See the "Arley," our January Brush of the Month
L7 Shaving Brush by Morris & Forndran

L7 26/28

$ 205

Shipping calculated at checkout.

The L7 shaving brush has become virtually synonymous with the Morris & Forndran brand.  Because of the L7's close association with Lee Sabini and Morris & Forndran, we are delighted to offer the L7--and the new L7 Bi-Colour as our December Brush of the Month.

How the L7 came into being is a fascinating story.

As many know, the L7 shaving brush is virtually synonymous with the Morris & Forndran brand.  While at Rooney, Mr. Sabini designed the L7 by mating the collar of the much longer "Victorian" shaving brush with another Rooney design called the "Prince," a design first offered as a hand-turned brush in about 1910.  The first L7's were turned on 1970's-era Colchester "Chipmaster" duplicating lathes which, by the 2000's, were nearing the end of their useful lives.  The need to replace the aging Chipmasters with modern CNC lathes was becoming increasingly obvious.  To facilitate that transition, Mr. Sabini engaged an outside consultant, with whom Rooney had had an ongoing relationship, to create CAD drawings of the L7.  These CAD drawings, in turn, allowed the consultant to transfer and refine the G-code for Mr. Sabini’s design onto a small CNC lathe for test purposes.  Under the code name "Mandarin," the consultant made test runs of about 30 Mandarin/L7's before submitting the test handles and finished "G-code" to Rooney.  

(According to Mr. Sabini’s records, some of the test L7 handles were later sent to a button making factory in the UK that Rooney had contracted with for L7 production runs in 24mm and 26mm sizes.  Mr. Sabini tells us he still has a work order for at least 150 26mm L7’s from that factory; however the work order(or orders) for 24mm L7's has(have) been lost; so the exact number of 24mm L7's produced by that factory is currently unknown.)
After Rooney was sold, Mr. Sabini retained rights to all Rooney shaving brush handle designs, including the L7.  He later used several of those designs when he resurrected the Morris & Forndran brand.
Since 2016, L7's have been turned on a manually-controlled Powermatic 3520 wood lathe in the more popular 26mm and 28mm sizes.  "Hand turning", as Mr. Sabini calls it, is naturally more time-consuming, with more piece-to-piece variability, than the previous CNC-made Rooney and Morris & Forndran brushes.  However, as with handmade clothing, we have found that many discerning members of the wet shaving community appreciate the ability to specify the brush they want knowing their L7, filled with Lee Sabini's hand-tied 2- or 3-band badger, is truly one of a kind.
Brad Sears ShaveWorks is honored to continue the L7 lineage as the only currently authorized maker of the L7 and all other Morris & Forndran shaving brush handles in your choice of colors from our Resin Inventory.

Approximate Dimensions

Socket Diameter 26mm 28mm
Total Height 113mm 120mm
Handle Height 63mm 68mm
Bristle Loft 50mm 52mm
Morris & Forndran