I recently began wet shaving. I was just given an old brush that belonged to my grandfather. I would love to replace the knot in it. The bottom of the brush says "buffalo, trademark USA, sterilized, set in rubber, pure badger" Anybody have any advice? Being a clear (lucite?) handle I don't know if the steam method will harm the handle. Obviously being my grandfather's old brush, I don't wanna destroy it.
Love the handle try searching reknotting a brush in here I'm sure u can find the answer your looking for. Welcome to the den and I'm sure a few ppl that know how will be along to give you great advice. Its great to be able to traditionally shave with a family heirloom
What a great handle & piece of family history! You're correct in wanting to avoid steam in this restoration. Planofman has a great sticky post on brushes in the that I'll link below. Scroll to the section on restoration, which includes links for manual drilling & restoration of old plastics & tips from GDCarrington, another forum veteran with tremendous insight on brushes & restoration. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/the-brush-basic-information-everyone-should-know.29125/ Please take a look & feel free to ask questions. We love pictures too
Nice brush. Re-knotting isn't too difficult. Check out that link above. I used that for my first re-knot and it turned out well. Good luck!
What they said! It's a nice handle and a part of your history. Please show us pictures, as you progress.
Nice looking brush you have there. I believe that the E in a dimond means it was made wholesale by Everready for another company. I'm in the final stages of restoring a lucite brush myself and this is how I proceeded. I was cleaning the brush with hot soapy water and with a little tug the knot came out. I chipped out the expoy using a dremel and a blunt knife. Take your time and be careful not to get any scratches or gouges in the lucite because it is more work to sand and buff them out later. I sanded out the scratchs using 600 grit wet/dry sand paper and worked my way up to 1500. I enlarged the knot hole 2mm using 150 grit paper then progressed up the 1500. Then I used a polishing compound to buff everything out. Take extra care at the bottom so you don't remove the nice lettering. I'm getting ready to paint the inside but haven't chosen a paint or color yet - Testors enamel paint seemes to be popular for this and that is likely what I'll use. Having said all that as a first time brush restorer myself I would strongly suggest restoring another brush first and making any mistakes with that one and then when you are more comfortable come back to this brush that is more sentemental. Good luck!
thanks for the words of wisdom. One of my concerns was the color in the hole. I figure that will get marred up for sure in the removal process. Didn't think it would be as easy as some Testors paint. Good idea on a finding a test brush as a practice run. Will def post pics as it goes along.
IMHO something with that kind of sentimental value and never having done a brush restore before. Maybe pay someone with experience to restore it for you. That way its everything u ever dream it to be. And u won't feel horrible if u mess it up. Not too many people have an item of their grandfather's that they can use shaving. If it came from an antique shop I would dive right in. But that's just my opinion as I said starting out.
There is a method where you can put put a little bit of water in a pot, put a glass pan in the pot, turn on the water, let it boil with the lid on. The steam will soften the epoxy and you can just wiggle the knot out. I don't remember where I saw this method, but I heard it works pretty good.
