Thread: Knot replacement

Well I got this older Crabtree & Evelyn brush cause I really dug the handle. However the bristles seemed to be coming out at a fairly good rate so I decided to try and replace it.


From the way the bristles were coming out I was hoping the base would pop right out - wrong!!

So I went ahead with drilling out with a forstner bit. I put some foam in the vice to try to even out the pressure on the handle a little better.



I guessed keeping that metal sleeve was a pipe dream, and yeah that tore out pretty quickly, even though I was using an undersized bit.
Got down to where I think I needed to be for the loft.

(There's one more drilling operation with the next size bit to clean out the hole that I forgot to take a picture of).

Set the new knot with marine epoxy. I'm not sure if I went deep enough. Oh well we'll find out!



Not sure if this is how everyone else does this, but thought I'd share how I attempted it anyway

Knot is 18mm 2 band finest (TGN)

Happy shaving!

If it were me I may have set it a bit deeper, but I like my brushes a bit stiffer. Looks like this one may be a bit floppy, but that's not necessarily bad. I do have 2 brushes that are floppy, and they whip up cream like a boss. Post a pic when you use it a couple times so we can see the bloom. Nice job you did on removing the old knot!

Originally Posted by HARRYWALLY

If it were me I may have set it a bit deeper, but I like my brushes a bit stiffer. Looks like this one may be a bit floppy, but that's not necessarily bad. I do have 2 brushes that are floppy, and they whip up cream like a boss. Post a pic when you use it a couple times so we can see the bloom. Nice job you did on removing the old knot!

Yeah I think you're right. I'll give it a go and see how it does. I probably should have copied the loft on another brush just to be safe...

What is the loft??,sometimes re-knots can be far more difficult than people realize.

The loft is sitting right at 53mm...

Wow, that came out nice. Showed the photos to Liz and she is so jealous, that is a great looking brush, never seen one like it.

Should bloom huge, thanks for posting your process.

Originally Posted by RoyalCake

The loft is sitting right at 53mm...

That should work out fine.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

That should work out fine.

Thanks. Oh and this is the knot that the glue sits pretty high into the bristles, so it's a little stiffer than usual.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Wow, that came out nice. Showed the photos to Liz and she is so jealous, that is a great looking brush, never seen one like it.

Should bloom huge, thanks for posting your process.

Thanks - I got motivated to get this done after seeing your collection

Looks very well done!
You are now well on your way to being a profesional shavingbrushknotrepacementalist!!!
Well done!!

Ray