This week I have had the privilege of using and testing/comparing the Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic 28/54. While I’m really fond of testing and comparing razors, I’ve been a little bit less enthusiastic about reviewing brushes; mostly due to the huge amount of subjectivity involved and the whole “YMMV” thing. Nevertheless, I will do my best to convey my thoughts regarding the latest Simpson to grace my face.
Plenty of pictures have been posted by both Gary and Teiste, so I will defer to their threads for the photography.
First, my current brush lineup:
Rudy Vey AS3M Shavemac Silvertip 31.5x56
Shavemac 167 D01 3 Band Extra Silvertip 30x55
Simpson Simfix Carnane 2 Band: 28/56
Rooney Heritage 3XL 2 Band: 30/54
Rudy Vey TGN 2 Band Finest: 30/57
Rudy Vey TGN 2 Band Finest: 31/54
Muhle 35 K 257 Synthetic V2.0 Fibre: 25/57
Omega 49
Omega 20106
By way of background, I’ve owned and used a considerable number of other brushes, including the Simpson Chubby 3 in Best, Super and Manchurian. The Simpson Chubby 2 in Best, Super and 2 Band. The Simpson Chubby 1 in 2 Band. Simpson Duke 3 in 2 Band. Simpson Ehsan. Simpson Polo 10, Persian Jar 3 and 59, all in 2 Band. Simpson Tulip 4 Super. Vulfix 40 and 41 in Silvertip. Frank Shaving synthetic 28/56 in both Generation 3 and 4 fiber versions. Rooney Finest in 22mm. A couple of M&F’s; 26 and 30mm 3 band blondes. I’ve owned most of the Semogue LE badgers and boars as well.
All of the above are good to great brushes and it’s been a blast to use them all.
As a side note, brushes, much like razors, can become somewhat redundant after a while – in that there is some overlap between their characteristics, performance and “face feel”. With that being the case, at least for me, I have sold or traded a good number of both brushes and razors only because they already had “stable mates” that pretty much performed the same (albeit sometimes with subtle nuances). The razors and brushes that I have kept, I’ve done so in many cases because they just “felt” better in my hand or on my face; or because they filled a particular niche that seemed to better round out my collection and at the same time, provided variety in the shaving experience.
Back to the Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic. The short story is simply this – on my face, it was readily outperformed by the 25mm V2.0 Muhle. It was also outperformed by all of my badgers, although there were some similarities that I will share.
In comparison to the Muhle 35 K 257 V2.0 25mm brush, the Simpson was “stiffer” and a bit more difficult to splay. The Muhle is by no means floppy – it does however feel a bit larger on the face than its 25mm knot would suggest. I tend to like “bigger” brushes and I was quite surprised that the Muhle felt as good as it did. The Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic has a bigger knot and a fatter, but shorter, handle. I don’t particularly care for either handle by the way. The Muhle has good height, but is too slim for my liking. The Chubby 2 has a nice diameter, but I don’t like the height. On the other hand, I really like the Chubby 3 handles, but that’s another story. To summarize the handles – I don’t particularly care for either one.
Back to the Muhle 25mm and the Chubby 2. These fibers have to be pretty much the same I would guess. They are both using what appears to be the latest generation of synthetic hair so in the end, it comes down to knots, lofts, handles and final assembly quality (and glue bumps or the lack thereof). There’s no doubt more to it than that, but for the end user, those qualities are those most commonly recognized by end users.
I believe that the Chubby 2 Synthetic needs more loft if it is going to get closer to its Chubby 2 badger siblings (it is labeled Synthetic Badger – so striving to be like it’s Badger brothers/sisters seems to be a fair goal). The fibers are of course, very soft; but with the short loft, the fiber presents itself as too stiff to compare favorably with the badgers. I would guess that an added 5mm+ of loft would be just enough to get this brush very close to what I would be looking for. As it is, the Chubby 2, while silky soft, is simply too springy and a bit harder to splay and stiffer than it should be. What I mean by this is that you have to “concentrate” quite a bit more with the Chubby 2 Synthetic to get it to perform decently than you do the Muhle 25mm or any of the badgers (the Shavemac D01 being the exception). As it is now, both a Simpson Chubby 2 in Super or 2 Band would eat this thing alive.
