Thread: Any of you gentlemen do brush hair replacement work?

Just a small tip that works well for me.

Get an appropriately sized o-ring (I bought a small tray with an assortment of o-ring sizes at Home Depot) and pull it up over the hair of the new knot from the bottom before any of this. Protects the hair, keeps the shape intact through heavy handling, and keeps it out of the way while you test fit and finally glue it in. Also found that it helps keep excess glue/epoxy from seeping into the base of the knot.

Tony

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

Glad I could help.

As far as the hot water, that may or may not work. It depends on what kind of glue was used. If it's a natural glue, like they use to make from boiling up hooves and things, then yes. Drop the whole thing in boiling water for 20 minutes, and you'll be able to pull the bristles out very easily by hand.

If it doesn't work, it shouldn't do any harm.

The brush I restored was a rubber set brush, so that didn't work. instead, I grasped small clumps of bristles near the handle with needle-nose pliers, and rolled the pliers. Not twisted, but rolled. At first the bristles just broke off, but after a few tries, I started getting clumps, and the clumps got bigger and bigger until I was pulling the rest out by hand.



As far as gluing in the new knot, that's the easiest part of the whole process.

Pretty much any kind of glue will work, but ideally you want something that will set with little to no exposure to the air, and something relatively waterproof, so ideally we're talking about a 2-part epoxy.

Loc-tight makes a whole line of very inexpensive 2-part epoxies that you can get at virtually any hardware store. I like their orange epoxy. (they label and sell their epoxies with color names, and in color coded packages to make life easy if you didn't know)

I like the orange for several reasons.

1. it sets fairly quickly, but slowly enough that you have time to work and clean up.
2. it's sets clear so you don't have as much to worry about in terms of a mess.
3. If you do make a mess, it cleans up VERY easily with denatured alcohol as long as you get to it before it sets. (keep some alcohol and cotton swabs handy)

I can give you a couple other tips about the gluing process.

1. it's easier to glue the knot in if you get a knot that is just slightly smaller than the hole. The site I linked sells in metric sizes, so you may have to do some conversion unless you have a metric ruler. The sizes refer to the glue plug that the bristles come set in. Just measure the hole in the handle, and round down to the next millimeter, or deduct one millimeter.
2. Mix the epoxy on a piece of tin foil or something else you can throw away, and then spoon it into the handle. If you try to mix it in the handle, you may not get good adhesion.
3. Once the epoxy is in there, it will be tough to push the knot in, because the epoxy will be thick, and won't want to squeeze up the sides where you need it. If you twist the knot as you put it in, it will go much easier.
4. Test fit the knot about 10 times because once that epoxy goes in, you're committed. The outside of the knot, where it's glued together, can be sanded a little if you don't feel there's enough room for the epoxy.
5. The glue on the end of the knot should be sanded lightly regardless, and the inside of the handle should be cleaned with alcohol or acetone and sanded as well.
6. If too much epoxy squeezes out, don't freak. Freaking out will just make a mess. Just grab the denatured alcohol and q-tips and clean it up. You'll have 5-20 minutes to clean it which is plenty of time. Other solvents may work, and other epoxies may require different solvents, but I can tell you from experience that denatured alcohol works perfectly on loc-tight orange.

I'm sure I've gone from making this sound easy, to making it sound complicated and scary, but it's really not. I can post pictures of the brush I restored if you're interested.

Well, Steve. Alls i can say is, "You the Man!" Thanks again for all your help.
I will post how things turn out, when i get the items and switch out the hair.
Thanks again,

Mac

Any time.

So, i followed VeeDub's instructions re: hair and knot removal and it worked like a champ. Thanks Steve!
The bristles were, in fact, boars hair (put a couple hairs to the flame,) and i definately dont want to keep those...felt like kissing a cactus.
Ive got online and ordered a 22mm x 65mm Silvertip badger hair knot and will place it in the holder, when it arrives.

P.S. Not sure about the porcelin quality, but the top of the handle is slightly oval, not perfectly circular...oh well, it still looks nice.

Thanks guys,

Mac

Originally Posted by McWolf1969

P.S. Not sure about the porcelain quality, but the top of the handle is slightly oval, not perfectly circular...oh well, it still looks nice.

That's actually a lot more common than you'd think. Modern commercial pottery is more consistent, but porcelain is especially prone to warping when it's fired. It has a very high silica content, relatively low alumina content, and almost no *grog; which means that it gets very soft when it's fired.

As long as there's no cracks, you're good to go.

Just don't forget to dry fit many times over.


*in ceramics "grog" refers to bisque fired pottery that has been ground up and added to wet clay. It increases stability for firing, but can cause problems in porcelain clays.

Any progress on the brush? Let's see some pics if you're done.

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

Any progress on the brush? Let's see some pics if you're done.

Just got the Silvertip brush in the mail tonight and placed it into the handle/holder. The loc-tite work extremely well and im pretty happy with the results. I had to sand the knot a bit to get a good fit, but that turned out to be pretty simple.
Im letting it dry overnight, for good measure and will use it tomorrow to see how it holds up.
Here is a pic, as requested...along with my thanks.

Mac

Very nice. I'm guessing from the overall shape that you set the knot pretty deep.

Wouldn't be great for the big floppy style, build a mountain of lather and mop it around method, but it should be really really good for an old-school soap scuttle.

The one thing I'd have done differently with mine would be to set the knot deeper.

Yeah. Ive been considering trying the whole lather building method, but i usually build the lather on my face and definately like it hot, when im applying. It seems that building the lather, in a seperate cup, would allow it to cool somewhat?
Besides, i think given that the handle is so tall, the shorter, more recessed brush would look weird.

Mac

Face lathering vs bowl lathering is purely a matter of preference.

Personally, I use a scuttle very similar to yours, which I fill with boiling water out of the kettle. That kind of scuttle really isn't intended to heat your lather directly, but to provide ready access to boiling hot water for your brush, and a way for excess water to drain off your soap quickly.

I find that face lathering works very well with this type of scuttle, and since you're using boiling hot water, your lather will always be nice and hot.

Also, since you bought your knot from the same place as me, and used the same type of epoxy to set it, I can tell you that using boiling water in your scuttle won't do a thing to hurt that brush anymore.