Today I received a 16oz bottle of Mem English Leather All Purpose Lotion to add to my stash of vintage aftershaves. The wooden cap was disconnected from the plastic cap, so it was loose. I was about to toss it out when I thought "this could be one interesting shave brush handle". Here are the various dimensions: Length: 70mm (2.75") Diameter at middle: 67mm Diameter at each end: 51mm (2.0") Hole diameter: 32mm Hole depth: 20mm The photos are below. This is a really large diameter cap, as you'll see below with the tape measure in the photos. It's heavy as well, making me think that this is either oak or ash. I will probably need to score or somehow roughen up the outside to make it less slick. As to the knot, the 32mm hole should be perfect for a TGN 30mm badger. They have them in both Silvertip (my personal favorite) and Best Badger grades. The knot has a 67mm loft, which should yield a 48mm-50mm loft when set in the handle. What are your thoughts or suggestions? Am I missing something? Thanks!
@Jayaruh was talking about doing this when he found a top. He made a few out of the cholula hot sauce tops. That came out nice. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!
I remember Jayaruh was looking for an English Leather Top....I checked my medicine cabinet, thinking I had one I could send him....but all I had was an English Leather Cologne wooden bottle top and those are about half the size of the After Shave Tops.... This should turn out to be a veddy cool piece!!
OK, you beat me to it. I have been wanting to do that for years. I just haven't gotten a cap yet. I look forward to seeing your results. Sounds like you have a plan. Good luck. You may want to drop a couple of quarters in the bottom to give you a little more loft. I think around 52mm loft would give you sufficient backbone for a badger.
Have you thought about possibly plugging the hole with a contrasting wood, or resin, then re-drill a smaller hole, for a more manageable knot?
Jim finished the brush and it looks phenomenal! He's a real artist. Check Jim's blog of the process to see how it turned out. http://jrshaving.blogspot.com/2018/02/jayaruh-264.html
The new brush arrived today and I really love it. Here are photos of JR 264 next to a vintage Ever-Ready C40 that has an almost identical shape. Except JR 264 is much bigger!
