The Best Horsehair Brushes To Clean All Sorts Of Objects
Compare The Best Horsehair Brush of 2022
Simple Shine Horsehair Brush – Best Overall
Silver is a pretty common material when it comes to jewelry, and there are many ways you can go about cleaning silverware. You can use cleaner liquid for smaller objects such as necklaces, whereas creams can be more effective for larger pieces such as dishes and utensils. Brushes are more commonly used in the latter category of silverware, and they pair well with cleaning cloths.
You’d think that the abrasive nature of bristles would damage your silverware, but you’d be surprised by how soft the horsehair actually is on surfaces such as silver. And unlike cleaning cloths, which are perfect for polishing, brushes are great for cleaning silver by removing stubborn dust and debris from crevices in more complex and ornate silverware, areas that often get ignored simply because they’re too much of a hassle to work with otherwise.
Pros
- Two brushes
- Ideal for jewelry
Cons
- Only suited for silverware
Cobbler’s Choice Co. Horsehair Brush – Runner-Up
One common use of horsehair brushes is to clean and shine shoes. Thanks to their gentle and soft bristles, horsehair brushes are a perfect choice. Whether it’s suede, leather, rubber, or anything else, the brush won’t damage the integrity or leave any scratches behind the shoes, allowing you to showcase those expensive shoes you’ve been waiting to use.
The shoe brush is meant to be used with one hand, and the design of the brush showcases this brilliantly. It’s got a concave handle, allowing the brush to fit nicely into the palm of one’s hand. You can easily grasp the entire brush with one hand only, leaving your second-hand open to hold the shoe in place. It’s a fairly simple brush, but it does its job well.
Pros
- Made to brush and shine shoes
- Does not damage the shoes
Cons
- Design won’t appeal to everyone
TAKAVU Horsehair Brush – Best Value
When it comes to painting a wall or adding color to a piece of art, accuracy is often more important than anything else. But in terms of brushing off shoes, nothing bits a decently sized brush. You don’t need to be precise when brushing away dust and debris, and in fact, larger brushes can make the task much easier, which can be quite helpful in certain situations.
This brush measures 6.7” long – that’s more than half a foot – in length, giving it enough space to really cover a lot of a shoe’s surface area in one go. You’ll find that it’s especially useful for brushing down boots, as they’ve got a lot of area to work on. The brush is designed to have a solid grip, and while it’s not uncomfortable, it can be difficult for people with smaller hands to properly grasp.
Pros
- Large brush
- Great for brushing large footwea
Cons
- Difficult to use for those with smaller hands
JOVITEC Horsehair Brush – Also Consider
Brushes often come in sets instead of being sold individually. This allows the user to work with multiple brush sizes and types at once. They may need a large brush to clean a surface, for example, whereas smaller brushes may be more useful for miscellanea and tighter crevices and corners. This set of brushes gives the user that sort of freedom.
It is worth noting that while the set of brushes does come with three brushes out of the box, two of the brushes are virtually identical. This means that, unless you use the brushes to clean different places of the house, you won’t really need to use the second brush at all, at least until the first one breaks or gets damaged. It’s a nice way of having an extra brush, but it also feels like you were robbed of a differently sized brush that you could have used for something else.
Pros
- Comes with three brushes
- Can be used in a variety of ways
Cons
- You won’t find much of a use for one of the brushes
Chemical Guys Horsehair Brush
Leather is pretty durable, but even this tough material can get damaged over time. You can scratch and cause permanent markings on certain types of leather with incredibly rough bristles, which is why it’s often recommended to simply use horsehair brushes instead of something like nylon.
Due to it being great for leather, the cleaning brush is a great choice for cleaning car seats. Car seats can get pretty dirty over time, especially if you leave the windows down as you drive. The air that gets in will contain at least a bit of dirt in it, and this can settle overtime on your seats. Giving those seats a good brushing will make them look good as new.
Pros
- Safe for leather products
- Doesn’t damage leather material
Cons
- Design of brush caters mostly to car seat niche
Best Horsehair Brushes Buyer’s Guide
Horsehair brushes are the perfect choice for homeowners looking to clean all sorts of objects. Here’s a quick rundown of what you should know about horsehair brushes.