When properly splayed, the Simpson takes up about the same amount of real estate on my face as does my Simpson Carnane. If you don’t apply enough pressure to splay it properly, it’s face feel deteriorates rapidly. On the other hand, the Muhle, much like the Carnane and the Rooney 3XL, simply performs well without much thought. The Simpson actually reminds me of my last Frank Shaving Pur-Tech 4.0 brush. The Simpson is no doubt built better – but the actual feel of the two is very close. The Frank has the glue bump thing going on, but then again, it has a taller loft than does the Simpson. The final “face feel” result is very similar. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Simpson feels and performs MUCH closer to the Frank Shaving 28/57 than it does to the 25mm Muhle.
When compared to my badger brushes, the Simpson Synthetic (when properly splayed) has the face coverage of the Simpson Carnane, but feels a lot more like a shorter lofted Shavemac D01 3 band than it does to the Simpson Carnane 2 Band, Rooney Heritage, TGN 2 Band Finest or the Shavemac Silvertip. I guess if you’ve owned a shorter loft Shavemac D01 3 Band, you get the picture. If you like brushes on the “stiffer” side, this Simpson may make you happy. If you’re looking for a Simpson Chubby 2 Super or 2 Band feel, this isn’t the brush for you, at least not in it's current configuration.
Final Verdict: The Simpson Synthetic as it is, would not make it into my rotation and is not quite ready for primetime. It does not perform as well as the Simpson, Rooney, TGN or Shavemac badgers and it does not perform as well as the new Muhle synthetic. It is however, pretty close, for better or for worse, to the current Frank Shaving Pur-Tech 4.0.
I’m a Simpson fan – no doubt about it. I am not however, a fan of this particular Simpson brush. I’m hoping that some more knot/loft experimentation will take place to get a closer “dial in” to Simpson’s outstanding Chubby 2 badger brushes.
Plenty of pictures have been posted by both Gary and Teiste, so I will defer to their threads for the photography.
First, my current brush lineup:
Rudy Vey AS3M Shavemac Silvertip 31.5x56
Shavemac 167 D01 3 Band Extra Silvertip 30x55
Simpson Simfix Carnane 2 Band: 28/56
Rooney Heritage 3XL 2 Band: 30/54
Rudy Vey TGN 2 Band Finest: 30/57
Rudy Vey TGN 2 Band Finest: 31/54
Muhle 35 K 257 Synthetic V2.0 Fibre: 25/57
Omega 49
Omega 20106
By way of background, I’ve owned and used a considerable number of other brushes, including the Simpson Chubby 3 in Best, Super and Manchurian. The Simpson Chubby 2 in Best, Super and 2 Band. The Simpson Chubby 1 in 2 Band. Simpson Duke 3 in 2 Band. Simpson Ehsan. Simpson Polo 10, Persian Jar 3 and 59, all in 2 Band. Simpson Tulip 4 Super. Vulfix 40 and 41 in Silvertip. Frank Shaving synthetic 28/56 in both Generation 3 and 4 fiber versions. Rooney Finest in 22mm. A couple of M&F’s; 26 and 30mm 3 band blondes. I’ve owned most of the Semogue LE badgers and boars as well.
All of the above are good to great brushes and it’s been a blast to use them all.
As a side note, brushes, much like razors, can become somewhat redundant after a while – in that there is some overlap between their characteristics, performance and “face feel”. With that being the case, at least for me, I have sold or traded a good number of both brushes and razors only because they already had “stable mates” that pretty much performed the same (albeit sometimes with subtle nuances). The razors and brushes that I have kept, I’ve done so in many cases because they just “felt” better in my hand or on my face; or because they filled a particular niche that seemed to better round out my collection and at the same time, provided variety in the shaving experience.
