In case you have an old brush that you like for sentimental value, or picked up a few antique brushes with some nice handles, you may want to check out some restoration work I have done during the past months. An old beater can be brought back to life and usage! I am going to show you two examples here. The first is an old Klenzo butterscotch brush with hardly any hair left, it was restored to a like-new state and fitted with one of the new two-band Finest knots from the TGN. The second was a brush that was given to my customer some 30 years ago when he was a young man by his - now deceased - parents. This brush had an incredible sentimental value for my customer, and he loves what he got back from me after the restoration. This brush, an old Kent, was fitted with a Silvertip knot. I hope you like what you see here, and if you think you have a brush that needs some new hair, let me know.
Rudy, very nice work. This should probably go in the Vendor's forum, but it'll be moved or not as appropriate. In an attempt to keep it here, may I ask a few questions: What do you use for glue in your restorations? How do you remove the old knot? What do you use to fill the hollow handle prior to gluing in the new knot? BTW, that's a nice looking shop you've got there and a great little website. Thanks for sharing! Cheers, Tom
OK, here are my secrets: I remove the hairs by cutting them off with a pair of scissors, then I remove residual hair and glue with several increasingly larger drill bits. As glue I use a good quality 5 min epoxy glue. Hollows can be filled with dowel pieces or corks.
Thanks, mate! Unless I drill out perfectly even, the "floor" where the new knot is set can make my new knot "tilt" a bit. I still am not sure how to make the "floor" perfectly level so I can just put in the epoxy, push down the knot, hold till tacky and leave it sit. Any help?
For my one restoration (so far), I cut up the cardboard from a kleenex box and rolled it up to fill the void in the hollow handle. I tried a few different 'heights' of rolled cardboard before getting the right fit. This worked well (I think) because it left a bit of room for epoxy to fill down inside the handle, which added just a bit of heft. I'll bet there are an almost infinite number of methods. Cork seems like a great solution.
I have just finished a couple of brush restorations and can give you some tips I have learned. First I tried filling the void with epoxy glue. This works well because while the glue is drying it will find its level and provide a level base for the knot. The problem is that it is difficult to gauge just how much epoxy to put in. The best solution I came up with was to fill it with just a little epoxy (had to get rid of some left over) and I filled the rest of the void with what we Aussies call Blue Tac. It's a reuseable adhesive putty that has 1001 uses, now 1002. This stuff is great because if you put in too much you can just dig a little out and try again. Once I had the right amount it's easy to make a level with just your fingers then epoxy in the brush. Next time I want to experiment with dropping some lead sinkers into a void and sealing them in epoxy to make the brush good and heavy before leveling it off with Blue Tac. I'm not too sure about the idea of using cork because I want the finished product to have a bit of weight to it, as if it was made out of a solid block, and cork is a bit light. And one last tip, if you fill the void entirely with epoxy, then sit the brush on top while it's all setting, don't give it to your wife to hold while you answer the door. One of my brushes has epoxy dribbles running down the side of the brush.
Here are the three brushes I have just finished. Sorry, I don't have any before pictures. I'm always too eager to get into a project to take before pictures. These are an EverReady, a Cavalier and one marked USA Sterilized.
If anyone is interested in getting a restored brush, but doesn't want to go to the trouble of restoring one yourself, the Cavalier in my previous post is for sale. Just follow the link in my signature line.
Gret work. I restore vintage brushes too. As soon as I finish the one Im working on Ill post it from beginning to the finished result.
