I bought an Ever Ready 150C off the 'Bay with the intent of reknotting it, but then the original 20mm knot was is great shape and I used it as-is, but the bristles never split, or bloomed and it was very scritchy and didn't make good lather, so I picked up a TGN 22mm Boar to replace it with. I removed the knot and enlarged the opening, but needed to put a spacer in to set the knot at the correct level, and I also wanted to add a bit more weight. I remembered refurbishing my ER 200T and agonizing over how to add weight and get the height/loft set right without screwing it up (ended up filling the handle w/birdshot and epoxy) and then putting everything in the freezer to keep the heat from warping the handle. I got lucky with the loft, but it's really a bit too bottom heavy, but I'm stuck with it. I was rummaging through my miscellaneous nuts and bolts and leftover crap (never throw anything away, you never know when you can use it), when I happened across a ~1-1 1/4" long 5/16 bolt with a T-nut attached, so I dropped it into the handle cavity (surprised it fit) and felt the weight; just right.
It wasn't until I took the bolt/T-nut out and spun the T-nut when I realized I had just solved both of my issues: I added weight, and the flat part of the T-nut would support the bottom of the Boar knot and once epoxied into the handle I could raise or lower the knot to set the loft to the height I wanted. I added a washer to give the epoxy more surface area to hold onto, added a scrap piece of plastic to the top of the T-nut so the knot had more surface area to adhere and let it set up.
Once the epoxied cured, I was able to put the knot in the handle and then turn the knot to raise and lower it until I got it to where it had room to bloom and yet still have adequate backbone (not hard with a boar knot). At that point, I heated a nail and made a hole near the threads on the bolt and then squirted a little bit of super glue between the bolt and T-nut to lock it in place and then I used silicone to set the knot and let it cure.
If I pick up another ER handle (non-lucite) with enough room for a bolt and T-nut, I might consider trying a Badger knot, but instead of locking the T-nut down with super glue, using lock-tite (blue or red, don't remember) so the knot could be raised or lowered at will to give either more or less backbone and the lock-tite would add just enough resistance to keep the knot from rotating during use, making it the brush equivalent of the Adjustable Razor (even though I don't know if an adjustable loft brush is practical or not). This is just serendipitous happenstance, but I figured I'd share it as it really made setting the loft foolproof and would work for brush restorations and new brush handles (turned wood or resin as long as it wasn't transparent).
It wasn't until I took the bolt/T-nut out and spun the T-nut when I realized I had just solved both of my issues: I added weight, and the flat part of the T-nut would support the bottom of the Boar knot and once epoxied into the handle I could raise or lower the knot to set the loft to the height I wanted. I added a washer to give the epoxy more surface area to hold onto, added a scrap piece of plastic to the top of the T-nut so the knot had more surface area to adhere and let it set up.
Once the epoxied cured, I was able to put the knot in the handle and then turn the knot to raise and lower it until I got it to where it had room to bloom and yet still have adequate backbone (not hard with a boar knot). At that point, I heated a nail and made a hole near the threads on the bolt and then squirted a little bit of super glue between the bolt and T-nut to lock it in place and then I used silicone to set the knot and let it cure.
If I pick up another ER handle (non-lucite) with enough room for a bolt and T-nut, I might consider trying a Badger knot, but instead of locking the T-nut down with super glue, using lock-tite (blue or red, don't remember) so the knot could be raised or lowered at will to give either more or less backbone and the lock-tite would add just enough resistance to keep the knot from rotating during use, making it the brush equivalent of the Adjustable Razor (even though I don't know if an adjustable loft brush is practical or not). This is just serendipitous happenstance, but I figured I'd share it as it really made setting the loft foolproof and would work for brush restorations and new brush handles (turned wood or resin as long as it wasn't transparent).
