The Ever-Ready Badger-lon was one of the early uses of nylon, the new wonder fibre, in a shaving brush, combined with traditional badger hair. An interesting combination!
According to the American Oil & Gas Historical Society, nylon itself was discovered on 28 February 1935. The first commercial use of this new product was for toothbrushes.
Until now, all good toothbrushes were made with animal bristles,”
1938 Weco Products advertisement in Life magazine
With this background it is not hard to imagine that shaving brush manufacturers would also have shown interest …
My Badger-lon came to me from an online auction site in a used condition with soap scum and the fill of the name gone.
A bit of a clean, and filling the name with some black paint and it looks pretty good, although I did subsequently discover that gold fill was used originally.
The knot looks pretty good, although it does have a ‘glow’ or ‘halo’ from the light on the nylon fibres.
The Every-Ready Badger-lon, a 300 BN style, was not the only brush they made using nylon fibres. I also have a ‘pure’ nylon Every-Ready.
Possibly this was the premium range, hence the gold fill in the lettering, but that is only speculation.
The photo below though, from a sale listing for a different brush of the same type, shows just how much nylon was used.
More recently, it seems that ‘Badgerlon’ has been used in artists brushes.
