Thread: My first attempt at a brush restoration

Here are some pictures of the finished product. The first one with the wooden handle is an Ever Ready handle with a silver tip badger brush. To seal the handle I dipped it in polyurathane outdoor floor sealer. Just one dip gave it a great finish with no drips. The only problem is that it filled in the stamp. I'm going to do the next wooden handle slightly different. I also used epoxy to fill the void in this one an when I put in the brush knot I ended up with some unsightly dribbles.

The next one is a Cavalier handle with a silver tip badger brush. This has to be my favorite one so far. Again I filled the void with epoxy but I let this one cure before I glued in the brush. So this one is in great shape.

The last one is just marked USA sterilized 7. It has a silver tip badger hair brush knot. At the hands of one of its previous owners, probably a barber, it had sat in warm lather that was re heated to a point that made the plastic bubble in the area where the brush met the handle. This had caused some unsightly bubbling and cracking. It also had a definite ring where it had been worn against a lathering mug. I filed this down as best I could to try to give it back some of its original shape. This revield the cracking under the surface. Then I sealed it by dipping it in the polyurathane floor sealer. Now the cracks make a nice artistic feature.

Hello Nathan,

Nice work and good pointers. Could you explain what you mean by void in more detail. What size knots are you using? I have my eye out for some handles but so far I have not found any cheap enough to cut the brush out. I might turn a handle. I just have to finish my sewing project

One of my TWA friends moved to Chaing Mai. He has been married twice there.

Jay

With many of the older brushes the handle is not made out of a solid piece of material. There is a recess where the old knot was glued in and underneath that there is a space between that recess and the base. These handles can feel a little lite, so filling this void makes the brush feel more solid. Also, it can be benificial to remove the bottom of the knot recess so that you can set the depth of the new knot as shallow or deep as you want.

What size knots are you using? If I turn a handle what size knot would you recommend?

The two larger ones are 22mm and the smaller one is 18 mm. The diameter at the top is about 7cm. I found that this is a great size, not too big, not too small

I know this is an older thread, but thanks for the pointers and details! I'm searching for just the right handle to restore and hit TGN for my knot, so your pictures and details are very helpful.