Unlike badger hair, with its numerous grades and classifications, bristles have never had a clear hierarchy.
In fact, we first conceived the idea of grading bristles four years ago, using badger hair as a model. We classified the different grades and summarized the characteristics of each.
We divide bristles into five grades: regular, premium, extra-premium, top-quality, and rare.
Regular bristles:
Premium bristles:
Extra-premium bristles:
Top-quality bristles:
Rare bristles:
This work finally began this year. We purchased five distinct grades of bristles and conducted extensive tests.
The results are fascinating. Unlike badger hair, each grade of bristle requires a completely different loft setting to bring out its characteristics — meaning different grades need entirely different parameters to showcase their unique qualities.
Also contrary to badger hair: a longer tip does not necessarily guarantee a better brushing experience.
The scarcest and most expensive bristles have the longest tips, but they are more prone to breakage during use. These super-long tips lack strong backbone, so to fully leverage the feel of the tip while ensuring a robust enough backbone, we need to set them to a 75 mm loft.
Conversely, the shorter the tip, the stronger the overall elasticity — and, of course, the sharper the feel.
This is genuinely interesting.
We ultimately divided them into five distinct levels, each with a different loft setting to bring out its characteristics.
After the official launch, we will continue to refine the grading and optimize based on market feedback.
But this work itself is deeply meaningful — isn't it?