Thread: How quickly can you mess up a brush restoration?

Ok, I think I've set a new record here for breaking a piece of shaving equipment within minutes after receiving it. Except in this case, it was less than 1 minute, and I am so frigging ****ed that I'm starting this thread to vent a bit.

So here's what happened. I scored a very nice DD brush handle on eBay and had great plans for polishing it up, replacing the knot, and reselling it, which I've done before. Anyway, when I get a new brush in the mail, the first thing I do is to check if the old, rotten knot is already loose, because if it is, sometimes you don't even have to cut or drill it out, because it just pops out.

And the knot in this handle did!! So I pulled the old knot out and started thinking how easy this restoration would be. Except that there was still a little clump of knot and hair still stuck to the bottom inside the handle. Without even thinking, I grabbed a screwdriver and put the blade next to the little booger, thinking that I could just "lever" it out. Well, I put just the tiniest amount of pressure on it and promptly broke a huge chunk off of the collar. Right through the part that says "Dubl Duck". Total elapsed time from shaving equipment to trash -- 45 seconds. I hadn't even cleared the little foam peanuts off my desk before it happened, and so the busted brush handle, old knot AND foam peanuts all went back into the same box and into the trash. (And NO, it was not a "fixable" sort of injury. When these damn things break, they just aren't sellable, and I wouldn't want to keep a brush in that condition either. So why invest another $20-25 for a new knot for that?)

Anyway, I am now moaning over the waste of money and my stupidity, so I thought I would share the pain here and maybe something good would come out of it. So my question to the group is this -- what is the quickest, stupidest way that you have you ruined a brush (or razor or strop) restoration project, and what happened? Thanks!

I bought a Boker on ebay, recieved it realised I got ripped off cause the blade was crap then tryed to remove the scales for my other boker and busted them in two places. Elapsed time 30 min. that one still hurts.

Ouch, that always hurts . I spent 3 days lovingly carving and sanding a set of scales out of a very very hard log, and i had almost no powertools to make it easier, so it was hard long work, but i loved every minute of it. Anyway it was 99% perfect, and i accidentally dropped it and it broke in two. I almost cried lol.

I had gotten a Beau Brummel and spent quite some time cleaning and honing and was just about finished but just had to do that last bit of polishing with the dremmel and while I was doing it at the kitchen table my son walked by bumping my arm causing me to hit the edge knocking off a one inch piece of the blade. I still have it to remind me about what can happen. The kicker was it didn't even need that last bit of polishing.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about!! Completely unnecessary, instantaneous and total destruction of a beautiful piece of shaving gear, just because you were doing something that with even a moment of reflection you would not do.

Thanks for the stories, guys, I feel a tiny bit better today. (Also the cleaning person took away the trash can with that beautiful, broken DD brush handle in it. That helps too!)

Maybe others will add some stories here and we can post this in the Workshop area, who knows. I don't know about you, but when I do something particularly stupid, it bothers me for a LONG time, so hearing these stories is really helpful. Thanks!

On my first attempt at making custome scales, I used paint sticks, figuring I would screw up. I drew the design, and spent all day using a dremel, pocket knife, and sand paper to shape and form the scales. I got them exactly the way I wanted them, I showed them to the folks, and they agreed they looked great. But that wasn't enough for me. I was tired at this point and hyper critical, so I managed to find one spot that bothered me, and within two strokes of my dremel sanding wheel, the scales I had spent all day on were toast. The funny thing is that if I have put it down til the morning, the whole thing could have been avoided.
I didn't lose anything on the cost of materials, but damn, I'll never get that day back. Thats the price of learning a lesson

I had a razor come in that had a trashed blade but the scales looked in great shape. They were rather plain off white but looked in perfect shape other than an off white patina they had gained throughout the years. I figured I'd pull them off and maybe use them on another decent blade down the line. I had just set up my drill press and figured this would be a perfect opportunity to try it out. I grabbed my automatic pin punch to set a nice divot in the pin and managed to blow the pin through the blade with one click snapping the on scale in two. Now I was pi55ed and not wanting this to be an entire loss decided to get a better look at the blade and pulled the other scale free snapping it. Then it dawned on me with that snap. I haven't run across scales that snapped like that before...... I looked closer an discovered what real Ivory looks like. The pieces still sit above my keyboard waiting to be carved into a wedge for my next set of horn scales.

Ivory scales!? I've heard they are so delicate that you can't even look at them the wrong way without cracking them. Anyway, good story, and thanks for sharing!