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Essay #7: The Anatomy of The Simpson's Shaving Brush
Written by Charles A. Roberts
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Some years ago, the great industrial management thinker J.M. Juran immortalized the elusive
concept of quality as “fitness for use.” Juran believed that every manufactured article should
satisfy an exacting standard of both quality and utility before being offered for sale. In reaching
this standard, Juran worked backward in the product development process. First, the actual
needs of the customer should be carefully studied and reliably identified. Then a product is
carefully designed and constructed to satisfy those needs. As a devoted follower of Juran, I can
assure you that he had little use for poor quality.
About This Essay
Several years ago Charles A. Roberts, creator of the Hydrolast brand and Method Shaving
movement, authored a series of essays that ignited a surge of interest in wet shaving. These
essays offered an innovative approach to maximizing the results of the razor and shaving brush,
and provided many men a great introduction to a world of luxury shaving they never knew
existed.
The Original "Shaving Graces" Resurrected!
Indeed, if one simply looks around the world today, the truth of Juran’s perspective is readily
apparent—albeit in isolated instances. Nearly all of our favorite products, everything of real
value that we use—and use up—in everyday life, are inevitably perfect for their intended use. A
bar of soap for instance should not only clean our bodies. It should also do something to revive
our spirits as well. Food should not only nourish us; it should offer our palates a pleasing
experience. A car should not just convey a body; it should create a pleasurable driving
experience.
Much the same can be said for a myriad of other objects and their wider relation to everyday
life. Certainly in this context we can readily conclude that man is not only a tool-making animal.
He is invariably a tool-perfecting creature as well. And when the perfect tool—one that is
eminently “fit for use”—is not readily available at hand, man will invariably find some means to
invent it.
It is probably uneventful to remark that every man has his favorite tool for getting certain jobs
done. Some cherish hammers, anvils, screwdrivers, laptop computers and so on. Other men
believe that fast cars, boats, and airplanes are also singularly worthy creations. I, however,
happen to believe that the Simpsons shaving brush ranks among the finest artifacts of human
ingenuity ever created. It is, in every distinct respect, an object conceived for the most exacting
“fitness for use” possible.
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Essay #7: The Anatomy of The Simpson's Shaving Brush
Written by Charles A. Roberts
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Simpsons shaving brush company is located in a small shire in Somerset, England. The
company has been in continuous existence since 1875. Indeed, its continuity over the decades
has been so unperturbed, that several of its employees have successfully passed their entire
working lives within the company’s environs. There they have quietly worked producing the
world’s greatest shaving brushes one piece at a time. Indeed, this amazing fact was recently
brought to my attention with astonishing clarity. Recently I was honored to have breakfast with
the owner of Simpsons, Mr. David Carter. While discussing the myriad marvels of Simpson’s
brushes, he remarked that one of his most gifted brush makers had recently passed away at the
age of 97. He had made shaving brushes for over sixty years.
A man who has never shaved with a Simpsons brush is a man who has walked the earth in
partial stupefaction. It is even possible to describe him as an “idiot.” By this expression I do not
mean the modern scurrilous definition of someone who is insufferably stupid. But rather the
ancient Greek rendering of the term: a man without a home, a lost soul, if you will; a man who is
without the grace of great things to betide him through the difficult times of life. A man who has
never shaved with a Simpsons brush is a man forever encased in a frigid block of insensibility.
He is compelled by little else but the impulse to get and get by. He is the living shade of
sadness in our midst, walking the earth in mute gravitas like Priam’s ghost.
At first glance, the Simpsons brush looks much like any other produced in the world today ( this
view, however, applies only to the pure badger range of brushes. The best and silver tip ranges
are astonishing to behold). Just like every other shaving brush, it consists of essentially two
parts—brush and handle. However, the similarities with any other shaving brush terminate with
this superficial relation. For unlike other shaving brushes, every Simpsons is totally handmade.
This fact instantly separates the intrinsic qualities of Simpsons brushes from every other
available for possible consideration.
Indeed, it is this unique process of handmade manufacture—a painstaking process that has
been performed continuously for over 125 years—that distinguishes the Simpsons brush as the
ultimate shaving instrument. For unlike a machine made shaving brush, Simpsons is
constructed in one joint fusion of brush and handle. In other words, the two chief elements of
the brush—brush head and handle—are constructed together in one seamless unity. It is this
distinctive method of construction that gives the Simpsons brush its unchallenged status as the
high flex masterpiece of shaving in the world today.
