This is a Made Rite 303L brush that was pretty messed up on the top. I started this a few days ago to get it ready for it's new knot. It had a number of large cracks at the top of the rubber. I first removed the old knot and opened it up to accept a 24mm knot. I then filled in all the cracks with JB Weld Epoxy, as it turns black, and did some light sanding, then polished it a little. When sanding, JB does turn into a dark grey, but at least the cracks are filled in and shouldn't separate. I also removed the two seams at the sides, it looks better. Before and after pics.........
This is a Chicago barbershop style shave brush. The problem I had with this one was that there was a decent size gap between the bottom of the ferrule and handle. I was hoping to remove the ferrule after removing the knot, but it didn't work out. There was just too much adhesive holding it on and I didn't want to ruin it, so I just filled the gap with plastic wood. I mixed up some paint reddish-brown paint for the handle, added a little more gold paint on the lettering and used a 20mm boar knot. Before and after pics.............
Just finished this, a restoration of a Sekine Essex #214 West German Brush from the 1980's. And thanks to @Enrico for identifying it. The ring was a bit dented, so that came off. I enlarged it a little to accept a 24mm knot and repaired the areas where the finish was peeling off. I didn't feel like using white on the top part of the handle, so I went with this Beige. It's not installed, but I'll probably use the grey and white synthetic used on the second pic................
A boar shave brush based on the same design I made a while ago that was Cobalt Blue and Black...........
This is one of the brushes I got a few days ago. There were two good sized cracks in the handle, which I filled in with epoxy. One benefit it had was that I was able to remove the knot by gently prying up it's ferrule with a metal ruler. I cleaned it off, since I wanted to re-use it, and also noticed that the knot was hand tied. I applied some liquid Super Glue along the bottom of the knot so the bristles wouldn't come loose. Then after conditioning the knot, I did some test lathers to make sure bristles weren't falling off before I installed it. I'm not sure why I used the color scheme I chose, but it's OK, with a few light dusting coats of clear for a better grip while wet..................
Restoring a shave brush is so much easier if the original knot can be pulled off. As was in this case with a vintage Surrey boar brush. I just opened the handle a little bit to accept a 24mm synthetic fan knot I already have two, blue and white, with the original boar knots, but not a beige handle one..................
Great Work Jim! I've restored a few of them and find them a very nice shape and extremely pleasing when weighted.
After doing a test lather on this brush, I decided to keep the original knot. But the handle needed work, as you can see by the first pic. After sanding, filling in some areas with plastic wood, and more sanding, I decided on using Cobalt Blue over Yellow for the colors...................
