Hey, We all know shave brush knots often use animal hair, but has anyone ever made a knot from their own hair? I suppose someone could grow their hair out and then when it's cut at the barber, save a huge clump of it and make a knot. Anyone ever do this?
Interesting idea but my hair is too fine to make a shaving brush. No matter how dense the knot or how short the loft I'm afraid there wouldn't be any backbone. Maybe if someone had very coarse hair it might work.
One of my shameful, forgotten projects. I have enough horse mane & tail hair to make half a dozen knots. I'm concerned about doing a proper Anthrax eradication procedure. Never have pinned down what kind of glue to secure the hair. After reading many reviews about horse hair brushes and their inherent floppiness, if/when I do get my act together I'll make a shorter loft & very dense knot.
When my son was about 7 month sold, I would just pick him up, holding him upside down, and work up some lather. But after a while he got too heavy so I bought some other brushes to replace him. I will say that none of the new brushes can compete with him for backbone, density and super soft tips.
I also have quite a stash of tail hair from my failed attempt to learn horsehair hitching (I may yet revive my mojo on that though...) and wondered if I could use it for a shave brush... I would imagine a two part epoxy would be plenty sufficient to secure the knot.
That's one possibility I've considered. After viewing several videos about knot making, I'm certain I can arrange the hairs in a tight bundle, and with horse hair - trim it to the desired finished shape. The type of glue to be used is not something knot makers share.
I use a lot of hot hide glue in my luthiery but since it’s heat/moisture sensitive I can’t imagine that’s what people use either now or in the past. I could be wrong though. HHG can be pretty strong and the temps used for shaving may not cause the higher gram strength glues to release.
I hear you. In my youth I tried to grow out my hair a '70's fashionably longer style. Too much natural curl that persists to this day for making a shaving brush knot. Mustache bristles might work since they are thicker and more straight. I did train up a bit of a handlebar but don't have the patience to collect enough for a decent brush. Also not sure if I could defunk the coffee scent that persists when I don't keep it trimmed off my lip.
Tim Spencer, by any chance were you inspired to start this thread after watching Sacha Baron Cohen's "Who is America?" pube paintbrush.