Hermey The Wonder Brush is Complete - My Brush Adventure

Watching @Jayaruh make his many wonderful brushes made me think to attempt one of my own. I started with a form I found at a local craft store. As you can see, it looked like a pawn from a chess set. It's about 4-5" tall.

I cut the top off and, after consulting Larry at Whipped Dog, drilled out the hole to fit a 22 mm knot. The top was about 28 mm across, but Larry felt the 22mm size would look just fine and make drilling the hole a little less challenging. Jim (@Jayaruh) advised me on how to center the hole.

Since the handle material did not look good with a stain, I painted it a "hammered bronze", some spray paint I already had handy. It was either that or black or International Harvester Red (i.e. Red Tip red). I was initially leaning toward the red, but I like the final textured finish of the paint I chose. I bought a Maggard 22mm synthetic knot (I've already apologized to Larry) and I used JB Weld epoxy to set the knot.

The final resulting brush is fairly large. Overall it's approximately 4" tall, just short of the size of an Omega 10049. (Don't ask me "mm", I don't have anything that measures in metric.) The Maggard knot is really soft, something I like. The shape of the brush actually feels very comfortable in my hand. And so, the final result...can't wait to try it out.


Now that I'm done I realize that I will be no competition for Jim. I believe this will be my first and final brush from scratch. It was fun, but much too much work.

 

The creativity on this forum never cease to amaze me.
Really, really well done!

 

Thank you. I owe it all to the people and info on TSD.

 

Congratulations! That is a brush to be proud of.

 

Nice

 

Herm,
That is a wonderful brush indeed. You did very well. I really like the finish. I'd be proud to own a brush like that. I guess I am going to have to look for one of those pieces at the craft store. That is a great idea. The Maggard knots are great too. I hope to see it soon in some SOTDs.

 

D) All of the above

May it lather you well for many shaves to come!

 

What do you use to bore it out? And how do you measure for mm?

 

That looks great! Congrats and use it with pleasure knowing you made it.

 

It looks fantastic Herm! Great choice on the hammered paint, I used the same one on my boat trailer rims a couple years back and still going strong and lookin' sharp!

 

I initially drilled a small pilot hole, size didn't matter. Then I used a 22mm forstner bit that I purchased just for this purpose. I don't have a drill press, but you can see the base of the jig I used to keep things straight in the second picture. A forstner bit will drill a wide, flat-bottomed hole. To find the center of the round handle I used a method that Jim sent me. If you want the method PM me.

Overall it would have been cheaper, and easier, to just buy a brush.

 

Lol sounds like it . Thanks for the info.

 

Hermey looks pretty good..

 

How did you get a pic of me? LOL

 

Congratulations, looks great!

 

I think it captures your better side..

 

Great job, Herm!

 

Man, that's cool as it can be. Great job.

 

And I won't all this praise go to my head.

 

Yeah, your head is big enough already.