My first attempt at a restoration

I found this cool looking brush with a nasty nylon knot at an antique store this week and decided to give restoration a try. I'll log my progress as I go!

Here's the before shot:
I taped the handle and took my box cutter razor to the nylon hair.

 

Always nice to see such a project in progress!

 

Looking good.

 

Nice handle. What kind of knot are you thinking for replacement?

 

Good Luck! Good thinking, I didn't use anything like tape to protect the handle on my first try. Now I have a nice gouge where the dremel cutter slipped while trying to remove the knot.

 

Brings back memories. Ain't it fun?

 

why did you cut the knot off?
why not just put it in a vice and twist and pull?

seems easier to me.

 

I was actually thinking about horse. Brush maker Raymond Bukatey showed me a horse knot he had that was almost as soft as a Silvertip! And it's white so it'll look very similar to the nylon currently in it.

I just need to decide now if I want to risk trying to widen the hole for a 24mm knot or just stick with the 22ish that's in it...

 

I though about trying that, but I didn't know how the plastic would react. Most of the restoration stuff I've seen recommended cutting, drilling and then cleaning up with a dremel.

Oh and I also don't have a vice lol. I live in an apartment and don't have much for tools as of yet.

 

Good looking handle. You're off to a great start.

 

Cool handle. Nylon is a pain to dremel out. It wants to melt. But it will come out with work.

 

Sometimes doesn't work and you can damage the rim of the handle
By cutting and working with a lathe or tools you can create a "pillow" from the old base knot so the new one will sit better.
By pulling a knot with power the result is unpredictable,working will lathe or tools is controllable.

 

Good work! Get that old Gen 1 knot out of there and replace it with something better!

 

Got the old knot out! I drilled a pilot hole first, then I used a 1/2" (closest to the sides without hitting them) paddle bit. I cleaned out the rest with a dremel tool using a sanding drum. It ruined the drum (the nylon knot just melted and coated the drum) but it all came out and left a VERY smooth edge inside.

I'll have to take some sandpaper to the inside to rough it up a little so the epoxy can sink in and grip it, but I looks like it'll be pretty straight forward.

I dropped a nickel in to show the size. Apparently, a nickel is 22mm and a quarter is 24mm. The nickel fit with a little room on all sides but the quarter did not so I'm guessing it's around 23mm. I'll be buying a 22mm white horse knot from a local Brushmaker, Raymond Bukatey and installing it using Locktite as soon as it comes in.

 

Nice! I'm at the point of trying to get the nylon base knot out of a handle also. I haven't messed with it lately because of the melting factor.

 

I just ordered a 22mm High Mountain knot from Larry at Whipped Dog for this brush (the deal with Raymond fell through due to some unfortunate circumstances beyond his control, no big deal). It should be here Thursday and hopefully installed that night!

 

I have a synthetic knot supposed to be here today. If the tracking decides to update. Supposedly its still in AZ. I'm in WA.

 

Nice work so far! Looking forward to installation of knot and end product pics. Helps give me confidence to pick up some of the cool brushes I have seen in antique shops that have really bad bristles on them.

 

Well....its almost 4pm on March 31 and I've checked the mailbox twice..... I don't think its arriving today. (Lost all faith in USPS tracking)

By the way, I'm in NW Washington. North is Seattle. It's going the wrong way.

 

I have no idea what's going on with USPS recently! Had a package shipped out of DFW on Tuesday, it made it 100 miles to Coppell, Texas and been there ever since! Had another shipped from Indiana on Wednesday, 2 day priority and it showed up on tracking today in Iowa ( I'm in Chicago ). This system is totally whacked!