Search for Answers

Please see our About Us page.

We realize some makers offer to sell handles without knots or to fit customers' knots to their handles.  However, our experience with knots other than those we offer has not been good.  This has led to disappointment for the customer, as well as frustration for us.  So, for brand integrity reasons, we only fit our brushes with knots offerred by Brad Sears ShaveWorks.

After you've selected your custom shaving brush, an Order Form opens for you to tell us exactly what you want. After you've filled out the form and hit the "SUBMIT" button, you should look for an email that shows everything you've asked us to make.  Please carefully review this email and let us know as soon as possible if anything needs to be changed. Changes cannot be made after your handle is started.  

• We ask for a $100(US) non-refundable deposit to secure orders for brushes over $299, brushes smaller than 26mm, or for brushes with customizations to standard handle patterns.   
• For all other brushes we ask for a $50.00 (US) non-refundable deposit. 
• As soon as we receive your order, we will send you a PayPal invoice for the deposit which must be paid before work is scheduled. Orders will be automatically cancelled if the deposit is not paid within seven (7) calendar days. Once your brush is complete, we will notify you and any remaining balance will be due at that time. 

Some things to consider:

• We cannot accept periodic payments. You can, however, make periodic deposits to your PayPal account. That way money is available to make the final transfer/payment.

We will send you a PayPal invoice for any outstanding balance along with a photo of your brush at that time. If we have not heard from you within seven (7) days of this notification, we reserve the right to cancel your order and your deposit will be forfeit. 

• For delivery verification purposes, we must consider the shipper's tracking delivery notification to be definitive.  That means that once the shipper (like USPS) indicates that an item has been delivered, we cannot assume responsibility fo lost contents or packages.
• Because U.S. Foreign Trade regulations make it impractical for us to ship brushes to addresses outside the Uniited States, we regreat we cannot accept any orders without a U.S. shipping address.  We regret this inconvenience.
•  

As mentioned above, we accept payments through PayPal.  We find this to be the fastest and most secure method of payment.  Although PayPal will encourage you to set up an account, they do give the option of paying with a Credit Card without setting up an account.  Let us know if you have any problems and we'll try to help out!

Unless otherwise arranged in advance, we ship via USPS Priority Mail, Insured with tracking to all U.S. and APO/FPO addresses.  Your invoice will include a shipping fee that partially covers our cost. 

Once your brush is shipped, you will receive the tracking number so you can see its progress along with periodic updates.  

Due to the prohibitive cost of permits required to export brushes containing badger hair from the United States, ReadyMade and BSSW brushes can only be shipped to U.S. and APO/FPO addresses.

Instead...

1. If you decide to use a U.S.-based package forwarding service, you agree to pay all Export/Import costs including, but not necessarily limited to:  duties, taxes, and/or service fees that might be charged to export your brush from the U.S. and/or to import your brush into your country.  Please note:  Orders may not be cancelled or refunded if you do not pay such duties, taxes and/or import fees.

.

Unlike most major brush makers, every shaving brush that leaves our shop is made completely by hand in much the same way brushes were made 150 years ago.  Our handles are lathe-turned on a manually-controlled wood lathe as described in our About Us page.   

All this work takes time; however we do our best to fill your order as quickly as possible.

All shipments are well padded and securely packaged using environmentally responsible packing materials.

We invite you to Contact Us if you need a more precise estimate.

Our Shipping Address is: 

P.O. Box 791

Ridgely, MD 21660-0791

U.S.A.

We carefully inspect your brush before we package and ship it. Nevertheless, we ask you to promptly inspect it upon receipt--before you use it. If you find something we missed, please contact us immediately via our Contact Form so we can make it right.

Please note:

• Return requests must be made by the original purchaser. Brushes may be returned for refund for manufacturing defects only.  Please see our Refund Policy for further information.
  
  
• Brushes that have been used or lathered in shaving soap/cream may not be returned for refund. 
  
  
• Brushes that exhibit defects after use (e.g., shedding after the 8-12 shave break-in period, for example) may be returned for repair or replacement at our discretion.)
  
  
• Return requests must be made within 30 days of receipt at its original shipping address based upon USPS tracking. 

Due to U.S. Import/Export regulations, returns of Morris and Forndran brushes originally shipped from the U.K. must be returned directly to Morris & Forndran.

Receiving a new shaving brush is--or at least we think it should be--exciting.  A quality shaving brush should give you many years of fine shaves; but how long your brush lasts depends mostly on how well you care for it.   We explain proper brush care on this page.We hope you enjoy many years of fine traditional shaving!  

We periodically receive requests to make various types of custom shaving brushes.  Most of these requests sound reasonable on the surface--and I wish we could accommodate them--because creating a new custom design can be an invigorating experience.  The problem is that we've yet to develop a pricing methodology that is both accurate and fair to those on both sides of the transaction.  When we started out, Custom/Special Orders made good business sense.  But we quickly learned that creating custom shaving brushes--whether "from scratch" or to the prospective owner's specifications--requires significant investments in time that are almost impossible to predict.  And without reliable time estimates, writing cost estimates becomes a guessing game.  Because our guesses were typically too low--often by a significant margin--custom orders rapidly became a losing proposition, which no business can sustain over the long haul.

Our business objective is to create the very finest fully handcrafted shaving brushes of which we are capable.  Our unending quest for quality has paid dividends as our shaving brushes are widely considered to be some of the finest in the world.  With over 30 unique brush patterns, we offer one of the largest "catalogs" of standard brush patterns currently available.  We offer these brushes to you within reasonable timeframes at prices at or below comparable brushes offered by our competitors.

It is our privilege to be of service!

We have occasionally sold our handles without a knot in the past, however demand for our brushes has increased to the point where we can no longer sell handles by themselves.  We've taken this step in order to maintain the distinctiveness of the Morris & Forndran and BSSW shaving brush brands.

We do not.  We have expended considerable time, effort, and money developing proprietary knot specifications while locating and cultivating relationships with knot makers who (a) have a proven track record with us and (b) continue to  demonstrate the ability to meet those specifications.  As a result, our knot inventory is reserved for patrons who order complete brushes.

We take great pride in our workmanship; so it's extremely important to us that you be delighted with your purchases.  For that reason, we guarantee every hand-crafted piece that leaves our workshops against defects in material and workmanship to the Original Owner.  Please examine your shaving brush upon receipt and let us know if there are any issues.

Please note that this warranty does not cover matters beyond our control like improper care or damage due to inappropriate use, accident, or neglect. 

Please note:  Due to U.S. import/Export restrictions regarding Animal Hair products, Warranty concerns for Morris & Forndran brushes shipped from the U.K. should be directed to Morris & Forndran.

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored with a AES-256 encryption.  Although no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.

For further information, please see our Privacy Policy.

We use only the highest quality imported and domestic cast polyester and acrylic resins to create our shaving brush handles.  We have spent many hours testing and evaluating different handle materials to bring you the best shaving brush possible.  Check out our Rod Inventory page for more information.

Unfortunately not.  While many good looking woods, plastics and other materials are being offered these days, we have learned through often hard experience that only a very few can be made into a best-quality shaving brush handle.  We have spent many hours researching and testing numerous potential handle materials in order to offer you the very best in the world.  You need only read the many "tales of woe" on the shaving forums in order to understand our position.  

We wish we could accommodate such requests, but we have had too many issues with materials we haven't tested and evaluated in advance.  For those reasons, we no longer work with patron-supplied materials.

We try to keep a good selection of materials in stock, which you can see here, to give you a wide range of handle options.