I am thinking about restoring my great grandfather's wood handled boar brush, the boar bristles are clearly worn out, and I would like to replace with badger of some sort. My main questions are, how difficult is this process (Cannot mess up this brush!!) and how do you measure to see what size knot do u need? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Brush restoration questions?
- Thread starter jswhitley
- Start date
I was in the same situation...inherited my grandfather's brush and wanted to restore it. I didn't trust myself doing the work, so I sent it to Rudy Vey for restoration. He did a great job and I'm a happy camper. There are other members who can do great restoration work as well.
You can definitely do it yourself, but without experience it may be worth having a pro do it...or try out a few brushes before attempting the important one.
Ben
You can definitely do it yourself, but without experience it may be worth having a pro do it...or try out a few brushes before attempting the important one.
Ben
There are many restoration threads here. Read a few of them to see it it looks like something you can do. There is one general resortation thread that is very long that is a good read for an overview of techinques and results.
It is pretty easy but you need a few tools and some basic shop skills. Rudy is a good fellow who will turn that old brush into a new classic if you do not want to undertake the job.
The best tool to measure the hole for the knot is a caliper. However once you have the old hair removed a decent quality ruler can be used to measure the hole diameter.
The tool in this image off to the far right is a dial caliper.
These can range from not very expensive to quite a bit of dough depending upon their accuracy. For shaving brush restores you can get by with a medium quality one. These are great tools because you can measure depth of the hole, inside and outside diameters very easily and precisely...however you really can get by without one.
It is pretty easy but you need a few tools and some basic shop skills. Rudy is a good fellow who will turn that old brush into a new classic if you do not want to undertake the job.
The best tool to measure the hole for the knot is a caliper. However once you have the old hair removed a decent quality ruler can be used to measure the hole diameter.
The tool in this image off to the far right is a dial caliper.
These can range from not very expensive to quite a bit of dough depending upon their accuracy. For shaving brush restores you can get by with a medium quality one. These are great tools because you can measure depth of the hole, inside and outside diameters very easily and precisely...however you really can get by without one.
This long thread is a very good introduction to the possibilites and techniques....well worth a read end to end before you determine if you want to try this...
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=58175&highlight=restoration
Good luck either way..
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=58175&highlight=restoration
Good luck either way..
Definitely restore it. It's really not that difficult. The hardest part is getting the old bristles out. After that it's a breeze!
Oh my goodness, I had no idea they could be restored... *Runs to go find his great-grandfathers brush hoping he didn't throw it out.*
I just finished restoring my father's old brush--my first one. It looks a lot like the white handled one posted by benvh above. It wasn't that difficult. I purchased a knot from Golden Nib. Agree on reviewing the posting at the hyperlink supplied by Schwert. The only issue I had was that I used a bit too much epoxy and it weeped up onto the bristle on one small spot near the top of the handle. Other than that, no problem. Of course, you will need to use caution with tools, etc. when working with the handle to remove the old bristles and if you're using chemicals to clean and polish. Good luck!
