I Shrunk The H.I.S. - Brush Modification - Photo Updates

There has been a large amount of discussion about the H.I.S. Shaving brush. Some users have adopted it and use it in both face and bowl lathering. Others have not adopted it due to the handle size and the knot size. The original H.I.S. measured at an overall height of 124 mm, loft size of 60 mm, and the knot size of 28 mm. I have been able to use the original H.I.S. brush and what I saw in the original brush was the fibers and how soft they were at the tips. So in the following threads, I removed the knot from the H.I.S. brush and placed into a shorter handle and lowered the loft.

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/chopping-a-h-i-s-synthetic-brush-down-to-size.30026/

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/the-reduced-h-i-s.30102/

With the finished loft measuring at 54 mm and the shorter handle, my conclusion based on a weeks worth of testing was that the reduction of the handle brought the greatest level of results to the maneuverability while the loft reduction without crimping the fan brought a moderate increase in backbone of the knot. Due to other product testing and eventually personal obligations prevented me from working on this project to make it a permanent brush.

Late last week I was able to review the modified brush and knot and thought, what if I decided to cut out the knot again. I determined that this would be the last time I would work this particular knot again so this would need a permanent handle to place this in. I went to The Golden Nib website and purchased the 26mm Cream Handle which you can some of the swirl patterns in the picture below.

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Even though I could have taken the Dremel and sanded around the knot until it was sized down to around 25 mm, I decided to cut the knot base off and mount the free fibers into epoxy placed into the handle to create a new knot. The advantage to this process is to pack the fibers as tight as possible into the handle and to avoid having to drill deeper into the handle. The disadvantage to this process is that if the fibers are not set properly they will fall out or the knot will turn out misshapen. I also wanted to go through the process of making a knot so the plan would be to cut the knot base and proceed with a new shorter knot.

The knot was removed from the handle by cutting with a Dremel wheel. Then with the knot and plug was exposed and a plastic clamp, shown below, was placed around the knot high enough to expose about 10 mm of fibers between the clamp and the knot base.

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The knot based was cut away with the Dremel cutting wheel and enough fibers were gently removed from the edges and the clamp was slowly tightened until the knot was 25 mm. The fibers were very densely packed in the clamp. At that point the handle hole was filled one half way with epoxy and the sides of the handle hole was coated with epoxy. The base of the fibers were inserted as deep as possible into the handle hole and gently turned for about 2 minutes. The fibers were then held in place for another 8 minutes until the epoxy set. At that point the brush was put away to allow 48 hours to fully cure.

After the brush was cured, I brushed it with a small comb and gave it a thorough work out by rolling the end of the brush in my hands to make sure that the knot would be able to hold testing with lather. All in all about 40 fibers came out before a it stopped shedding. Then the testing began in my regular shaving rotation. The first day I face lathered with Wilkinson Sword Stick. After the preparatory shower was completed, I rubbed the shaving stick on my face and the back of my head. I placed the brush half way in warm water and began to start generating lather. The first lather was thick and moist and allowed me to shave my head and face on the first pass. A second face pass was made with the lather available on the brush and eventually a third pass was made with touch ups on the head. A couple of fibers shed from the brush and it was a very effective lathering. The knot had the very same softness with improved backbone as compared to the original H.I.S. The handle was easier to maneuver around the face.

The next day the brush was tested in the bowl with Palmolive cream. Again, it was a three pass shave and a single pass to the head. The brush seem to lose no capability of bowl lathering as compared to the original H.I.S. At this point a couple of more fibers were lost. The brush was quickly dry after a few hours. The third shave was using Fitness soap and bowl lathering. The Fitness is a very active lathering soap and the "shrunk" H.I.S. had no problems in generating enough lather for four face passes and a couple of head passes as well. At this point the brush lost no more fibers during lathering. The last test was with WARS cream and again in the bowl. The WARS produced a wonderful three pass shave with two head passes. Again no fibers were lost from the brush. After drying an additional hand rolling test across the brush was made to see if any additional fibers would come out and none did. With that in mind, the knot and fibers are tested to be complete and secure.

