Thread: Brush Reknotting Tutorial?

I picked up a nice butterscotch and red Ever Ready 100 at a flea market last weekend. For $3, I could not resist. Cut off the bristles, drilled the old knot, and will finish cleaning it up this weekend.

I just ordered a TGN 20mm fan-shaped finest.

Can anyone direct me to a good tutorial on setting the knot? The handle is hollow, and I presume I will need to fill it in with some epoxy first?

Ray, glad to help if I can.

First, I think if you search for posts by Rudy Vey on Badger and Blade, he has put together a set of photos showing a brush restoration from beginning to end. Very helpful.

Second, if you want the steps I follow, here they are. Once you have cleaned out the collar and you have a brand new knot ready to set in the hole, you have already finished like 90% of the work. You need to get the knot to sit at exactly the height that you want it BEFORE you put the epoxy in the hole. I first put a few pennies or washers in the hole to get to the point where the bottom of the knot is sitting at exactly the right height and resting on the "shelf" that I've created. The more time you spend getting this shelf at the right height, the better your brush is going to look once you glue it in.

After you have the shelf set at the right height, it becomes very easy. Fill the hole about 1/3 of the way with your epoxy, and then press and hold the knot firmly in place while the epoxy sets (5 minutes). Do not use "Gorilla Glue" or any other replacements for epoxy. Do not set the brush down and walk away after 30 seconds, or else the knot can slip a bit or end up crooked, and after that epoxy hardens, there's no fixing the problem.

If you can see that the epoxy is overflowing the knot hole, remove the knot right away and wipe off some excess epoxy, and then set the knot back in place and see if the stuff still overflows. Do not let the glue drip down the collar, and if you see any glue headed this way, wipe it away right away with vinegar or turpentine.

Once the knot is firmly in place, put it down and let it dry and cure for 24 hours.

That's all there is to it!!

I use a re-useable adhesive putty to set the hight of the brush in the knot. The shelf you speak of. But I love the idea of using coins. I'm going to try that next time.

If I encounter a hollow handle, I normally use some wine cork (slices or larger pieces) to fill it up, together with some epoxy glue. Some even ground the cork and fill the handle with a mix of cork dust and epoxy.
A dowel rod piece would do as well. Some guys like it heavy and add lead to the hollow handle, just make sure all are set in the glue so it will not rattle...

Many ways to shave that cat...

Coins work well just because you can get them in all different thicknesses and sizes. For some brushes, you only need a dime or two to get to the right height. For other brushes, it will take three or four nickels. I used to use fender washers, by the way, but I found that I had to keep going to the store to buy different sizes and thicknesses for each brush I was working on, and so it's actually cheaper and easier just to use some loose change.

Rudy is right about the other stuff too -- I like to use some metal nuts to fill in my handles and make them a little bit heavier, but you need to be sure that the epoxy gets all the way into the bottom of the handle so that the nuts don't rattle around. Use a toothpick to "coax" the epoxy down into the handle.

You'll find that virtually all brush handles (except for the wood ones and the pure bakelite ones) are hollow to some extent or another, and it makes sense to fill in the hollow part with epoxy first before you start trying to figure out how to make your shelf.

Good luck, and please post some photos when you're done!

I found my method of using blu tak (re-useable adhesive putty) to be great for me as I could use it to add extra weight. I could put in too much and then remove what I didn't need and it is readily avaliable.

But I love the idea of using a brush that includes some intersting coins. Imagine using semi collectable Chinese good luck coins or foriegn coins from a favorite holiday destination. I'm sure it wouldn't inprove that value of the brush, but it would give it a little more sentimental value.

Because you can never get the coins out without drilling out the whole knot, I'm not sure you'd want to put anything valuable in there, but if including a lucky coin makes sense for you, then I would go for it.

If you must know, I've used everything from subway tokens, peep show tokens, even video game tokens. I do think it's funny that, in 40 years or so, when someone goes to restore one of the brushes that I've worked on, they will drill out the knot and find an old peep show token buried in the handle!

Another approach is set the knot in it's own vessel and then that goes inside the handle. However you do it make extra sure the knot fits very snug. If its loose at all you'll never get it to stay fixed.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Another approach is set the knot in it's own vessel and then that goes inside the handle. However you do it make extra sure the knot fits very snug. If its loose at all you'll never get it to stay fixed.

When you say that you put the knot "in its own vessel," what sort of thing do you use as a vessel? Do you glue the vessel into the handle? Do you glue the knot into the vessel?

Thanks!

"Back in the day" they used to use plaster to fill the void inside the handle.

I usually make a mixture of small lead shot and epoxy. I then place a 5mm layer of that at the bottom or the top of the void depending where I want the balance. In the rest of the space I put little bits of chopped up cork and epoxy.

I must admit, though. I prefer solid handles to hollow ones.

I assume the OP is asking about the ever-ready when he says the handle is hollow. True butterscotch brushes are made from catalin and are invariably solid.