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First turned brush handle today

K

ktmhz

For your enjoyment this evening: my first turned brush handle. Made from cherry wood with a boiled linseed oil and cyanoacrylate glue finish, with an el cheapo "mixed badger 20.5mm" knot from Penn State Industries. I learned to use the lathe last week at our local members' woodshop, and have been pretty stoked to get one of these made. Didn't quite come out how I would have liked in a few aspects -- kept getting beastly catches with the skew chisel and hacking out deep gashes and so the handle ended up skinnier than I would have liked, and some of the epoxy squeezed out around the knot and may have gotten into the bottom of some of the bristles. I guess we'll see how these issues affect performance. Anyway, expect more brushes soon. I'll be working tomorrow on making a few more brushes, and hopefully not making the mistakes I made today. Once I make a few more brushes, I intend to give one away on here.
$PC132860_v1.jpg
$PC132858_v1.jpg
 
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T

tomcj2

I just looked at the Penn State web page for the knot you bought (here). How can you go wrong for $6.95? Maybe you can. Let us know what you think of it.
 
K

ktmhz

tomcj2 said:
I just looked at the Penn State web page for the knot you bought (here). How can you go wrong for $6.95? Maybe you can. Let us know what you think of it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is what I was figuring -- practice with some cheap knots and then once I can make a nice handle, maybe start making some sweeet brushes with nicer knots. In the meantime, everyone needs an introductory shaving brush under the christmas tree in a couple of weeks.
I don't have a lot of experience of brushes with which I might compare this one. I'll use it once the epoxy sets up overnight and make an assessment, but the only other brush I have ever used is my Omega boar; I am not really much of a badger connoisseur yet.
 
K

ktmhz

Update on brushmaking madness '12:
Today I went to the wood shop and made a couple more brushes. Still using the El Cheapo mixed badger knot, still using the same $3 piece of cherry wood I was using yesterday, still using the boiled linseed and super glue finish. Still getting mega catches with the skew chisel, at least on the second piece I turned. The first piece, I had plenty of concentration and was able to turn to the shape I wanted -- better proportioned, nicer curves, etc. The second piece was flung from the lathe repeatedly as I embedded the skew in the wood and ripped chunks out of the wood. Hence, a small and badly thought out handle, with a slightly shallow hole for the knot (can still see some of the knot's base if you look hard). Anyway, I'm happy with the progress I am making, and I have a few more handles I need to turn next week.
$PC142867.jpg$PC142869.jpg
You can see the one I made yesterday is on the right in this picture. I lathered with it tonight, so it has bloomed out a bit. My impressions are of it are as follows:
The El Cheapo knot did its job well. It had no trouble whipping a rich lather right up from the omega soap. I lathered it in a little bowl for a while, but it splayed out more than my omega boar (and overflowed the bowl a bit), so then I lathered it on my face and on my palm. It worked well in both situations. I fed it the usual amount of soap, and it had no trouble lathering for a 4 pass with touch up shave. The lather was more consistent in thickness between passes than with my omega boar, which tends to make thinner lather in progressive passes, for whatever reason. The bristles were prickly, even bordering on itchy at times. Not altogether unpleasant though -- I thought it was pretty nice. Keep in mind that this is the first badger brush I have used. Other than that, I only have a couple months of the omega boar under my belt. So this is by no means a definitive opinion. OH! Just remembered! The knot was STANKKY! It wasn't really too bad, just felt like I was lathering on the back of a wet dog. Also it shed a few hairs. Maybe up to a dozen including ones that fell out when I was gluing it in.
The handle felt good in the hand, though might have been better if it were a bit less spindly. The finish seemed to repel water well. All in all, I was really happy with how it performed.
$PC142861.jpg
 
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PFP_Dad

PFP_Dad

Your making great progress, glad to see the learning curve doesn't seem too steep for those of us on the fence about getting one. Do you have prior experience or is this your first time with a lathe?
 
K

ktmhz

PFP_Dad said:
Your making great progress, glad to see the learning curve doesn't seem too steep for those of us on the fence about getting one. Do you have prior experience or is this your first time with a lathe?
Click to expand...
Nah, my first day on the lathe ever was 9 days ago. I've been trying to use the skew chisel a lot because it is allegedly one of the tougher to learn, but more versatile tools -- and it is certainly giving me some grief. If your concentration breaks for even a moment, you end up with an epic catch and a big spiraling gash in your piece, or worse. My gash in the piece yesterday ended at the jaws of the chuck. Needless to say I was sharpening the skew again pretty severely.
 
PFP_Dad

PFP_Dad

Thanks for the reply. A buddy and I have been talking about splitting the costs for a lathe (he wants to make pen barrels) for a while, but neither of us has the least bit of experience with one.
 
T

tomcj2

Many Community Colleges have classes in woodworking that are inexpensive and fun.

Harbor Freight Tools has many "starter" lathes for very little $

This is the first (and so far only ) handle that I have made:

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and I used only a drill press, rasps, and sandpaper.
 
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H

hogateb

KTMHZ -

Curious as to how deep you drilled the hole for the knot? Just enough for the epoxy of it or deeper than that? Your handles are looking good! Looks like you are off to a great start. I love turning projects. Easy to finish a project in a day.
 
K

ktmhz

hogateb said:
KTMHZ -

Curious as to how deep you drilled the hole for the knot? Just enough for the epoxy of it or deeper than that? Your handles are looking good! Looks like you are off to a great start. I love turning projects. Easy to finish a project in a day.
Click to expand...

Thanks! On these guys I was trying to drill just about a mm or two deeper than the plug, so that the top of the plug on the knot sat pretty flush with the top of the handle. On the little runty one, I didn't even quite drill that deep and you can even see the plug in a spot (the is due to my not having access to the right size forstner bit, and so drilling an undersized hole and widening it with the parting tool).
I realize that one can control the bloom/backbone/stiffness/floppiness of the brush by setting the knot at different heights. With this particular cheap knot, it doesn't seem like setting the knot as high as possible creates an out of control bloom (though my opinion on this might be incorrect, as I don't have much experience either way). I have lathered twice with the first one that I made, and, while the brush has bloomed slightly, it doesn't seem to be going too nuts. I might try setting my next few a bit deeper to see how that works.
Maybe some more experienced folks can chime in with how deep they drill to set the knots?
 
H

hogateb

ktmhz said:
Thanks! On these guys I was trying to drill just about a mm or two deeper than the plug, so that the top of the plug on the knot sat pretty flush with the top of the handle. On the little runty one, I didn't even quite drill that deep and you can even see the plug in a spot (the is due to my not having access to the right size forstner bit, and so drilling an undersized hole and widening it with the parting tool).
I realize that one can control the bloom/backbone/stiffness/floppiness of the brush by setting the knot at different heights. With this particular cheap knot, it doesn't seem like setting the knot as high as possible creates an out of control bloom (though my opinion on this might be incorrect, as I don't have much experience either way). I have lathered twice with the first one that I made, and, while the brush has bloomed slightly, it doesn't seem to be going too nuts. I might try setting my next few a bit deeper to see how that works.
Maybe some more experienced folks can chime in with how deep they drill to set the knots?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I used one of their knots about a year ago along with the chrome cups that they sell and that made the brush too floppy for me, but I too am far from an expert.
 
memnochlv

memnochlv

Wow, I must say, for first attempts and only having learned a week prior, I still think they turned out really nice. I'm sure far nicer than if I'd tried doing it!
 
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