not quite my grandfathers shaving brush [SEP] my maternal grandfather passed away some years ago after my mother returned from her out of state trip to be with her mother and bury her father she gave me a small box containing some of his personal belongings among them was his ever ready shaving brush i had no use for it at the time as i unpacked after a recent move i rediscovered this item and decided to use it it was really enjoyable so after a few months i decided granddads brush should be properly retired and i should get my own since they no longer manufacture ever readys i looked here at amazon this was the brush i decided upon it is okit is definitely not my grandfathers brush quality wise grand dad was a farmer and not a gentleman farmer so he would not have paid a lot for his so i thought this one might be similar in quality i was wrong it is very stiff it does not do a great job with the soap lather it also arrived with a very strong musky aroma in the bristles this is probably what badgers smell like but as i am a native of southern california and we do not need no stinkin badgers here i am not positive this aroma was also transferred to my face as well for the first month of use just prior to the musky animal aroma disappearing i was frustrated enough with the smell on me all day to look for another brush since my grandfathers brush had no aroma i knew it was possible to have one that was aroma free but was it a matter of quality or simply a matter of timei purchased a vulfix brush hand made on the isle of man in the ukit is much more like granddads in color feel and use it lathers very nicely it is very soft on the face it holds a lot of water there was a slight smell nothing at all like the simplybeautiful smell that was gone after the use if you are thinking about going with a shaving brush and i love mine and will only go back to the can for short travel trips my advice is to spend the money and get one that will last for a few decades like the vulfix and avoid the badgery smell although it did eventually go away i have not made the decision to also go with the straight razor i figure i will give the emts in the area a break and stick with the safety razor