A Zebra and a Boar walked into my workshop and this is the brush that came out. This is a Zebra wood and boar hair knot bush for a good friend. He bought the wood and 3 knots and this is the second brush from the bunch. I'm not impressed with the knots but he likes them and that's what really matters. I hope he likes the handle.
I finally got inspired to make two shave brush handles for myself. Of the many shave brush handles I've made I've only kept four for myself. Two of which I no longer have. I've had two cow horns I acquired from a friend for quite a while. He butchered one of his cows and saved the whole head for me. I went over and removed the horns and cleaned them myself. Not the easiest process if you aren't used to that sort of thing. A horn handle brush has been high on my want list for a very long time so it was worth the effort. One thing I had to figure out was a way to make the top of the wood stepped to fit up inside the bottom of the horn. It was important to be sure that the seam would be as tight as possible. Everything worked out fantastically. I picked Cocobolo for the one on the right. I've used Cocobolo many times and it is one of my favorites. The base wood on left is Lignum Vitae, also called Guayacan or Iron wood which is know as the hardest wood in the world. This was my first time working with Lignum Vitae. It is definitely hard and even this piece I've had for many years had a fair amount of natural oils in it. I definitely look forward to using it more. Boar is most likely going into the left which is a little bigger diameter but shorter. Horse is the most likely candidate for the one on the right. So now that I've made two handles for myself I just need to make a final decision on those knots.
Horn has special care requirements, including routine oiling. Just something to keep in mind. Horn is a traditional brush handle material, and it is fairly rare to see it nowadays, especially as an actual part of the brush and not just an accent piece. Kudos.
Thank you for the heads up on the care requirements. Any particular oil you know of. I put Odies oil on the wood and horn. It is a tung oil based finish with other natural oils.
That would probably work OK. I wouldn't use a drying oil or an oil with hardeners on it. Most people use a bit of neatsfoot oil. Rubbing it on your nose would work too, honestly. It's just to keep the horn from drying out and delaminating from itself.
Well, things are getting bad: What started out as a small wrinkle in the green paint eventually became a chip, and recently grew into this. I am thinking of maybe removing all the green paint down to the first circumferential rebate and replacing that green paint with Italian red so it looks like the flag? Does anybody know what the colors of the Portugese flag are? Do I have to prime it first? What kind of paint should I use? Is nail polish OK? Thanks in advance.
I turned my first brush yesterday. A friend stabilized some burl for me with Cactus juice. I set a 26mm shd fan knot from Maggards in it at the recommended 50mm loft. So far I'm pleased.
