Okay, so here's my problem of the night. I am in the process of trying to restore my first brush. I am having issues removing the knot out of the brush. It's an old hollow handled EverReady 89. What to you guys normally do? I drilled out the center, but it seems that the knot is tightly sealed to the handle. I'm open to any suggestions
I have limited experience here, but I more or less used the method posted by Rudy Vey in a thread on B&B. What I did was trim the knot close to the handle with a pair of scissors. Then I drilled the center through the shelf. After that, I used a pair of needle nose pliers and pulled the hair out that I could. From there, I got a grinding bit for the dremel and ground out the rest of the knot and glue. With the hollow handle, I filled it with a wine cork and epoxy mixture to the correct height that I wanted the shelf to be. I'm sure others with more experience will be along to help.
Thanks for the response man. I think that will be all I need. I think this is also the last excuse I need to buy a dremel XD. that or I'll borrow my buddies. Should fit the bill perfectly to scrape the resin and not the handle. I might stack the handle with metal weights though. It's really light, especially after using my much bigger omega brush a lot.
A 3/4" wood boring bit, and a pocket knife however since you drilled out the center first, probably a dremel bit or an actual dremel :happy102
Basil I know! I don't have a digital cam though. Only a film camera. I hope the shots that I took turn out okay =/ I'll post them as soon as I'm done. I already ordered a two band finest knot from The Golden Nib. I'm going to gift it to my father. I already took off the nasty seam lines from the molding process that ran in a circle all around the top half and in a line down the center of the bottom. I also took some model paint to touch up the gold lettering on the bottom. Just waiting for the new knot
I almost always cut off all of the hair that I can and then I use a forstner bit of the appropriate size to cut out the old plug, and then use a steel burr to take the last of the old material out by hand. Furtunately I do have a drill press to work with which makes this part easy. Cork or dowel are perfect for the hollow handles. Too much glue will get pretty hot when it cures and can crack the handle if you don't use a filler like cork. A little more epoxy to set your knot, but don't put so much to squish out on the hair at the bottom. I do like to put enough to fill the space around most of the plug though. That way water will only touch a small ring of the glue. I hope that helps a little. Will N.
Wow, so super fast shipping and great service from Tony at penworks. I got my knot in the mail today already. I'll finish removing the old knot tonight or tomorrow morning and I'll get the new one in, then I'll post pics =D
A forstner bit, which has blades which self clean the debris as they drill would remove the knot I would think. They drill a flat bottom shelf as well as perpendicular sides. Harbor Freight has many sizes that will hold up well under the typical stuff we're doing. bill
Pics, finally Okay! So a little over a month after starting this thread. I've finally finished and broken in this brush! I got sidetracked by life and it took forever. I ended up weighing the bottom of the hollow handle with 10 pennies I like a heavy brush. I filled the rest with epoxy. I got a little sloppy when I inserted the knot. There was too much epoxy in the handle and as a result theres a little band of grey around the bottom of the bristles . It still lathers well so I don't mind. Sanded out the seams on the brush and cleaned it up in general. Gave it to my dad as his first brush. The lather shot was with some Cella, which is what I used for a few test lathers to see how it did. I'm happy that its finally finished. Sorry about the shoddy pics, not the best photographer. And the comparison brush is my Omega 31052. Can't wait to try my hand at this again.
Slap a coat of F21 or your favorite wax on there and call it a day I wouldn't worry about the epoxy, I have gotten a couple brushes with excess *Thanks Vulfix* and over time you can usually just use a finger nail to peel/scrape it out of the knot.
Nice to see you are doing this as a gift for your father. Also good luck with the refurb and I know the TGN knot will be just great. I have had Rodd from this and the other shave forums do like 3 refurbs for me and another is about ready to ship to him for a fourth. What really excites me about this post is your still using a film camera. WOW! How cool. I still have two of them and just wish I could get the film developed somewhere. I do mostly B&W and using color film and then having it developed into B&W just does not work. I used to have a friend who was a pro photographer but he quit business about 10 years ago and finally sold his lab equipment 3 years ago. So no place to really get B&W processed. Perhaps by the time I am dead and gone there will be a movement afoot to bring back vintage film cameras, film and of course the processing equipment and chemicals. But for now I just have to live with my digitals. Maybe looking for a DSLR in the near future. But still love the film cameras the best.
Thanks everybody for the encouragement Sodapopjones, Im still undecided as to whether I will put a coat of shine on the brush. It's good to know that eventually the glue can be scraped off. The Possum -Films problem is that it is really not as convenient as Digital. Especially at concerts. But it still is definitely cool. I like the look that it gives some of the photos I have. If you go on eBay you can buy up a bunch of old B&W film. Even if it's expired it should work fine. If you look online there are a few guides to developing B&W film yourself. If I had the time it's definitely what I would do. Right now processing and film is too expensive. You pay for the price of a new digital point and shoot after a few developments. Especially if you get prints instead of a photo CD. But since it has a niche following. It'll stay kind I'd like safety razors. Never mainstream but still present. Maybe someday pharmacies will change their price scheme and companies will make film more accessible with lower prices lol.
