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)

I bought this exclusively for travel. It's a little large for that, but I will give it a try. It has a good heft to it, and seems well made in every aspect.

good bargain

Perfectly balanced. Beautiful fiber hairs. Wonderful shaving brush. One of my favorites!

I love a wooden handkerchief brush. My cup went missing last year. And this year the wooden handke shaving brush went missing thus year I live my brush.

This brush is a 4.5 star review. It whips up a lather better than most brushes, holds more lather than most brushes, is easy to clean and well weighted. This may well be the best shaving brush I have ever used. The only reason this is not a 5+ rating is the handle has a sharp almost raw metal edge when you hold it by the metal ribbed base...the rib is sharp, not properly finished to a smooth soft touch, but useable.

REVIEW UPDATE 3/12/17I 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.

Works great, great value.First brush for my face

I am pleased with this brush. I am relatively new to DE razor shaving, actually wet shaving in general. I used to use an electric razor, it broke and I discovered how enjoyable wet shaving can be. I bought this brush but with the wood handle. I was very pleased with the performance, it does a good job lathering and there’s pretty much no bristle loss. I only had one issue with it; there didn’t appear to be a finish on the wood that protects it from moisture, and it didn’t look very good after being exposed to water after a few weeks. I switched to the white one, which is pretty much the same great performance but doesn’t suffer from the same issue since there’s no wood, and there’s a little more heft to it, which I like. Neither one of them have a weird smell, overall pretty good for the cost.