I recently found this sad, very vintage old brush in a small-town antique store recently. It caught my eye because it's a very solid metal brush handle and the band across the middle appeared to be brass, but it was hard to tell because all of that black was obviously caked on shave soap and everything else that it may have come in contact with. Actually, it cleaned up much better than I had let myself hope, so now I need to order a new knot for it... appears to be 24mm. After cleaning and polishing, it's more of a silver color than I expected since I had expected it to be brass. Maybe it is, but I just can't tell. It doesn't feel like cheap pot metal , it's slick and heavy. If anyone has an idea what it's made of, tell me what you think.
That's gonna be a nice brush; what type knot are you installing? Looks like a brush they made in the 80's and 90's for gift sets ..... the original knot was boar and generally not great, but the handle always felt nice and substantial.
Thanks! The original knot was definitely boar and extremely well-used I'm torn between a finest badger and a nice synthetic. I'm expecting a 24 mm AP Shave tuxedo knot for another antique store find, so I'm going to look at how the tuxedo knot looks in this one. I'm also impressed with the look of the AP Shave SilkSmoke and the AP Synbad, also the Maggard Timberwolf Grey... if anyone has tried these, please feel free to give your opinion. I really like a synthetic that is quite soft with mild to moderate backbone, not too much. Thanks!!!
I've used all of those ..... my personal favorite is the AP Synbad for the look and feel. That said the Cashmere is also amazing.
Here is the finished product. I got a couple of the "Sunrise" synthetic knots from AMACK4shaving on etsy, which I've always found to be excellent knots, and used one of them on this handle. I'm very satisfied with it, as the heft of the solid metal handle feels good in the hand, and the knot loads in my soaps that are a little difficult in some others. The seller stated that he's almost out of these knots, so I may have to get another one or two of them. Anyway, I'm really enjoying it. Thanks for the suggestions and ideas.