[davisbonanza]

Ok,
So I've been shaving right for three plus months now. I bought my first and only brush, no BAD yet, from coolshaving.com. I purchased from them because of this write up on their site, Shaving Brushes Badger and Boar, believing the animals were not killed for their hair. I realized a little while ago that the brush in their pictures, which is the one I got, is just a Col. Ichabod Conk brush. Is this whole bit about shearing the badgers just a ploy to sell brushes to animal rights activists? I do love animals but I am not a militant PETA fanatic or anything like that. I just bought the same Col. Conk brush for my dad at a local pipe shop and didn't see anything about the humane treatment of the badgers that gave their hair for the brush. Does anyone have any insight on this company and their badger shearing story?

Thanks all,

[sdsquarepoint]

Col Conk brushes are made by Vulvix. You might e mail their customer service. Vulfix Old Original - Men’s shaving brushes, Razors and shaving accessories

Hope this helps.
MikeB

[Utopian]

Please let us know what you find out. I really want to see a video of badgering shearing. I have sheared sheep and trapped badgers but I cannot imagine shearing a badger. They are not exactly friendly so I am not sure how one would go about domesticating them without a good deal of sedatives.

[nun2sharp]

Originally Posted by Utopian

Please let us know what you find out. I really want to see a video of badgering shearing. I have sheared sheep and trapped badgers but I cannot imagine shearing a badger. They are not exactly friendly so I am not sure how one would go about domesticating them without a good deal of sedatives.

+1 Not exactly a here kitty, kitty type thing I'm sure.

[Spike J]

Originally Posted by Utopian

Please let us know what you find out. I really want to see a video of badgering shearing. I have sheared sheep and trapped badgers but I cannot imagine shearing a badger. They are not exactly friendly so I am not sure how one would go about domesticating them without a good deal of sedatives.

There is no fool like a willing fool it seems. Badgers are bad tempered buggers at the best of times. I would not want to try & shear one without chain-mail protection at least.

[CactusBob]

I wouldnt want to shear one even with chainmaille. Think of the worst set of inlaws in the world on a bad hair day and thats a Badgers good day
There was another thread I read here a couple days ago talking about this and someone had emailed the customer svc at one of the vendors. Long story short they went to China and no they are not sheared while alive. Although they do use the meat in some parts they are like vermin. A search should find the other thread. I'll look when I get home tonight.

Bob

[davisbonanza]

I sent an email to the vendor, playing dumb I just asked about the shearing process and if they had any pictures

I don't want to become confrontational yet. As I said, I did buy the brush because I thought it was nice that this company didn't kill the animals but I am not a militant animal rights activist. If I do find out that this is a bogus story and claim I will be upset that a company would go to those lengths to mislead customers. We'll see if they get back to me. I will share the response, especially if I get some pictures!

[iron maiden]

I wouldn't expect any pictures.....as the badgers aren't sheared. They're skinned after they're killed. Not trying to be negative here, just honest.

All that talk is just propaganda....if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

[icedog]

I am pretty sure my first wife was half badger. She'd let anyone shave her if they gave her a few lines first.

[riooso]

They might be sheared in these brushes. If you look closely I think they are all trimmed brushes which would make sense if they had to stack random hairs.

Just a thought,
Richard

[De Layne]

Hi All,
To help reassure some squeamish readers (and for any members of PETA reading this), the badger is one of many wonderful critters that moults. Yes, after a long cold winter, they shed their coats, just like some other mammals. In the wild, the trick is finding where that fluffiness has gotten to. Once found, (usually on the ground or caught up in low branches or roots) these small tufts of badger fur are gently handled by workers. The butt fur (darker) is much more common, and so commands less that a nice clump (bouquet size) of silvertip.
Of course, the farm raised badgers are a piece of cake to harvest. The coats moult off as you'd imagine, but the collection's so much easier.
There now..........a nice little bedtime story...........since I can't sing a lulluby. If I COULD sing you one though, it would be similar to the one Harvey Korman sang to Slim Pickens in 'Blazing Saddles', as he held Slim in his arms to comfort him. Hehe.....man, that was a goofy scene.
Martin

[Kevin8888]

Originally Posted by De Layne

Hi All,
To help reassure some squeamish readers (and for any members of PETA reading this), the badger is one of many wonderful critters that moults. Yes, after a long cold winter, they shed their coats, just like some other mammals. In the wild, the trick is finding where that fluffiness has gotten to. Once found, (usually on the ground or caught up in low branches or roots) these small tufts of badger fur are gently handled by workers.....

Firstly I'd just like to say I'm not trying to be confrontational just realistic. So nobody jump down my throught about this.

Its all well and good that a badger can moult its another thing to line hairs up properly, have you ever been tying a fly when suddenly you drop the hank of deer flank hairs you where going to use as feelers? Well unless your realy under a budget your not going to try picking them up and then making sure the root is in one direction and the tip in the other, I'm sorry its just not going to happen esspechaly on a brush scale way to many hairs. Its all well and good for you to imagin the possiblility that there is a humain way to get the hairs but I realy doubt that there is (unless you count killing it first).

[davisbonanza]

Originally Posted by riooso

They might be sheared in these brushes. If you look closely I think they are all trimmed brushes which would make sense if they had to stack random hairs.

