Thank you all for the input.....I'm going to start looking around for some classes and may come back to get opinions on Lathes and tools before I purchase anything.
My mother and Mother in law both wanted makeup brushes for Christmas. I couldn't find makeup brush knots on there own so I had my wife pick up two store bought brushes and I made handles for them. I probably could have used small shave brush knots but I think most makeup brush knots are much softer than shave knots. At least the few I have actually picked up. Anyway i think they turned out pretty good. The one on top is Tru-stone turquoise and the other is lava explosion 75 Boudoir blue Alumilite from exotic blanks.
I just finished this brush for a friend. I cast the blank with black linen, aluminum shavings and polyester resin. I had a CA finish on it but it just blended all the "grain" of the linen in and it looked to plain. I decided to sand it back to the raw material which has less shine but much more character. The knot is a Maggard's 28mm SHD bulb.
Thank you. It didn't destroy it so much as just blend it in enough that it was very hard to distinguish the folds in the linen material from the clear spots of resin. It's very interesting to look at in person either way. And now i can look at this one in person all I want. My friend liked it but I could tell it wasn't exactly what he wanted. So I'm making another one with a few changes to be more what he was hoping for. I was going to make a second one for myself anyways so they are just getting switch. He really likes the glassy finish of the CA. And wants a slightly higher loft.
Thank you. Hopefully my friend is happy with the next one. I sure am happy with this one. But i can appreciate the supper high gloss of a good CA finish too.
My lathe is stored for the winter, but I had a handle I turned from a small scrap. I just wanted to see how my black walnut blanks would behave under the chisel. As is often the case, I liked the grain and the curves, so decided to drill it and set a small knot. That didn’t go well, but I didn’t toss it into the fireplace. During the rare holiday quiet moments I hand sanded out the damage, finished the drilling, and gave it a walnut oil finish. The damage control softened all the transitions. Now it is less a ‘chisel handle’ profile and more in the traditional style of shaving brush handles. Handle is about 48mm tall. Lofted to a scrubby 45mm with a little ‘18mm’ boar knot. Small base and a big glue bump on that knot - it is just over 21mm where it enters the handle. It is set so deep, I didn’t even glue it. Fatip Piccolo for scale.
As I mentioned a while ago, my son makes brushes for craft fairs. This was a part of his display at his School's winter craft fair, just before Christmas. He had about 80 shaving brushes ready for this show.
Very nice! The two styles that catch my attention are reminiscent or a vintage Stag and Rubberset (top row, second from the right) and (second row, fourth from the right).
A friend on here asked me to make a Green resin handle for him. I poured some small amounts to play with transparency, colour, etc. I made them combined with some different types of handles. I’ll start his Omega 10098 clone soon, as long as he likes this resin. It is a metallic look, but I’m pleased with it. The small one was done on purpose as a travel brush as I got a small Omega knot a few years ago from @BaylorGator. The middle is the most ‘translucent’ of the 3 and the large one I decided to keep and put an APShaveCo Badger/Boar mix in it. Did one test lather with the two to make sure they stayed put. All worked out fine: The two on the left are in Maple, the large one is Sapele. Also made a lather bowl. Poculi and Walnut. The buttons are for lather making. It is kind of my thing in these. I showed the Walnut base as it was rounded to to be easy to grab to hold onto, as that is the way I designed it to be used: Not the best pics, but you get the general idea...
First off, I'm not a turner. I've often thought I'd like to give it a whirl, but I"m limited by room for a lathe and finances for a good start. But that's not my reason for posting today. I'm going to be cutting back to a stump 4-5 ft high a Yoshino Cherry tree that has died out, in my wife's flower garden. A Yoshino is the species there are a lot of in Washington, DC. I'm pretty sure it was grafted onto some type of root stock? It came from a large commercial landscape yard. "Would the limbs, etc. that I"m going to be cutting off work for turning brush handles? And not being a turner, I have no way of knowing, but thought I'd ask before I just cut it into pieces and put it to the curb for the town chipper to dispose of. Let me know folks. Do I have something someone might be interested in, or is this type of thing not suited for this? Wikipedia page for Yoshino Cherry trees.
Since the last brush I made him wasn't quite what he was hoping for I made another brush for my friend. Luckily he had bought one of the knots for me and one for him so I kept the first one. This brush like the first is made from black Linen material soaked in polyester resin sprinkled with aluminum shavings then crammed into a plastic spice jar to make the blank. There were some voids in the blank because I don't have a pressure chamber. Once I got the blank turned to rough shape I filled the voids with more aluminum shavings and CA glue then finished turning and sanding. Then quite a few layers of CA finish went on. And lots of sanding and polishing. I'm pretty confident this brush is what he was hoping for. I look forward to giving it to him.