What Is Horsehair?
When one hears the term “horsehair” they think of the actual hair that comes from a horse. However, with so many products named after things that aren’t even relevant to the actual item (such as chamois cloth not even being made out of the chamois goat), you may think that this is just another case of creative naming.
However, horsehair actually really is made out of the hair of a horse, and it’s exactly why horsehair brushes are so durable yet gentle. Horsehair is tough and difficult to snap but doesn’t cause any scratches on surfaces at the same time.
Now, some of you may be wondering - are horsehair brushes cruelty-free? Are they made by killing horses? The answer to this is a little more complicated than you think - you actually do not need to kill a horse to get its hair. In fact, the hair can be taken from the horse with no problems at all.
But that doesn’t mean all horsehair is cruelty-free. Many horsehair products use hair from slaughtered horses, and while they may not have been killed for the hairs themselves, it still involves the death of horses to acquire them. If you do still want to use horsehair combs, then consider getting a comb that’s made by a company that takes hair from horses without killing them.
Horsehair Brushes VS Pig Bristle Brushes
One common type of brush that gets compared with horsehair brushes is pig bristle brushes. This is because both brush types are often used to brush shoes. Here are some common aspects and differences between horsehair and pig bristle brushes.
Horsehair brushes
As mentioned earlier, horsehair brushes are brushes made out of the hair of a horse. This hair can either come from the mane of the horse, which is very soft or the tail of the horse, which is a little on the rougher end.
Horsehair brushes are very soft for animal hair, and this property makes them very popular as a cleaning brushes. The softness guarantees that any surface brushed with the brush doesn’t get scratched or damaged.
Pig/Boar bristle brushes
Some of you may be wondering how you can make a brush from a hairless animal, but many pig and boar species actually have quite a bit of hair to them. While pink pigs are the most popular and well-known, many other boar breeds are bred and domesticated on farms all over the world. It’s from these hairy boars that boar and pig bristle brushes are made.
Boar and pig bristles are the ideal brush when it comes to cleaning tough leather and other substances. While soft bristles are great and all, they lack power, and you’d need to brush for quite a bit before you can remove a good amount of dust from something. With thicker brushes like pig bristle brushes, you won’t need to brush for nearly as long.
What to choose?
When it comes to the ideal brush for use in cleaning, there is no clear winner. Horsehair brushes are perfect for fragile items, silverware, and the like, whereas you’ll find better success with pig or boar bristle brushes once you decide to brush hard leather and similar materials. It all boils down to what type of brush suits the material that you want to clean up.
Things To Consider When Buying A Horsehair Brush
Size
Horsehair brushes can vary greatly in size depending on what type of brush you want and what purpose you have for it. Brushes used to clean shoes, for example, are large enough to cover the length of one’s hand, and this works to your advantage as you can clean shoes more quickly. The added bristles make the brushing process slightly faster than with a smaller and thinner brush.
On the other hand, you can also get horsehair brushes that are made to clean small corners, cracks, and crevices. Horsehair is very effective in this sort of thing, so you can find small horsehair brushes if you look hard enough. These brushes are often used for silverware, pottery, and other fragile and small items.
Shape
You don’t want to just worry about how big the brush is. You should also consider the way the brush is shaped. Some brushes are shaped to be ergonomic and easy on the wrist as you use them, whereas others take more unique and design-focused shapes.
As an example, many horsehair shoe brushes have a convex base. This allows the space in your hand to have a bit more room, as flat surfaces can put a bit of unneeded stress on your palm. It’s not entirely uncomfortable without the concave, but it does make the brushing experience a bit more pleasant, especially if you’re brushing for extended periods of time.
Horsehair Brush Price Range
Because horsehair brushes are made out of the actual hair of a horse, they usually cost a bit more than your average nylon brush. You can get a good horsehair brush for around $10 to $20. There may be some brands that sell the brushes at a premium, but if you’re fine with anything as long as it’s genuine horsehair, then you can easily afford one with a $15 budget.