Back to the Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic. The short story is simply this – on my face, it was readily outperformed by the 25mm V2.0 Muhle. It was also outperformed by all of my badgers, although there were some similarities that I will share.
In comparison to the Muhle 35 K 257 V2.0 25mm brush, the Simpson was “stiffer” and a bit more difficult to splay. The Muhle is by no means floppy – it does however feel a bit larger on the face than its 25mm knot would suggest. I tend to like “bigger” brushes and I was quite surprised that the Muhle felt as good as it did. The Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic has a bigger knot and a fatter, but shorter, handle. I don’t particularly care for either handle by the way. The Muhle has good height, but is too slim for my liking. The Chubby 2 has a nice diameter, but I don’t like the height. On the other hand, I really like the Chubby 3 handles, but that’s another story. To summarize the handles – I don’t particularly care for either one.
Back to the Muhle 25mm and the Chubby 2. These fibers have to be pretty much the same I would guess. They are both using what appears to be the latest generation of synthetic hair so in the end, it comes down to knots, lofts, handles and final assembly quality (and glue bumps or the lack thereof). There’s no doubt more to it than that, but for the end user, those qualities are those most commonly recognized by end users.
I believe that the Chubby 2 Synthetic needs more loft if it is going to get closer to its Chubby 2 badger siblings (it is labeled Synthetic Badger – so striving to be like it’s Badger brothers/sisters seems to be a fair goal). The fibers are of course, very soft; but with the short loft, the fiber presents itself as too stiff to compare favorably with the badgers. I would guess that an added 5mm+ of loft would be just enough to get this brush very close to what I would be looking for. As it is, the Chubby 2, while silky soft, is simply too springy and a bit harder to splay and stiffer than it should be. What I mean by this is that you have to “concentrate” quite a bit more with the Chubby 2 Synthetic to get it to perform decently than you do the Muhle 25mm or any of the badgers (the Shavemac D01 being the exception). As it is now, both a Simpson Chubby 2 in Super or 2 Band would eat this thing alive.
When properly splayed, the Simpson takes up about the same amount of real estate on my face as does my Simpson Carnane. If you don’t apply enough pressure to splay it properly, it’s face feel deteriorates rapidly. On the other hand, the Muhle, much like the Carnane and the Rooney 3XL, simply performs well without much thought. The Simpson actually reminds me of my last Frank Shaving Pur-Tech 4.0 brush. The Simpson is no doubt built better – but the actual feel of the two is very close. The Frank has the glue bump thing going on, but then again, it has a taller loft than does the Simpson. The final “face feel” result is very similar. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Simpson feels and performs MUCH closer to the Frank Shaving 28/57 than it does to the 25mm Muhle.
When compared to my badger brushes, the Simpson Synthetic (when properly splayed) has the face coverage of the Simpson Carnane, but feels a lot more like a shorter lofted Shavemac D01 3 band than it does to the Simpson Carnane 2 Band, Rooney Heritage, TGN 2 Band Finest or the Shavemac Silvertip. I guess if you’ve owned a shorter loft Shavemac D01 3 Band, you get the picture. If you like brushes on the “stiffer” side, this Simpson may make you happy. If you’re looking for a Simpson Chubby 2 Super or 2 Band feel, this isn’t the brush for you, at least not in it's current configuration.
Final Verdict: The Simpson Synthetic as it is, would not make it into my rotation and is not quite ready for primetime. It does not perform as well as the Simpson, Rooney, TGN or Shavemac badgers and it does not perform as well as the new Muhle synthetic. It is however, pretty close, for better or for worse, to the current Frank Shaving Pur-Tech 4.0.
I’m a Simpson fan – no doubt about it. I am not however, a fan of this particular Simpson brush. I’m hoping that some more knot/loft experimentation will take place to get a closer “dial in” to Simpson’s outstanding Chubby 2 badger brushes.