Monday Shave Razor: Schick E1 Blade: Schick Super Stainless Brush: ER 2500 Soap: @americanshamrock mentholated AS: Aqua Velva Had a super close 4 pass shave with the E1. To my surprise it was milder than my E2V3. It was on par with my G. This is a very nice shaving razor as are all E&G’s. I will see actually how good a shave come the morning. I have a feeling it will still be smooth as silk. Tom Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I offered to help @Willk with his Edwin Jagger Chatsworth brush. After he tried an Omega brush, he found he really liked the boar bristle. So I had him send it to me to be re-knotted. Initially I was going to use an Omega 10810, but it was a touch too big. So with @jimjo1031 help, I sized an Omega 10099. After knot removal, some light polishing and installing the new knot. With a loft of ~50mm it's already to return to the land down under. And as always ...... more to come .....
@Bubbablade was looking for a couple vintage brushes, so I found him a nice Hess 2. The finish was in sad shape and the bristles were extremely brittle, so I got an Omega 10066 for a donor knot. After removing the knot and removing the remnants of the original finish; I soaked it first in Teak oil and then gave it two coats of Helmsman Spar Urethane. I raised the new knot with a nickel and three pennies then set the knot at about 53mm .... seems about right. Ready to provide years of lather to this and the coming generation. And as always ...... more to come .....
Well here is the second brush for @Bubbablade ...... it's a Albright Rubberset. I originally picked this one up due to it's attractive hourglass shape though it had a couple stains I wasn't sure would come out. I removed the old knot and realized it would take a 22mm two banded badger, fortunately I had a new one in stock (I initially thought it would only accept a 20 mm). In cleaning the handle (after knot removal and weighting), I realized what I first took as white lettering was actually soap scum and came of easily with soap and water to reveal very shallow lettering; meaning after re-lettering it may not be as crisp as I usually hope. Over all it cleaned up better than I expected and the weighting makes it feel very substantial and significantly strengthens it as well. BTW I would estimate the age of this brush between 1921 - 1934 due to these factors ..... 1) it's marked "Sterilized" meaning post 1921. 2) it's made of bakelite and they began to phase that out in the late 30's. 3) the marking of Albright on Rubberset brushes stopped ~1934. The 22mm 2 banded badger knot. Restored to a 22mm 2 banded badger set with a ~47mm loft. It's nicely weighted with the stains removed from the bottom and the top re-lettered and lightly polished with just a soft dry cloth to preserve the lettering. I can't wait for @Bubbablade to take some pics post bloom. And as always ...... more to come .....
Here's the two brushes @Bubbablade wanted restored completed. Ready to enjoy for years to come .......
Fighting the Quarantine boredoms and decided to dig through my boxes of dead brushes for an ugly brush to repair ..... and I think I found one. After removing the knot I set to work cleaning and was surprised how much of this nastiness polished off. I didn't want to repaint it, but only bring it back to usefulness, so I feathered the edges of the chipped paint areas. After an overnight soak in Teak oil and two coats of Helmsman Spar Urethane, I installed a 20mm two band badger raised by six pennies. Pre-bloom It has that hipster / retro look ..... ready for many more years of lathering. And as always ...... more to come .....
I receive a sad Rubberset #153 in a group buy. After removing the old knot and boring it out very slightly; I weighted, polished it and set in a 20mm two banded badger knot. It has a none typical olive drab top as opposed to the traditional black top; which gives it a very military look to it. And as always ...... more to come .....
The following is a warning! When I restore brushes I try to to remove the knots out of 6-8 brushes all at once due to it can stink up my apartment (yes, I have a saint for a wife). Well I was nearly done, when I was working on a cute little wooden handle Rubberset. It's not uncommon that the very vintage brushes have a metal retaining band inside, that I usually remove due to size constraints. All of sudden smoke started rocketing out of the top of this brush. I immediately knew what was happening ..... the celluloid ignited. Within three seconds, I took it to the sink and doused it generously with water, but the damage was done. It burned incredibly fast and left a large hole in the side the size of a nickel. I'll save the handle for a future brush build of some kind.
Yikes! How did Saint Mrs. Enrico take that adventure? Are you still allowed to use power tools in the apartment?
She didn't realize it was burning (it burned like a smoke bomb). She just said it was stinky. I'm glad it happened on the last one ..... it stunk up the room and made it unpleasant to work in there. Too bad, it was a nice little Rubberset ..... I was going to set a 20mm two banded badger in it.
I worked on a couple brushes ..... nothing to fancy a Stag and a Warranteed. Before ..... Of the two of them the Stag needed far more work, but turned out to be a really nice brush. The Warrantteed was fairly straight forward. After ......... The Warranteed had it's knot removed, polished, re-lettered, and a 20mm two banded badger installed. The Stag was just plained beat ugly and the bottom was oversized. I reduced it by hand to a more pleasing shape. Add a bit of sanding, polishing (to remove most of its scars), and weighting. It received a nice 22mm boar knot (from a new Omega donor) to finish it. The Warranteed is a beauty, but the Stag is now a brush that will easily please gentleman for many years to come. And as always ...... more to come .....
Well @Jrdelgado had an Ever Ready 300PBT that he wanted re-knotted. Not all Ever Ready's IMHO are created equal ..... this one, as a matter of fact was consider a higher end of the tuxedo style. This was due to its style and components ...... the gold band at the center and the badger knot, as you can see it in its number PBT (Pure Badger Tuxedo). I remove the knot, weighted and bored it to accept a 24mm two banded badger from Maggard's. I didn't polish it to high gloss as I normally would, I didn't want damage the plating of the gold center band, but I was able to remove a minor ding in the bottom. I set the loft to 52mm and the backbone feel nice pre-bloom, I let the owner have the pleasure of blooming their newly restored brush. And as always ...... more to come .....