This incredibly difficult process of producing each Simpson brush as one unified piece is the
distinctive trademark of Simpsons brushes. Indeed, it is only by knotting each brush by hand
that the perfect degree of flexion can be achieved. It is this flexion that moves water through the
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Essay #7: The Anatomy of The Simpson's Shaving Brush
Written by Charles A. Roberts
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
brush itself. It is also this flex action that infuses water into the shaving cream. Without sufficient
water, even the best shaving cream is useless.
This process results in the full, rapid infusion of shaving cream with water. In this way, the
shave cream is neither over hydrated, nor is it dried prematurely through too much brush action.
Clear evidence of this remarkable fact can be seen in the amount of time that is required to load
and release shaving cream through the Simpson brush. An entire load of shaving cream can be
packed, fully infused and released onto a man’s beard in less time than it takes to change a
razor blade: incredible!
To best understand the amazing quality advantage of the Simpsons shaving brush, it is
important to briefly discuss the difference between handmade and mass-produced shaving
brushes. By looking closely at the very different processes by which both of these brushes are
produced, we can better judge the impressive intrinsic virtues of Simpsons brushes in the
appropriate and most compelling manner possible.
Nearly every shaving brush made in the world today is the product of the mass production
process. And like most such procedures, this method yields a shaving brush that is suited to the
very lowest denomination of user. The industry describes this wretch as the “average brush
shaver.” Amazingly, I have never seen such a creature in over ten years of teaching wet
shaving to thousands of individuals. Thus, I will simply refer to the “average shaver” as the man
least likely to get a decent shave from the mass produced shaving brush that he happened to
purchase from the “average” salesman who knows nothing about shaving. In short, any man
who purchases a mass produced shaving brush is not a real wet shaver. He is merely a dabbler
in his own facial hair. Only a man equipped with a Simpsons brush can, I feel, be rightfully
called a wet shaver.
The manufacture of mass produced brushes is commonly done in two different steps. First,
large volumes of badger hair are unpacked, washed and sterilized in high speed autoclaves
using intense steam pressure. This process is usually repeated for three cycles. Once cleaned
the hair is then sorted into various grades of quality.
Next, the hair is cut to specified lengths (usually too short, in my opinion) based on the size of
brush handle to be used later. Shaving brush handles are typically produced through ejection
molding. This results in a high degree of manufactured uniformity, but very low functional
standard. Both badger hair and shaving brush handle are then married with a glue gun, packed.
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Essay #7: The Anatomy of The Simpson's Shaving Brush
Written by Charles A. Roberts
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
These are then shipped for later use by poor blokes who know nothing of the glories of
perfect-cut shaving. And most, sadly, will never have the chance to experience them.
I must admit at this point, that despite my knowledge on the manufacture of mass market
shaving brushes, I actually know very little about the specifics of how the Simpsons shaving
brush is actually made. This fact affords a curious irony in the strange ways that personal
expertise is often acquired.
For instance, I am the one who invented the concept of the “full” and the “half release”
technique for a shaving brush. Yet I can not explain exactly why this technique only works
correctly on a Simpsons brush and no other. I am also the one who has made the most noise
about the supreme importance of “flex” in the head of a shaving brush. Yet I can not explain in
any compelling detail why the flex of a Simpsons brush is so vastly superior to that of any other
shaving brush made in the world today. And, finally, I am fascinated by the fact that my own
Simpson’s brush has seen more than half a decade of daily use, Yet it continues to keep its
precise shape, even though it is dried every day without a drip stand.
How, indeed, is such manifest excellence in a man made product even conceivable in this dull,
technologically manacled age in which we live? The answer is simple: the Simpsons brush is
supremely perfect for shaving because it is created exclusively to amply satisfy the most
discerning and demanding shaving customers on the planet---mine!
In much the same way that the riddle of the Sphinx or the mysteries of the catacombs continue
to transfix the minds of men, I continue to be amazed by the marvelous—and even—miraculous
quality of the Simpsons shaving brush. And, indeed, I am not alone. Many thoughtful men who
are my customers have also expressed an equally profound admiration for their favorite brush.
I sincerely hope that this brief consideration of the many virtues of my favorite shaving brushes
has been suitably informative.
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