Here is the finished brush.

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Here is a comparison to other synthetic knot brushes including the original H.I.S. brush.

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Now it is only the fibers that are common with the original brush since all other items including the knot base are now replaced. In terms of producing lather, this new custom produced lather as well as the Mühle 35 K 252 25 mm. In terms of maneuverability the new custom performed like the Mühle 33 K 257 23 mm. This brush finds a sweet spot between the two different sized Mühle brushes. The fibers are still softer at the tip than any of the other synthetics currently available and this brush size is quite efficient and effective.

This modification was again made without any assistance, support, or direction from the manufacturer of the original H.I.S. brush. Now whether FM Brush / Artist Brushstrokes will develop a brush of this specific knot size and overall size profile remains to be seen, however, I will be enjoying my custom synthetic brush now and in the future.

 

"This modification was again made without any assistance, support, or direction from the manufacturer of the original H.I.S. brush." The mod looks pretty professional Gary..are you sure your not working for them lol..

 

Thanks for the complement on the modification. Since they would not make a brush like this, I went off and made one myself! Sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do ... brush making!

 

Lol the thread title reminds me of that movie..Honey I shrank the H.I.S...

 

Here is a closer look.​

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Gary, you do nice work. I understand why you wanted to do it. If you want something done just so, you do it yourself. (That's why I like to make stuff too.)

 

Have you heard something on that front? Several people on various forums received emails stating several months ago that there would be a new offering to support this Christmas selling season. Apart from seeing the Original H.I.S. on Amazon.UK and West Coast Shaving, I have seen no new offerings as of this date.

However, the fiber that is in the H.I.S. is in the works at one other company at least.

 

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My dad often jokes to me about making a shaving brush out of a squirrel tail. After reading this thread it seems much more possible to do. haha. Great Mod! Impressive work.

 

Thanks! Many cosmetic brushes are made with squirrel hair and it is very expensive hair.

 

I love that handle
I have seen it in the past and someday i will buy it
Very nice work GDCarrington.congratulations.

 

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It has been a while so a face lathering was in order ...

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Tomorrow's shave (4/27/2014) shown today ...

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SOTD 04-27-2014 Posted a day in advance ...

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This was my attempt to show FM Brush what the H.I.S. brush with the first fiber classified Generation 4 could become. This was one in a series of threads ending with this one on posted on 11-21-2012. I literally took a H.I.S. 28 mm knot out of the handle and then placed it in a temporary handle to prove that the loft would work, then I completely tore away the fibers from the original knot base, and then hand built a knot using the individual fibers to create what you see here. This is the one and only knot I have built and knot building is not as easy as some think that it is. This was done before Mühle released to the market what we call the V2 which is a Gen 4 fiber. In fact FM Brush was using this fiber in this brush back in 2009. After I brought the original 28 mm H.I.S. to the forums I found it had a very mixed reception. Before this thread was originally posted, I went about trying to show FM brush that a shorter handle would appeal to many more users. Unfortunately in every case of a new product they released chose to stay with the big long handle, the same handle that was made slightly skinnier by a lathe, but still just as long, or their Bullet and Travel handles that were also directly taken from their existing cosmetic lines. No new handle directed to the shaving market. Simply retreaded cosmetic brush handles.

In my opinion as far as fibers this is the best of the Generation 4 fiber class (yes better than Mühle, FS, or Simpsons fibers). The truly sad thing is that FM brush showed everyone that they were going to do it their way and they did just that. They missed a golden opportunity which Mühle was extremely smart to capitalize on. FM Brush's loss was Mühle's gain.

As far a synthetic brushes go, this is one of my favorites because it is lofted right with the right fibers for both face and bowl lathering.