Brush fail #2

[CigarSmoka]

So I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving this botched up job laying around the shop while I worked on other projects. It was 113F here in the desert yesterday so I was only going to get a little shop time in anyway. I used bubinga for the cup and truthfully, I think it looks awful. I thought it would darken more with some oil but I was wrong. I did come up with a clever way to turn the cup and guarantee that it would be centered and aligned on all axes though. After drilling the knot hole I had enough wood at the bottom to drill and tap a hole for my threaded mandrel. I turned the cup on the mandrel, added some wood glue and threaded on the base tightly, wiped off the squeeze out with a damp paper towel and got a perfectly aligned brush handle. Too bad the bubinga was a total mismatch. It would probably look better after the padauk darkens (padauk ALWAYS darkens) but I’ll be turning it off and trying again for something that doesn’t look like it was pieced together by Dr Frankenstein...

 

[Toothpick]

Looks fine to me!

 

[FarmerTan]

Unless I'm missing something, you are selling yourself short.
I think that will look awesome once it darkens. Looks awesome to me right now, to be honest.

 

[davent]

Maybe set it aside and forget it for awhile, come back to it with fresh eyes and maybe you'll see it in a more favourable light. A while... month or two or three...

If at that point you're still not pleased, off with it's head.
dave

 

[davent]

And not a fail at all, you've got your clever method to mount to lathe stored away and use next time something similar comes your way.
dave

 

[Clay S]

Might try a wood that is different enough so that it looks by design rather than not matching, perhaps with the grain running perpendicular instead of parallel as well. A wood with large dark/light grain variance like zebra wood might go well or perhaps a different colored wood (black?).

 

[Rudy Vey]

Padauk will darken quite a bit, so it may end up darker than the Bubinga. I made a 8-sided Mirror frame from Paduak some years ago and although it has not natural light falling on it, it has darkened considerably.

 

[rockviper]

We are often our own harshest critic. That looks really nice to me.

 

[Graydog]

Jay, very clean cut piece of art you have there.
If you would have not shared your blow up no one would ever have known .
I think Rudy is correct, give it some time.
You are still looking at it as a mistake that you had to fix. You could always burn it

 

[GAW9576]

I agree that it looks really good as is and may look even better as the woods ages. If you leave it a while it may look fantastic, if you decide you can't stand it and go with another wood for the cup my vote is still for Black Ebony. Any way you go it's going to be a really nice brush or a learning experience, or both.
I know I tend to be hyper critical of my own work and obsess over the tiniest "imperfections" when most people look at what I make they say it looks great and I still see all the flaws. Sometimes our own eyes are the hardest to please because we see what we wanted something to look like and get hung up if that's not exactly what we achieve, and others see the beauty that is there.

 

[FarmerTan]

I agree that it looks really good as is and may look even better as the woods ages. If you leave it a while it may look fantastic, if you decide you can't stand it and go with another wood for the cup my vote is still for Black Ebony. Any way you go it's going to be a really nice brush or a learning experience, or both.
I know I tend to be hyper critical of my own work and obsess over the tiniest "imperfections" when most people look at what I make they say it looks great and I still see all the flaws. Sometimes our own eyes are the hardest to please because we see what we wanted something to look like and get hung up if that's not exactly what we achieve, and others see the beauty that is there.

This, all of it!

 

[brailsmt]

i don't see a **** up at all. It looks great as is. I guarantee someone will find it purchasable. The colors as they are are not horribly incongruent, as the padauk darkens, it will fall in line with the other dark wood and look great.

 

[FarmerTan]

i don't see a **** up at all. It looks great as is. I guarantee someone will find it purchasable. The colors as they are are not horribly incongruent, as the padauk darkens, it will fall in line with the other dark wood and look great.

And this too!

 

[DCRIII]

I think it looks pretty good Jay!
@Graydog had it been me turning that wood, it would have been burning. They always start to smolder whenever I've turned a wooden handle.

 

[GAW9576]

I think it looks pretty good Jay!
@Graydog had it been me turning that wood, it would have been burning. They always start to smolder whenever I've turned a wooden handle.

I've burnt the wood with friction on purpose to make and accent.
Jay the shape is perfect, if you decide you can't stand the color you could do a friction burn or a straight up torch burn like shou shui ban on the cup to darken it . I would wrap the rest of the handle to protect it if going with the torch method.

 

[Graydog]

I've burnt the wood with friction on purpose to make and accent.
Jay the shape is perfect, if you decide you can't stand the color you could do a friction burn or a straight up torch burn like shou shui ban on the cup to darken it . I would wrap the rest of the handle to protect it if going with the torch method.

This.

 

[KeenDogg]

I like it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[CigarSmoka]

Thanks for all the comments. I still think it’s ugly and a complete mismatch though.

Maybe set it aside and forget it for awhile, come back to it with fresh eyes and maybe you'll see it in a more favourable light. A while... month or two or three...

If at that point you're still not pleased, off with it's head.
dave

Thanks for the down to earth advice, it’s the most sensible thing for me to do. I rubbed some antique oil into the base which darkened the padauk quite a bit. I think it will look better with some time to let the orangish colors fades to a deeper brown. If not, it’s off to the guillotine!

 

[ajkel64]

It looks pretty good to me. Great save.