Catching up, Dave. Looking forward to seeing the Paladin you ordered.
As to the "free loft" that Ken mentions, it's a way to clarify what the true loft of the knot is in terms of splay, for lack of a better word. For instance, if you want a brush spec of 26/52 (a "standard" 1:2 ratio), you'd expect 52mm worth of splaying badger hair. The confusion arises from the fact that some knots have what many call a "glue bump", but is in actuality, the mounting base to which all the badger is secured. Most of the time, this base is below the opening of the brush handle and is never felt. However, sometimes it protrudes above the opening of the handle a few millimeters - you can't see it, but can feel it. Now, back to the example of 26/52. If the base protrudes upwards 5mm, then even with the spec loft of 52, you actually will only have 47mm of splay available. So now you have, in practical use, a 26/47 knot. This will provide more backbone and have less splay than a true 26/52. So to cater to brush aficionados who are extremely particular with their brushes and know exactly what they like in a knot, Ken tries to be completely upfront with the specs. Me personally, I find this to be of tremendous help. But then again, I'm one of those brush folk who are extremely particular with their brushes - LOL.
With that being said, like others have stated - it's just shaving. A brush is a brush is a brush.
