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

I just bought a scuttle and brush on the evil "Bay," and want to have the bristles replaced on the brush...any referals would be helpfu.

Thanks,
Mac

The 1st person to come to mind for me is Tony at Penworks. I don't know if he's up for it, but it should be worth the time to PM or email him.

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Fountain Pen - Antique Pen - Vintage Pen - Fountain Pen Ink - Penworks AZ

Hopefully you gents can work something out. I'll vouch that he's a top notch gentleman to deal with.

, and congrats on the nice set!

Have you tried lathering with those old bore bristles?
They lather surprisingly well.
Give a good rigid feeling. Its a different experience. Although alot of the lathering needs to be done on the the face. You can only get so far in a bowl with one.

+Buckler

Originally Posted by Buckler

Have you tried lathering with those old bore bristles?
They lather surprisingly well.
Give a good rigid feeling. Its a different experience. Although alot of the lathering needs to be done on the the face. You can only get so far in a bowl with one.

+Buckler

I will give 'em a try, when it gets here...its in the mail. Thanks for the suggestion...i do prefer a stiffer brush. As long as they arent synthetic...i hate the fake.

Thanks.

Mac

First of all, VERY nice scuttle. I really prefer the old style soap scuttle like that one to the "modern" scuttles.


As for the brush, if you decide to replace the bristles after all, you should consider doing it yourself as it is really easy. I recently restored the brush that, interestingly enough, came with an antique scuttle I bought online.

You can get knots at thegoldennib.com

They're very inexpensive, and I love the quality of mine.

The only part that would make me nervous about that brush is the fact that it appears to be porcelain, so you'd have to go slowly when removing the old bristles.

If you want a straighter/stiffer brush, you can accomplish that by setting the knot deeper into the handle. In a lot of older brushes, the holes for the knots were really deep, and they filled them up with plaster to set the depth. Once you get the old bristles out, it's really not hard to dremel out the plaster to the depth you want.

One other tip that just occurred to me.

Depending on the glue, it may not take anything more than letting it soak in boiling water for 20 minutes to get the bristles out without damaging the handle. A lot of glues will simply dissolve in water that hot, and room temperature porcelain won't crack from boiling water unless there's already a serious flaw in it.

I know that boiling water will dissolve the glues in some brushes because I wrecked a brush that way on accident, and I know the porcelain won't crack unless it's badly flawed, because my antique porcelain scuttle, and my mother's collection of porcelain tea-pots all do just fine when filled with boiling water straight out of a kettle.

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

First of all, VERY nice scuttle. I really prefer the old style soap scuttle like that one to the "modern" scuttles.


As for the brush, if you decide to replace the bristles after all, you should consider doing it yourself as it is really easy. I recently restored the brush that, interestingly enough, came with an antique scuttle I bought online.

You can get knots at thegoldennib.com

They're very inexpensive, and I love the quality of mine.

The only part that would make me nervous about that brush is the fact that it appears to be porcelain, so you'd have to go slowly when removing the old bristles.

If you want a straighter/stiffer brush, you can accomplish that by setting the knot deeper into the handle. In a lot of older brushes, the holes for the knots were really deep, and they filled them up with plaster to set the depth. Once you get the old bristles out, it's really not hard to dremel out the plaster to the depth you want.

Wow! Lots of help...keep it coming. So, essencially, to remove the old bristles, i should soak the brush in boiling water they should just pull out? Next i would want to determine how deep i want to place the plug and dremel as necessary. What adheres the new bristles to the handle...do i have to purchase some glue?
The link you showed, had some great badger brush knots available too. I guess im going to have to decide the kind i want and figure out how to reglue the new one into the porclein handle.

Thanks, youve given me a great place to start VeeDub. :-)
Mac.

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.

That should be in the wiki. Well written and simple to follow instructions.

The best glue is Marine Epoxy. Waterproof and sets in 24 hrs.
+1 on the boil.

Nice set.