shaving, badger hair, and edible armadillos.

i was checking the Sartorialist blog today, like i usually do with lunch, and a recent post concerned shaving brushes as a Secret Santa gift. The brush in question was F.S.C. Barber Horn Shave Brush with Best Badger, and being a student at UW-Madison, the Best Badger part caught my attention.

 

It turns out, there are several grades of badger used in shaving brushes as outlined in wikipedia; good badger is from the underbelly of th badger, and comprises 60% of the hair on a badger. Best or pure badger is the finer hair from about 25% of the rest of the total badger hair, and Super badger is a graded/sorted version of this. The ne plus ultra is Silvertip badger, which have naturally silver tips. These apparently hold a lot more water, and as such, produce a superior lather.

This was mentioned directly to my labmates Ryan and Holly via gchat, with hilarious results.

Ryan:  yeah, apparently badger hair is the only thing people use with straight razors

but I dunno where they got these best ones from

yeah, you want that PURE badger too

none of those badger/horse hybrids

 me:  (shakes head)

amazing.

 Ryan:  I wonder if there are badger farms like there are with sheep

they just come and shave the badgers every now and then

 me:  Ryan, you should start one

also, make sure you get good health insurance

 Ryan:  more like life insurance

 me:  (my grandfather swears he's seen a badger attack a truck, so yeah)

 Ryan:  honey badger don't care

THAT'S the brush I want

In answer to your question, Ryan, apparently badger hair available commercially comes from mainland China, where badgers are a crop nuisance.

 Holly:  dare i ask why you're looking at this site in the first place?

 me: yes, terrible shaving problems

 Sent at 1:58 PM on Tuesday

 Holly:  i can see you going for the straight razor over the electric

 me:  (what? i have a dad and brother who shave. Granted, the dad and brother are blond and barely need to shave, but whatevs)

like, yeah. straight edge forevah

 Holly:  seems like a pretty fancy gentleman store for that group (no offense)

 me:  entirely too true

they'd all be like; 'You spent how much on WHAT?!'

 Holly:  i'd prefer $50 worth of beef jerky!

 me:  that has my vote, too

(and is much, much more likely)

even though it'll last, what, an hour?

 me:  and yeah, as i'll be in Amarillo; jerky for all, and to all a proteinacious night!

 Sent at 2:06 PM on Tuesday

 Holly:  (i read Armadillo, and wondered how armadillo jerky would taste...)

 Sent at 2:09 PM on Tuesday

 me:  mmm, leoprosy.

According to a brief search, the Florida Public Media cites" the 1975 edition of the Joy of Cooking describes armadillo meat as light and “porklike in flavor.” Also in that article regarding armadillos as a food source, they can carry leprosy, you should prolly cook your armadillo to 160 degrees before ingesting.