Thread: What are you working on?

The sanding does take a toll on the body, but its something I'm used to doing. I've been a manual laborer my whole life, I've got scar's all over both hands to back it up.

Not that I'm in any hurry to do this again, but I might go with the greaseless instead, and put the energy into cleaning up that mess, overall. But to those that want to try doing this by hand....take your time, take breaks, have a ample supply of sandpaper.

I did all the heavy sanding with 400 grit W/D.
Most would've went to a lower grit, but I didn't want to take a chance at removing too much steel from an area and leaving a gouge in the blade faces, better to slowly work that contour and make corrections before things get ugly. Though some 320 grt. would have been nice, 400 works just fine, and makes it real easy to progress once alls lined back up again.

But your right, Rez. It'll be roughly one week from start to finish on the blade. Plus the time restoring the scales. Like a super human thing...eh.!

Dedication.

I got the synthetic knot out of the handle and while waiting for the weather to clear so the post office can get to Maggard's to pick up my package I decided to play a little with the handle.

The handle is some kind of wood and it's 2" long by 1-1/4" wide but it's turned down, so it really doesn't weigh very much at all.

So I decided to drill out the center with a 1/2" Forstner bit to about 1/4" from the bottom and fill it with lead. So once drilled and blown out with compressed air I heated the lead up in the smelter and had a little fun.

It bubbled a bit but not too bad. I placed it outside to cool and then took a picture.



It now weighs 1.75 ounces. I think I'll be happy with a little heft, plus it'll offset the weight of the new brush.

Wosty is done.!





Had to line the wedge on this one, too.



Still the original wedge, just needed that wee bit more to make it sit nice in the scales, without making a totally new one.

Pinned with brass rod, collars from Austin, original wedge, lined w/brass, and original scales.





Ready for the rocks.!

Thats great Mike. The finish you put to the blade faces looks sweet. Are they sanded up to 1k grit?

Yeah, its 1k. But I work with the same section of paper till its wore out, at the very end. Kinda neat.! The finish changes as you look at it from different angles.

Very nice, Mike. Another fine job for sure.

You da man Mike.

It was a bit chilly today (my Sunday) but I managed to work on a brush in the garage.
I bought this Shavemac 5 or 6 years ago and had the knot set a little deeper to give it some more backbone. Little did I know that a quality brush like this doesn't need help with backbone. I found the D01 knot to be a little tight and firm and it was a lather hog as it didn't want to give up the lather after you got it in the knot.

So today I chucked the brush up in my lathe, taped up the knot to protect it, and turn-off about 4mm of the handle at the top. Then sanded and polished it back to a nice shape and shine.

I think it will be a much better brush now. It still feels as if it will have plenty of back bone and it should splay out much better.
You can see the difference in the location of the label from the top edge. You can see more of the bottom of the knot too.

Before...


After...


I think this will make this a much better brush and much closer to the top picks of my brushes.

I've got a couple of those knots. Bowl lathers very well, but horrible for face lathering. IMO

Let us know if it helps.

I found it helped a lot. It was my fault as i asked for the knot to be set deeper. Less loft. But I didnt know better. Last night it gave a much better lather. Not as tight so the lather flowed better. According to the website its still a little shy of what they normally set the loft at but Ive always liked a little stiffer brush.
I think a couple
more uses and it should splay out much better.

It was tricky cutting down the handle with the knot still in it. I really didnt want to destroy a 180.00 brush.