White Knight" premium synthetic brush was the better choice. Julian explained how great these brushes are, made of quality synthetic fibers that absorb and retain water better than real badger plus they have firm bristles and the tips are soft, better, much better than the badger version. I was a little hesitant to take a synthetic. I have a few brushes in badger, boar and horse but I am not really into fake bristles. I was assured I was going to love it so I went for the synthetic version. The brush arrived the next day and man! what was I missing! Not only is this brush in ivory color gorgeous but the fibers look great with the white tip and they feel softer than real silvertip IMO. I used the brush that same day with Arko soap and face lathering for my shave, this brush worked like a champ. The knot has backbone and the tips soft and gentle. The brush lathered very fast, it hold enough lather for my 3 passes. At the end, the brush was easy to clean, dried quickly and retained its new shape. I used it again few days later but this time I wanted to know how good it will perform bowl lathering with hard soap. Well, it did great and just as my natural badgers, got the lather pretty quick with minimal effort and holding enough lather for 3 or more passes. If you are like me and have never tried a synthetic, give it a try because you are missing out. This is a great brush, It will perform very good and it will add a distinctive look to your bathroom. I am including pictures of my bowl lathering before, during and after the shave. Hope you find this long review informative and helps you decide. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I was thinking in rating it 4 stars but I had to be more honest in my review as this will help other buyers and even Vikings Blade by taking things into consideration. The good: The handle is just gorgeous! Black obsidian acrylic with the alloy base combination make this handle look and feel luxurious. The handle is heavy and comfortable to hold, you can feel quality that sets this brush handle aside for the others. The logo in the alloy is fantastic and adds an extra touch of quality. Made in Australia. The Bad: The badger knot is not up to this handle quality level. This badger hair is short and feels cheap and scratchy. My new quality horse brush by Vie-Long and premium boar brush by Semogue feels softer and provide better lathering! Badger is supposed to be a class above horse and boar but this badger is just inferior to my other brushes. This knot has no backbone, it’s hard to lather because there is minimal to no backbone. The brush also splits/opens on your face for the same reason. I will recommend Vikings Blade to go a step above and change these knots with quality badger hair knots (finest badger or super badger) but if they want to keep the "best badger" line and current price then to change these knot suppliers. Another great option for these good-looking handles is to change them to SUPER quality boar and horse knots but only if they can get the best, if they put cheap ones then will have the same result. Viking Blade is going in the right direction with quality shaving products at a good price but just need some improvement.

Edit 2022… this badger brush is 5 years old! It’s still in amazing shape! (Photo) Items like these are like they made things long ago - to Last! If I didn’t love it why would I continue to update reviews? Because people post reviews from the first day or a week. Not much help. But you deserve to see a 5 year review. Edit 2020... If this brush is what you’re looking for BUY IT! Hadn’t realized I’d had the brush since ‘17. It has held up beautifully. I can honestly say since ‘17 about 10 hairs have come out. I treat the brush well. Rinse it well. But I don’t hang it upside down. Nothing special in the way I treat it. Low maintenance and the highest quality. Wonderful! I've used it for several weeks. I have Not found a single badger hair on my face after lathering, in the soap bowl or in the sink when I'm done! I'm not kidding. The brush is soft. Just a little bit of texture to help raise the facial hairs. It fills up with lather very nicely. The handle is Solid. Very nice weight to it. I have some arthritis in my hands so its a little heavy to spend a long time lathering. But this should not deter you in any way from buying it. In fact for nearly everyone the solid feel of the handle is a real plus. Further, the reviews regarding Julian, the seller, were so good I simply knew if I had a problem with anything Julian would make it right. Very reassuring when buying something you haven't held in your hand. I received the package quickly, well before expected. Everything I ordered was there. Very nicely packaged. Julian sent me an email making sure I was happy with the products. Which I assured him I was. But wanted to wait a few weeks before reviewing the brush to test it out. Well, you read my review. So if you want a best badger hair brush this might be the one you'll enjoy. Edit: so many years later. Still an excellent product. Has held up beautifully. Over the past year I’d say I never found a badger hair on my shave soap, sink, or face. Buy from this seller.

*EDIT* (05-05-21) I have had this guy for close to 5 years now. Crazy that it has been that long. Anyway, there is wear but I have neglected it. It can still take a beating. Shaves better than ever and has only lost a few hairs over the years with daily use. I recommend any day. *EDIT* (01-20-18) I have had this brush over a year now. I use it multiple times a week, sometimes twice a day and it is still going strong. I have lost a few hairs in the past year but it has been FEW. I have posted pics with what it looks like after a year. The logo has faded a little and the bottom metal piece has a few Sratches where I sit it up from time to time but no rust spots. I don’t dry the handle after use, I just hang it to air dry. This is one of the greatest investments you can make in wetshaving. I have put this thing through a beating. It is a tank of a brush and one I see myself using for many more years. Great quality great quality shave. (12-30-16) I am several months into wetshaving and wanted to upgrade from Van Der Hagan. I was in the brush market for weeks eyeballing Viking's Luxury Badger Brush from off the fence until I finally broke down and bought it. When I slid the brush out of its cylinder packaging I could instantly feel the great quality and knew I made the right decision. It has a nice weight to it and the badger is nice and soft. As I stated earlier, I wanted to try out something different than the VDH brand. Glad I chose Vikings first. I probably would have spent a lot more money on other brushes just to eventually find out that the best one for a low budget is made by Vikings Blade. It is beautifully made and feels so great on the face. The brush sits handsomely on the Perfecto Deluxe stand too. I really recommend this brush if you are new to wet-shaving, have been wet-shaving for several years or looking for a new great quality brush for a great price. I will definitely have to check out the other products from this brand one day.

