Over two years ago, I made a brush to commemorate The American Volunteer Group, AKA The Flying Tigers. (Flying Tiger Brush (pic heavy)) Honestly, it was so-so, my opinion, and just put it away in back of my other brushes. Recently, like yesterday, I took it and decided to make it like I should've. And this is what I came up with, for me, a lot better............
A few days ago, I received a Certifyd #5 brush from @Jrdelgado which I noticed that the ferrule wasn't seated properly, which is just barely visible in the first pic. I originally thought that someone put glue there as it was a good amount in the gap. The first pic is the brush and the second is a sketch I made to show how it was. Yep, forgot to take a pic of it............ I couldn't remove it using hobby knife or other hand tools. So I had to remove the ferrule by using a cutting disk, between the ferrule and handle, on my Wen rotary tool deep enough so it would come off. And what I noticed was that no one added any glue to it. The glue was the same as used by the factory to mount the knot. Somehow it went through and was packaged for selling. But while using the rotary tool, a chunk of the handle where it meets the ferrule went flying, ooops. I found it, except for a real tiny piece and epoxied it back on with a tiny amount of plastic wood. I couldn't just re-do it with clear as this area would really show. So I used Red Mahogany stain on it, but I didn't want have uniform coverage. I applied a coat with a foam brush and added a heavy coat on the top area. This ran down a little creating a dark to light color. After I left it alone for a day, it was still tacky and I put a few dusting coats of clear spray and this cause tiny dots to appear to simulate a pebble finish, I like it. Then when completely dry, a few coats of clear. The following pics of the completed brush with the last two of close ups of the handle to better show the detail..............
A short time ago, @Jrdelgado and I got two vintage Victoria boar brushes. One of them had a chunk of the knot missing, so I decided to keep that one and replace the knot. The first pic showing the brushes and an Omega brush for the donor knot............... After removing the original knot, I had two choices. Use the Omega knot, which is 21mm and remove the gold plastic ferrule. I did remove the top part of the ferrule, as the inside was tapered and had to be ground away. Or use the gold ring of the ferrule with a smaller 17mm synthetic knot. Next two pics showing both versions.............
The other day I received an older aluminum Omega boar brush. While not seen in the seller's pics, it had a good number of dents on the handle. I worked on it a little, but really couldn't get them all out. My biggest problem was I wanted to see if the knot was loose, as I sometimes do when it looks like the glue is dried out. I twisted the knot with my hand, and that's when I had my problem. The aluminum shell was so thin, it caused a crease and crack down it's length, not good. First pic from the seller.......... I wasn't going to throw it away, so I went ahead and worked on it. First I removed the old knot and the ring/ferrule was loose so that was saved. I removed the aluminum shell and cut out the bottom to save the logo. I repainted it in Nutmeg and Black, installed the top ring/ferrule and shaped the bottom of the aluminum to install on the bottom of the handle. The next two pics showing it's final look with a 24mm Tuxedo knot dry fitted to it. I will get another knot for it, most likely a boar to replicate the original..........
