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I've had this handle and knot ready for restore for almost a year now but just never got around to doing it until yesterday.
Here's the brush on the right in it's original sorry state, I picked it up inside one of those chrome tubes in an old travel set. The brush on the left is a Culmak, you can see the restoration of that one in this thread (Vintage Culmak restore).
I removed the old knot by cutting it down and drilling it out, there was a load of cement filler which broke up and came out at the same time, leaving a hollow handle.
I ordered a 20mm Super Badger hair fan shaped knot with extra hair from The Golden Nib and enlarged the hole by sanding back the handle.
Since the handle was hollow I used Milliput epoxy putty to fill the handle and also set the knot at a loft of 46mm. Unfortunately a bit of the putty made it onto the very base of the bristles, you can make out a faint green tinge if you look closely. It's irritating but doesn't effect the performance in any way. If I was to do this handle again I'd half fill the handle with putty, wait for it to set and then fix the knot with normal epoxy. The putty gives a nice weight to the handle.
I'm really pleased with how the brush has turned out. Pics of it post shave are below. It was originally intened to be a travel brush, it fits the chrome tube perfectly, but I think it will make it into everyday use as well. It's got nice soft tips and good backbone, but isn't a lather hog. All told, I think it turned out reasonably well. I'll try not to leave it a year before attempting the next one.
Here's the brush on the right in it's original sorry state, I picked it up inside one of those chrome tubes in an old travel set. The brush on the left is a Culmak, you can see the restoration of that one in this thread (Vintage Culmak restore).
I removed the old knot by cutting it down and drilling it out, there was a load of cement filler which broke up and came out at the same time, leaving a hollow handle.
I ordered a 20mm Super Badger hair fan shaped knot with extra hair from The Golden Nib and enlarged the hole by sanding back the handle.
Since the handle was hollow I used Milliput epoxy putty to fill the handle and also set the knot at a loft of 46mm. Unfortunately a bit of the putty made it onto the very base of the bristles, you can make out a faint green tinge if you look closely. It's irritating but doesn't effect the performance in any way. If I was to do this handle again I'd half fill the handle with putty, wait for it to set and then fix the knot with normal epoxy. The putty gives a nice weight to the handle.
I'm really pleased with how the brush has turned out. Pics of it post shave are below. It was originally intened to be a travel brush, it fits the chrome tube perfectly, but I think it will make it into everyday use as well. It's got nice soft tips and good backbone, but isn't a lather hog. All told, I think it turned out reasonably well. I'll try not to leave it a year before attempting the next one.