Great weight in the hand. Soft, yet lathers soap easily. Hasn't shed any bristles in the first month of use at all.

I'd drop this to 3 stars if you have good water or want to replace the knot. You can't replace the knot as its some special screw deep-recess variety. What I can say, its a decent synthetic with a super heavy end on the handle. This means if you haven't used one with such as heavy end then it'll catch you by surprise. The stock synthetic knot is decent although not great. Its synthetic so its much more suited to anyone with hard water. It will lose some bristles on first use like any new knot although I did lose a few every few weeks over 3 years of use off the one I owned. It never dropped down to anemic levels and mostly dropped off although loose may have been due to my own usage and abuse. Lather itself was decent although due to the synthetic. It was never super soft nor built a great lather. It felt more like I was brushing my face when lathering. This made me look up shave information, reviews, and more over a few years ownership until I replaced it. Its still a decent brush and will have be a great backup and secondary brush despite I've replaced it. I wish it was more standardized where, despite its a screw-in knot, where if there were kits to replace the knot with non-synthetic. A handle with this weight and simple knot removal should have options available although I didn't find any while looking. In the future, if a handle like this from Vikings Blade exists. If they start offering a form of adapters to epoxy/glue in replacement knots to and/or replacement screw-in knots of various heights and breadths for the knot then it'd make this brush have a re-usable handle that would simply be superb.

I used to have some AOS brushes, but they never quite sat right. Overly soft, didn't lather as well as I would like, to be fair it was their lowest tier badger. When I discovered the practices of Chinese made brushes (the badger is killed) and I couldn't reliably trace the origin of most my brushes, I decided I wanted something that was Synthetic, Cruelty Free, From the US or an Ally, and lastly one that performs well. I took a gamble on this brush, and it worked out well. The brush is synthetic (nylon) and cruelty free, made in Australia, and the one thing I couldn't research, performance. It is as soft as a typical silver tip badger, looks just like one, and performs better in my opinion. The water retention is better than badger as the water retention is very consistent. The brush loads well, lathers well, and applies well. The brush isn't the cheapest out there, but its also a fraction of the cost of silver tipped badger, and in my opinion of equal quality. The handle has some real weight to it. I was shocked at how heavy. Its not cumbersome in any way, but there is no doubt as to how substantial this thing is. The white knight is faux Ivory, so it looks nice, but is also cruelty free. The handle is proudly stamped as Australian made. Ivory trimmed with a chrome like finish. Fits in my brush stand, so thats a plus. A note on travel, the brush does come in a tube (and may be stamped made in china, but thats just the tube). The tube while it CAN be used for travel, it does not appear to be the original intent. So you may need to carefully add your own holes for ventilation and drainage. I have heard some of the tubes could be a heavy cardboard, mine was a lovely acryllic. I intend to buy the capsule style for travel when needed as it is a travel brush. FYI, The Dark Stallion is Badger, the white knight, dark raven and fire mare to my knowledge are all cruelty free. I can verify matter of factually the white knight is a synthetic brush, and quite a good one at that.

Best shaving brush i have ever used, great price will buy again when i wear it out.

So I did waayyy too much research on shaving brushes before choosing one. I used to have a cheap badger hair brush but the thing sheds like crazy. It was only a few dollars but when I bought it, it was highly reviewed on Amazon and lots of websites were crazy for it. I remember when I got that brush that badger was the only real game and that the only good synthetics cost a small fortune. However, these days it seems that A.) No point in killing a badger for a darn brush B.) This thing is so much nicer than my last brush it's silly. Granted, this isn't the cheapest product. But it's shed only a single fiber since I bought it. It's also soft, but not so soft it gets floppy when you try to apply cream to your face. It holds heat just fine, though I'll grant that's one mild weakness over the badger brush I had. Still though, it's not very noticeable. Most synthetic brushes seemed to be sourced from the same handful of companies. I doubt the fibers themselves are proprietary to Viking. So really what you're getting here is the base of the brush from Viking. It feels super premium and has some nice weight to it. I'm super happy with it, though you should know that Amazon isn't the best at packaging it. When it arrived the case was cracked and the bottom had come off of it entirely. It took less than a minute and some super glue and it's as good as new. Viking offered some Amazon credit but I felt it wasn't their fault and unnecessary. However, it does tell me that the traveling case's plastic isn't the best so make you're a little careful when you pack it. It does protect the brush, which I guess is the important part.

Didn't want to go with the natural boar bristles, having compassion for the boars! but...didn't think I could find a shaving brush with as good as them...but I did, this brush is just as good as the natural thing. 5 months use and still as good as when I got it.

Fırçanın malzeme kalitesi iyi. Su ve ısı tutmada başarılı. Ancak, köpük oluşturma, yüzde bıraktığı his, ucuz olanlardan çok farklı değil. Kaliteli malzemelerle üretilmiş ortalama bir fırçaya ihtiyacınız varsa satın alın. Ama, aynı performansta daha ucuz fırçalar olduğunu da unutmayın.

Nice brush that has performed very well since I bought it.

Great weight… superior quality, I will never buy those cheap competitors ones again!

The brush, is super luxury type with plush bristles, smooth and quality handle with heavy base. I liked it very much. I am giving one star less, because the travel case came broken on delivery, and I cannot use it anymore while traveling.