It seems that we have several crazes going on in the world of traditional shaving. The project shown in this thread is a combination of two of these crazes. The first craze is the refurbishment of old brushes with an special emphasis on any that are green or butterscotch. It seems that it is difficult at times to find a brush handle in good condition that are not heavily bid on. So after a long search, I finally landed a Rubberset brush that was in good shape with the color combination I desired. The top of the rubber had some slight scuffs and the white lettering was fading, but it was in good shape nonetheless. The second craze is the interest in the new line of synthetic brushes. These are not like the old nylon brushes that would not hold water and were harder than a bristle brush that would never break in. These new brushes are soft and have plenty of backbone. Reference the following article for more information on this type of brush. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threa...-frank-shaving-company-synthetic-brush.24667/ For this restoration, I used a TGN Synthetic Knot which is the same as the one I used in the TGN/Burma brush in the following article. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threa...is-a-way-synthetic-redux-picture-heavy.25519/ The first photo shows the Rubberset brush in its original shape and the TGN Synthetic Knot. The knot was removed with a procedure detailed by Teiste Brito in the following article with three important modifications. http://shavenook.com/thread-shaving-brushes-restorations The three modifications to this process are as follows to protect the rubber handle from heat damage are as follows: Two small stackable ceramic style pots were used to allow a pocket of air between the handle and the bottom of the pot. That provides a greater buffer from the heat source. The amount time to steam was cut from 30 to 15 minutes to prevent damage to the rubber. Once the 15 minute steam session was complete, since the original bristles are glued directly to the wood base of the handle, a pair of pliers were used to easily pull the original bristles out of the handle. When this is complete the handle was in the condition at the top two views of the next image. After removal of the bristles, the base was drilled until it was easily removed and the entire interior of the handle was available. Since the TGN knot was slightly bigger (23mm vs 20mm) than the original knot, a Dremel sanding wheel was used to grind open the original hole until the knot would fit tightly. This can be seen in the bottom part of the image above. So now the brush, knot and 7 nickels are ready to complete the task. The nickels are used to provide weight to the center of the handle to provide heft. A mixture of JB Weld epoxy was used on the interior sides of handle (including the lower lip) and on the each side of the nickels which were placed into the handle. The upper interior edge of the handle, the top nickel, and the knot also had the epoxy applied to ensure a firm and watertight seal. The next image shows the completed brush which will be fully cured in about 48 hours. A set of comparison images were made with the Franks Shaving Synthetic and the TGN/Burma Synthetic I developed in the before mentioned thread. So here are the three brushes side by side. Thanks for taking the time out to review this project.
Greenie's are quite nice indeed! I have two or three hanging around waiting for re-knotting. I think I will drop a synthetic knot in one soon.
I have tried this method again with one success and a one major failure on the same steam attempt. You can use this on modern Acrylic handles but do not use this method for vintage Ever Ready or plastic handles even with a Bamboo Steamer which provides separation from the heat source via an air layer. Basically, I got lucky with the Rubberset handle. Here is the update on this process. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/win-some-and-lose-some-restoration-story.28372/
Nice procedure Gary and fine products you have put together. I could only imaging how large your shaving collection is.
