Here is an easy restore for y’all. I found an Albright Rubberset online and couldn’t pass it up. Anyway, the handle was in excellent shape, but the knot was junk. After reading that several people had gotten lucky with just being able to pull the knot out, I pulled on the top and bit by bit eased it out of the handle. I then cleaned the handle with scrubbing bubbles and a toothbrush.
I had acquired a TGN 18mm finest in a transaction with a member here and decided to see if it would work. The handle had a 20.5mm opening, but the 18mm knot swelled quickly to that size just a couple of millimeters above the glued base. This worked perfectly, because I wanted to set the knot at about 50mm as an all-around and it allowed me to place the knot further down into the handle.
The inside was hollow, so taking a page from our resident Tasmanian devil, I decided to plug it with cork. A wine cork had the perfect diameter, and I cut it to the proper shelf height (actually a couple of millimeters lower than where I wanted the bottom of the knot to rest), wrapped the exterior of the handle in tape, and drizzled 2-part epoxy into the hole over the cork and let that dry. Then I deposited another layer of epoxy on top of that, which is what I set the knot base into. I put a piece of tape over the knot so it wouldn’t move after I set it.
The specs on the brush are 64mm handle, loft of 52mm and an overall height of 116mm (a little over 4.5 inches).
Lessons learned: This was my first restore, and before starting I read as many restore threads as I could. I still ended up with little mistakes. For instance, I left the tape on the handle so I wouldn’t get glue on the exterior. Well, that effectively reduced the size of the opening, so the knot sits about 1-2mm higher than when I dry-fit it. Also, even though I didn’t put the tape that far into the handle, somehow it got glued into place, and I wasn’t able to pull it all out. So, being a perfectionist, I grabbed a dental tool and tried to get it out. This resulted in a small chip on the lip of the handle. At this point, I took my lumps and decided it wasn’t worth potential further damage. Maybe the wetting/drying cycle will eventually lift the small amount remaining out. We’ll see. It’s a lovely brush and really works well.
Anyway, on to the pics. I hope you all enjoy.
I had acquired a TGN 18mm finest in a transaction with a member here and decided to see if it would work. The handle had a 20.5mm opening, but the 18mm knot swelled quickly to that size just a couple of millimeters above the glued base. This worked perfectly, because I wanted to set the knot at about 50mm as an all-around and it allowed me to place the knot further down into the handle.
The inside was hollow, so taking a page from our resident Tasmanian devil, I decided to plug it with cork. A wine cork had the perfect diameter, and I cut it to the proper shelf height (actually a couple of millimeters lower than where I wanted the bottom of the knot to rest), wrapped the exterior of the handle in tape, and drizzled 2-part epoxy into the hole over the cork and let that dry. Then I deposited another layer of epoxy on top of that, which is what I set the knot base into. I put a piece of tape over the knot so it wouldn’t move after I set it.
The specs on the brush are 64mm handle, loft of 52mm and an overall height of 116mm (a little over 4.5 inches).
Lessons learned: This was my first restore, and before starting I read as many restore threads as I could. I still ended up with little mistakes. For instance, I left the tape on the handle so I wouldn’t get glue on the exterior. Well, that effectively reduced the size of the opening, so the knot sits about 1-2mm higher than when I dry-fit it. Also, even though I didn’t put the tape that far into the handle, somehow it got glued into place, and I wasn’t able to pull it all out. So, being a perfectionist, I grabbed a dental tool and tried to get it out. This resulted in a small chip on the lip of the handle. At this point, I took my lumps and decided it wasn’t worth potential further damage. Maybe the wetting/drying cycle will eventually lift the small amount remaining out. We’ll see. It’s a lovely brush and really works well.
Anyway, on to the pics. I hope you all enjoy.
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Looks good, I really like that long handle, it looks comfortable. Do you know what material it is? 
