Rudy, the pot bellied shave brush.

[HARRYWALLY]

I'd like to start this thread by apologizing to Richard (Razorfeld) because he's been waiting for this brush for quite some time. He was very, very patient with me and I'd like to thank him for that. He's a super guy!

This brush was a design that Richard created, I believe to be a sibling to a brush I did for him a while back. When I first received his sketch for the brush I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to find Buffalo large enough to wrap the mid section of Rudy. So my plan was to produce a 16 sided polygon from a flat piece of buffalo horn. Getting the proper angles took a few trial runs with some scrap, but I nailed it down after a few tries.



Low contrasting woods were chosen for the main body of the handle. A checker board effect was a look both Richard and I didn't want. The woods I chose were Wenge, African Ebony, Black Walnut, and African Blackwood.

That was turned round, and then I added a contrasting maple girdle, followed by the Buffalo horn girdle. The head of the brush was also made from Wenge, blackwood, ebony, walnut and buffalo horn. Also, a cap of buffalo horn was added to the base of the handle as well.

This was a difficult project and I've never spent so much time in the prepping stage of a brush build. This one took many hours of prep before it was actually put on the lathe.

The finish is Marine teak oil, sucked in with a vac chamber. Then a few coats of Ren wax. The badger knot is TGNs smallest knot, a 16mm 2 band finest.