I have had this brush for some time now and I finally got around to restoring it for my collection. It is a butterscotch urn shaped brush from the WONTSHED brush company. The badger hairs that occupied the brush were aged and not worth retaining but since the knot was set in rubber the hairs did not shed as promised. So after careful excavation with the Dremel, and a widening of the hole, a Custom Procured Two Band knot was placed in and allowed to set in epoxy. Here is the final product ready for use the last week of October. Thanks for your time in viewing this thread.
Thanks gents! The interesting thing about brushes made before the late 1950s is that many of the handles (especially the higher end models like this one was) were hand made on a lathe so there a slight variations that give the handle character. When I saw this one I wanted to provide a slightly larger knot which (going up from a 19 mm to a 22 mm) without changing the looks or structural integrity of the handle and everything went to plan. Expect to see it starting sometime next week.
Great looking brush! I have 2 pre 1950s badger brushes set in rubber that are still going strong, and very soft.
Love that brush Gary! Looks like the bakelite has acquired all kinds of character over the years, and that shape really is a personal favourite as well. It reminds me of a slightly smaller version of an old Baton butterscotch handle I re-knotted a while back - it had several fissures working their way through the catalin rather than the speckled & swirled effect, but I've got a classic old Made Rite 750 waiting in the wings that's got the speckled thing too and I'm leaning towards leaving as-is rather than smoothing out the varying tones of butterscotch. Baton before & after on top, Made Rite 750 below The fissures in the Baton stabilized with CA.
