I recently had this installed in a custom build. When I received the finished brush I did my normal cleaning with dish soap, it was unbelievably cruddy. The water turned dark grey within seconds, I'm really glad I cleaned it before using it. Considering how much crud washed out of it, I was surprised there was zero animal smell. The knot washed out completely clean with no issues so the dirt doesn't mean it isn't a quality knot, it just surprised me.
I prefer scrubby, exfoliating brushes so I had it lofted to 48 - 50mm. I expected it to be extremely stiff at first, and it did take a little more pressure to splay the bristles, but very little effort to keep it splayed while lathering. From the first use it's been very comfortable on my face and an amazing face lathering brush. Right now it has just a bit of sharpness in the tips but that's softening up quickly and it's holding onto it's scrubby feel at the same time. I use hard soaps exclusively and the brush loads quickly and easily. I did try a test lather with Musgo Real cream yesterday just to see how it would handle soft creams, the lather it produced was thick and rich - easily the best lather I've ever gotten from any cream.
I enjoy using my Best and Finest Badger Shavemacs very much and my off brand, three band Silvertip is alright, but a little soft. I also like my Semogue and Omega boars for their exfoliation and my Vie-Long horses are great brushes in their own right but this 70/30 knot holds its own against all of them and it's quickly becoming my favorite. I do wish it was available in more sizes, a 20 - 22mm version would be a great little brush. This is a very high quality knot for $20 and would be well worth the cost at twice the price.
If you like a nice, comfortably exfoliating brushes or just want to try something different, I highly recommend picking up one of these knots for a build.