Why is the Wee Scot the only brush to which Alexander Simpson affixed his signature?

ShoeboxShaveshop.com has a compelling disquisition on the Wee Scot, pointed out to me by flaheadle on Wicked_Edge. (I’d been linking to the brush as a recommendation for face latherers, but I hadn’t noticed that the description had been revised and extended.) Here it is:

Like all Simpsons, the Wee Scot is hand turned on a lathe. Then it is buffed and smoothed and polished to a lustrous perfection.

Like all Simpsons, the loft is hand filled, in this case with Simpsons justifiably famed Best Badger.

Like all Simpsons, the hand filled knot is very densely packed and deeply seated in the handle.

Like all Simpsons, the Wee Scot is truly a bargain for a high end, high class, hand crafted luxury product.

Unlike all Simpsons, the Wee Scot is the only work that its maker, the master craftsman Alexander Simpson, put his signature to…

While this fact is usually, ahem, noted by Simpsons sellers. It is, well, noted, and that is that.

Think about it for a minute. Nobody else seems to think about it except in passing, but this SIGNATURE fact needs to be seriously thought about by the prospective brush buyer.

What does it mean when a master craftsman SIGNS his work? Particularly, what does it mean when a master craftsman selects one and only one work from a large body of work to sign?

Well, to me it means the master craftsman considered that work to be a triumph—a personal triumph of his craft, his years and years of experience. A signed work is a work of which the craftsman is particularly proud.

For the master craftsman shave brush maker Mr Alexander Simpson, a man who built brushes for royals, nobles and the most wealthy of a Gilded Age, the work he affixed his signature to, the full honor of his whole name was the WEE SCOT and only the WEE SCOT.

Why is the master craftsman’s Master Work so unappreciated, indeed even deprecated by the modern cadre of shaving cognoscenti ???

In today’s culture, size matters and big is culturally GOOD, without any examination or grounds.

I constantly read posts by wet-shavers searching for the nearly perfect brush: lots of backbone, silvertip but scritchy, a monster latherer of the hardest soaps and the softest luxury creams.

The brush they are describing is right there under their nose and has been all the time. It is Mr Simpsons signature brush, the WEE SCOT. And, LOL, it is not even expensive.

The only shaver who got the WEE SCOT right was Corey Greenberg in some of the later entries of his outstanding SHAVE BLOG.

Corey had made the journey from BIG HONKING brushes through smaller knot brushes until arriving at the WEE SCOT.

More and more savvy shavers are recognizing the merits of small bore knots and they are many: parsimonious use of expensive soaps and creams, pin point precise lather targeting, better exfoliation and whisker softening.

The Wee Scot Best Badger loft and Loft-to-Knot ratio give it the most backbone of any brush except maybe the Chubby. In addition to back-bone, the Wee Scot also has HEART. The Wee Scot is an extraordinary exfoliator and face latherer.

As proprietor of a shave shop, I could have pretty much any brush I want, but I use the Wee Scot. It is the brush I want.

I really think that Mr Alexander Simpson knew what he was doing when he signed his Wee Scots. It is a magnificent work, a work worthy of his pride, worthy of his personal signature.

Ht: 67 mm Loft: 36 mm Base: 31 Knot: 14 mm

Dimensions approximate. In plain English the Wee Scot is about as tall as the average pinkie finger.

Hand crafted on the Isle Of Man, England.

If you have put up with me this far, I ask that you compare our prices on the Wee Scot and all the other Simpsons in stock to our competitors. We have really good deals on this Legendary Name in Shave Brushes.