My brush fell apart

As the title says. I don't mind too much because I was unhappy with it anyway. The handle is a bit small for me and the thing sheds like an old dog in the summer. I've had it about a month and it loses at least a dozen hairs each time I use it. You can see a couple sticking out the top ready to go in the pic.

I guess I'll make a new handle, but is there anything I can do the cut down the shedding? Any sort of glue I can add to the base of the knot that might bind those loose hairs? At the moment the bottom and the sides are covered in glue, I was thinking cut away what's on the bottom and reglue it, something runny that will penetrate the knot a bit. Any suggestions?

Attachment 94290

I don't believe there is any fix for a badger with the mange, so instead of turning a handle for that knot why not just buy a good knot from TGN?

Use it until it's no longer usable. I'm not sure what you could do to fix it. I'd order a new knot, and make the handle. Nothing like new gear :)

I hope my Tweezerman brush was friend of yours and it also will suicide after friends death)))

I had a high end brush that never lost a hair. I took a few bowls of triple milled English soaps that were almost gone and ran the pieces through a cheese grater to fill one bowl. The resulting mix , plus some water, went together well enough but had a bit of a pebble grain to it. I whipped up some lather with that mix and from that day on the brush began to lose hair just like yours. Five to ten every time I used it.

This went on for over a year and I used the brush fairly often. It finally stopped shedding and if you were to look at it you'd never know it shed at all. Say that to say, there are an awful lot of bristles in the average shaving brush.

About 12,000 in a 28mm knot.

I'm just one of those guys who hates to throw things away if they're fixable. Guess this isn't.

I think it is fixable. Trim the knot end off till you can reach the base of the hair. when the ends are exposed use glue to bond the hair together. use a waterproof glue and make sure that all the hair ends are exposed. This should keep it from losing any more hair. We tie flies that resemble this type of shape with deer hair and that is how we attach it. The added glue on the end when the new handle is done will also help.

Of all the saddest words than can be said, none are sadder than these : My battery's dead !:chop:

Probably just buy some new gear and save yourself the headache, atleast you have a reason to buy a new brush!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thuktunflishithy

I'm just one of those guys who hates to throw things away if they're fixable. Guess this isn't.

---

I am in the same boat with you, sir.
It might be trouble to try and fix that brush, but I think you'll learn something in the process.
Let us know which glues work, which don't. I'd certainly like to know about it!

As long as the hair itself hasn't deteriorated it's a similar situation to a badly damaged straight. As long as the steel is OK you can cut it down as long as you have the time and skills. The same here. You can cut it down and make a smaller brush of it. As I understand it reconstituting a badger knot is not easy and is a specialized skill but it doesn't hurt to try.

It's fixable , if you know what you're doing . But is it really worth the trouble . You can get a 24mm , "two band" , finest badger knot , and a nice handle from The Golden Nib , for about $45.00 . I did , and I'm very pleased with mine (light bulb shape with extra hair) . Just glue the knot into the handle with 30 min. epoxy , and don't use it for at least 24 hours .

At the cost of appearing too pedestrian for this site; I find that the inexpensive Chinese badger brushed on eBay are an excellent buy. We're taking 10$ range. also good are the turkish horse hair from bestshave.com 6$ range. Develop a rotation and experience all three types : boar, badger and horse then move up the price range.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thuktunflishithy

I'm just one of those guys who hates to throw things away if they're fixable. Guess this isn't.

---

I am not sure if it is worth the effort....
Gorilla glue has a urethane foaming waterproof glue (not the super glue CA stuff).

Tie the knot so it does not fall apart and cut the base of the knot
So the glue can get to the bristles apply glue into the handle and a
Bit on the knot and put heh bits together. The glue will foam and fill any cracks.
Too much and it will run out on the handle so masking tape is a good idea.

Try to get it right the first time.. To my knowledge nothing will dissolve this stuff it catalizes with the humidity in the air.
When fully cured you can sand it smooth. Yes other glues including epoxy work.

I don't think I'd use a polyurethane glue for a brush, the foam would likely migrate up into the hairs. If it was me, I'd use a runny epoxy like some of the stuff Lee Valley sells. That would soak into the base of the knot and secure everything. Just my .02 worth.

ANY, two part epoxy works,ALL, epoxys are waterproof when cured,do not use Gorrilla Poly,that you will dearly regret.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thuktunflishithy

As the title says. I don't mind too much because I was unhappy with it anyway. The handle is a bit small for me and the thing sheds like an old dog in the summer. I've had it about a month and it loses at least a dozen hairs each time I use it. You can see a couple sticking out the top ready to go in the pic.

I guess I'll make a new handle, but is there anything I can do the cut down the shedding? Any sort of glue I can add to the base of the knot that might bind those loose hairs? At the moment the bottom and the sides are covered in glue, I was thinking cut away what's on the bottom and reglue it, something runny that will penetrate the knot a bit. Any suggestions?

Attachment 94290

---

Sounds to me like you just got a defective brush and it would be worth your while to just start over. We've got some fine artisans here who can fix you up in a jiffy and at a good price.

Epoxy is your friend.

Another epoxy voter. You'll lose some of the length of the hairs at the base, but it should stop them from shedding.

Warm the epoxy so that it flows better, and warm the brush hair so that the warmed epoxy doesn't just go back to slow flowing when it hits cold brush bristles.

Here's what I ended up with. I didn't do a fancy job since I wasn't really expecting it to work. I had half a flashlight kicking around from something, I have no idea why I cut it in half and what I did with the other piece but I had it so I set the knot in there. To fix the knot I wrapped thread around the base really tightly, partially to keep it from falling apart when I cut off the glue and partially to keep the new glue from penetrating too far up the knot. Then I cut away the old glue blob. To re-glue the knot I used something I know people will say was a bad idea but it worked so I'm happy with it, CA. The trick is careful application, you don't want too much. It penetrated the hairs enough to bind them all but didn't go beyond the thread wrap so the upper portion of the knot is still soft and poofy. I wrapped the base of the knot in a bit of scrap fabric since it is a smaller diameter then the flashlight body and then epoxied it in.

I haven't lathered up with it yet but it already isn't shedding as much, all I had to do before was brush my hand across it a few times and hairs would fall out, not anymore. I'll test it out tomorrow since I already shaved today. Not the prettiest but it works and is super light, I'll be using this camping I think since I like to have a really light kit when camping.

Attachment 94816

The inside of it is threaded, if I can fashion some sort of cap for it I could put shaving cream or shredded soap in there, even better for camping, at least short trips since it won't hold much.

Bet that puppy works to perfection,an applicator of shaving soaps/Creams,is in no way rocket science,Enjoy:)