Dubl Duck and two other restorations

Bought some knots from Fountain Pen parts - NIBS, - Wholesale Fountain Pen Ink - Golden Nib AZ . Used 22mm Best Badger Short Loft on the small brush and 26mm Silver Tip Grade A on the larger brushes.

The smaller brush was in worse shape than it looked when I purchased it from ebay, as the bottom had cracked off and was repaired with contact cement. I drilled out the knot with a forester bit, then I was able to remove the base (in pieces) and do a proper repair with epoxy. The knot had an aluminum band around it and was set in epoxy and plaster. I first set the knot with shoe goop, as I was able to get to it from the bottom, as the handle was now in two pieces. After letting the shoe-goop dry for two days, I pored in some slow setting clear epoxy, and assembled the base back together. (I was able to determine the amount of epoxy needed, by doing a practice run with water, instead of the epoxy)

For the two larger brushes I also drilled out the knots. ( In another post I showed a failed attempt to loosen the knots with steam) These were set also in plaster, and epoxy. There was an epoxy seal over the hollow handles which I removed. I then filled the handles to the bottom of the red cap with clear slow setting epoxy. This got quite hot as it was setting, so I cooled the handles in a glass of cold water. Next I used shoe-goo to coat and seal the portion of the knots that would be embedded in the handle, and applied some more shoe-goo to the inner top portion of the handle cap, as the hole was indented a few millimeters. The reason I used shoe-goo here was for ease glue clean up , if any oozed out onto the knot or handle when the knots were fully inserted into the handle. Finally, I poured some more slow setting clear epoxy into the handle cap, and inserted the knots.

In the following pictures you can see the original brushes as purchased from ebay.( Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the Dubl duck which was not in good shape). Then there are the photos of the finished brushes.

While searching for brushes I learned that the old horse hair brushes came in a #2, #3, #4, and #5.. there might have been even larger brushes. The #2 brushes can fit a maximum knot of 24 mm, and the #3 brushes a maximum knot of 26mm. The brushes get larger with larger numbers, but I do not have other sizes to measure.
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