Well it wasn't the easiest removal, let me just say that right up front.
But basically I just steamed it and wrenched on it a lot (wrenching with just my hands of course, no actual wrenches!).
The glue at the bottom of the Semogue knot isn't like the nice neat glue plugs on the Omega knots, or any of the aftermarket suppliers like TGN, Virginia Sheng or ACE. No, the SOC knot was set into probably 15mm of glue, so it clung on a bit more tenaciously. But once it was out it cleaned up nicely and there is in fact a nice compact glue plug right at the base of the bristles, just the same as with the others, but the Semogues are set into the handle with considerably more glue.
I wrapped the bristles in cellophane and then aluminum foil and applied a fresh coat of tung oil to the wood handle before I attempted the steaming, but even then it was sort of a 50-50 proposition as to whether I'd either burn the bristles or split the wood or not. The steaming took about 45 min before I got the knot to budge at all, and then probably another 15-20 min in & out of the steam, wrenching on it all the while. But in the end it finally did give way, and somewhat to my surprise, without any damage to the bristles either. The wood seemed to hold up to the steaming a lot better than I was expecting too, so the tung oil may not have been need in hind site, but then again...better safe than sorry . The glue bump proved too wide for the knot to seat down past the decorative metal ring, so I removed that, and then just hogged out the remaining glue from the bore in the handle. Added a quarter for a little extra ballast and then just glued the knot back in place.
So while it's not quite as easy as getting the Omega knots out of their plastic handles (or even the Semogue knots out of their wood handles, provided you don't want to re-use the handle - that wood splits
real easy!), the results are well worth the effort IMO. The SOC is wonderfully dense and the lower setting perfectly counter balances the Semogue propensity for excessive splay (obviously a subjective evaluation there, but that's been my experience). It's probably a personal call though as to whether or not it's worth the risk of damaging the knot.
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