Just a thought,
Richard

I don't know, they are all Col. Conk brushes. Like I said in my original post, I got the exact same Conk brush for my dad at a local pipe shop that I got from this vendor claiming they shear their badgers.

Originally Posted by De Layne

Hi All,
To help reassure some squeamish readers (and for any members of PETA reading this), the badger is one of many wonderful critters that moults. Yes, after a long cold winter, they shed their coats, just like some other mammals. In the wild, the trick is finding where that fluffiness has gotten to. Once found, (usually on the ground or caught up in low branches or roots) these small tufts of badger fur are gently handled by workers. The butt fur (darker) is much more common, and so commands less that a nice clump (bouquet size) of silvertip.
Of course, the farm raised badgers are a piece of cake to harvest. The coats moult off as you'd imagine, but the collection's so much easier.
There now..........a nice little bedtime story...........since I can't sing a lulluby. If I COULD sing you one though, it would be similar to the one Harvey Korman sang to Slim Pickens in 'Blazing Saddles', as he held Slim in his arms to comfort him. Hehe.....man, that was a goofy scene.
Martin

This may be possible but that doesn't change the fact that this company does not advertise that they pick up the molted fur, they advertise that "three times in the spring and summer, these badgers are sheared like sheep".

[icedog]

Please watch this very educational video. Although the subject happens to be rabbits, badgers are treated exactly the same way. I hope it is not too graphic for all of you.

YouTube - What's Opera Doc?

[CactusBob]

Me thinks De Layne was kidding

Bob

[davisbonanza]

Originally Posted by CactusBob

Me thinks De Layne was kidding

Bob

My girlfriend thinks I take things way to seriously. I often don't catch when she is being sarcastic with me

[De Layne]

Originally Posted by davisbonanza

My girlfriend thinks I take things way to seriously. I often don't catch when she is being sarcastic with me

Hi Dave,
Yeah, Bob was right.........I was being 'creative'...heh. I hope you didn't mind a little gentle humor about a subject that you really don't wanna know too much about. My humor can sometimes be used to lighten things up a bit, and I am pretty good at sarcasm.......it's my meat. You just seemed so concerned, and I figured I'd come up with something pleasant.
Anyway, that shearing thing sounds..........similar to the badger moulting story, although I could be wrong.
Sorry for any confusion,
Martin

[davisbonanza]

Originally Posted by De Layne

Hi Dave,
Yeah, Bob was right.........I was being 'creative'...heh. I hope you didn't mind a little gentle humor about a subject that you really don't wanna know too much about. My humor can sometimes be used to lighten things up a bit, and I am pretty good at sarcasm.......it's my meat. You just seemed so concerned, and I figured I'd come up with something pleasant.
Anyway, that shearing thing sounds..........similar to the badger moulting story, although I could be wrong.
Sorry for any confusion,
Martin

De Layne,
I do appreciate your humor. I am more concerned about a company misleading potential patrons with bogus, fantasy tales than I am about the actual animal issue. I still have not heard from the vendor. Please, keep the sarcasm rolling!

Cheers,

[Bart]

I have been reading around a bit on that coolshaving.com site...
It is full of bogus marketing talk.
I don't peculiarly mind about badgers. (let's not get into that, 'cause policy on SRP seems that threads about badgers and ethics are closed down as soon as possible)
But I hate it when stores cross the line between consumer information and boldly fabricated lies.
Coolshaving.com is full of smooth sales talk and dubious information. (The section about straight razor maintenance is really a must read...)
Their Dovo with Buffalo horn handle is "on sale" for 244,99$ (coming from 299,99$)
Classic Shaving sells the same razor, not on sale, for 182,49$
Sadly, Classic Shaving does not sell the right soap, after all, according to Coolshaving.com, a straight razor "provides the closest, most comfortable shave possible, especially when used with our Conk soap".

I'm not affiliated with Classic Shaving, nor with Coolshaving.com

Bart.

[De Layne]

Originally Posted by davisbonanza

This may be possible but that doesn't change the fact that this company does not advertise that they pick up the molted fur, they advertise that "three times in the spring and summer, these badgers are sheared like sheep".

Hi there Dave,
I'm glad you enjoyed my previous informative post, and maybe I can help out here as well. What it seems like the company is saying is.........they go through a lot of badgers at certain times of the year. I'd imagine there's not much 'repeat' shearing however.
When I was a kid, you could buy a tiny chihuahua or tiny poodle, and have it sent through the mail. You'd see these large advertisements on the back page of some magazines, and they really grabbed a kid's attention. True story...there'd be a cute pic of a tiny puppy sitting in a teacup...... eyes begging you to send the $29.95 so they could love you forever. The BEST thing tho, was you could get a monkey for the same price!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, who wants a dog when you can have 'tame' spider or capuchin monkey. Seriously....this is a true thing, and Jay Leno has talked about the one he got as a kid from some kinda subscription sign up deal.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is the 'creative' wording that was used about the shipping. The seller guaranteed live delivery of the animal, and they held up their end of the bargain as promised. Yeah, whoever delivered that box was a live person.....however, what was IN the box.......
You get the idea,
Martin