Help me choose a badger knot for my first Ever-Ready restoration!

[wildcatstrat]

So I picked up a black and cream Ever-Ready 150 from a local antique shop and would love to re-knot and polish it up. I've already drilled out the old knot and have done some sanding to get rid of the obvious surface scratches. I've got a new bottle of Flitz polish ready to go as well. Anyhow...I'm at the point now where I'm looking at knots. I've previously used knots from TGN with good results, but I'm open to other suggestions. The knots I used were a 22mm Super Two-Band Finest and a 20mm Silvertip Premium, both in handles from Whipped Dog. My other brush is a Kent BK-8, and after using it I rarely reach for the other two, unless I need the extra backbone from the Two-Band for a hard soap and/or face lathering duties. There are a few attributes that I'm seeking with this new brush:

1. Soft tips. This is pretty much a prerequisite for me for any brush.
2. More backbone than my BK-8. I know that most knots will probably cover this easily, especially if I don't go with a silvertip/3 band.
3. Great density. What I'm really looking for is something that would be similar to a Simpson Chubby 2 in best badger, without the $180 price tag.

So that's what I'm looking for. I plan on reaming out the hole a bit with a dremel to accommodate at least a 26mm knot. I know that that's quite a bit larger than it came stock with this brush, but I've already opened it up to the point to where I can drop a quarter in the hole with a little room to spare. According to the wiki on here, that should be 24mm already. What do you guys think? Thanks!

 

[Big Jim]

If you would settle for a 24 mm knot then look at a Whipped Dog Mountain. A 26 mm knot is a little harder to come by, but places to look include The Golden Nib for their Finest Badger and ebay for knots from either Virginia Sheng or ACE, again looking at Finest Badger.

 

[wildcatstrat]

If you would settle for a 24 mm knot then look at a Whipped Dog Mountain. A 26 mm knot is a little harder to come by, but places to look include The Golden Nib for their Finest Badger and ebay for knots from either Virginia Sheng or ACE, again looking at Finest Badger.

Thanks for the input Jim! I'm leaning more towards the 26-28mm range since I already have 20 and 22mm "homemade" brushes. I'm also thinking that I've already reamed the hole beyond the point to where I could use a 24mm knot anyways. One knot that I've considered is this 28mm finest knot from TGN. I'm wondering if I set it to a somewhat low loft if it would be similar to a Chubby 2. I realize that the only way that I'm going to get the true experience of a Chubby 2 is to actually get a Chubby 2, but I'm hoping that I can construct a similar ​brush for a fraction of the cost. Maybe I'm dreaming, lol!

 

[wildcatstrat]

I decided yesterday to go ahead and order the 28mm finest knot from TGN. Hopefully it will work well with the Ever Ready handle. Once I complete the restoration I will post pics for all to see. Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[Mike H]

Good luck with the restoration. I love the TGN Finest. Setting the loft will be key in getting the brush that fits your requirements. A 1:2 ration is my sweet spot (measures from the top of the handle, so a 28 mm knot will likely be 29 or 30 when it exits the handle, so a loft of 58-61 would be my ideal. However, I have set knots higher, and they felt softer and had better flow through. You might consider setting the knot temporally with a small dot of silicon. After experimenting with a shave or two, then try again raising the floor with a quarter or something to have a different experience before you set it with epoxy.

 

[wildcatstrat]

Good luck with the restoration. I love the TGN Finest. Setting the loft will be key in getting the brush that fits your requirements. A 1:2 ration is my sweet spot (measures from the top of the handle, so a 28 mm knot will likely be 29 or 30 when it exits the handle, so a loft of 58-61 would be my ideal. However, I have set knots higher, and they felt softer and had better flow through. You might consider setting the knot temporally with a small dot of silicon. After experimenting with a shave or two, then try again raising the floor with a quarter or something to have a different experience before you set it with epoxy.

Thank you sir! I'm anxious to see how the regular TGN finest knot compares to their "F2" super two-band finest knot. My 22mm one is quite nice. From what I've read on here and from most other sources, their standard "finest" knot is their most popular one. Hopefully it will serve me well. I REALLY need to invest in a set of digital calipers so I can more precisely/properly set the knot in this new brush. With my two prior brushes I more or less eyeballed it and went with what seemed about right. Both of them could have stood a little bit higher loft IMO.

As far as the silicone/temporary adhesive, is there any particular brand vendor that you recommend? It'd be great if I could just pick something up at Lowe's or even Wal Mart if they have it in stock. Thanks again for the tips!

 

[KenHowald]

Mike H has an excellent suggestion with the use silicone for a trial set, a small squeeze tube of bath silicone from HD would work fine. Post pics when you get it finished. If you haven't thought of it you can use a drill and piece of dowel with the silicone to aid in finishing the brush; just put a spot of silicone in the knot hole and stick a short piece of dowel in it to allow you to mount the handle to a drill, running at very low speed you can apply the finish... ken

 

[wildcatstrat]

Mike H has an excellent suggestion with the use silicone for a trial set, a small squeeze tube of bath silicone from HD would work fine. Post pics when you get it finished. If you haven't thought of it you can use a drill and piece of dowel with the silicone to aid in finishing the brush; just put a spot of silicone in the knot hole and stick a short piece of dowel in it to allow you to mount the handle to a drill, running at very low speed you can apply the finish... ken

Quick question...when I've decided on what loft I want to go with, is it as easy as pulling firmly to remove the bond with the silicone adhesive? Then I'm assuming I'd just epoxy as usual, correct? I would have never thought to use the drill/dowel method for finishing the brush. Would this be preferred to using a dremel to sand and polish the handle?

 

[wildcatstrat]

Just wanted to post a small update. Since my last post I've ordered and received a set of iGaging EZcal digital calipers (thanks Amazon Prime!) My knot also arrived today from Arizona all the way to Tennessee in just 3 business days...not bad IMO for First Class. Today was my daughters FIRST birthday, so I didn't have time to fiddle with the restoration, but hopefully tomorrow will be a different story! My initial impressions of the knot are very good. Nice and dense, and feels like it's gonna have good backbone as well. Of course this was just from holding and feeling the brush dry, so once it gets wet it might be different. I took a pic of the handle and knot side by side for reference:



Apologies for the poor image quality, but you get the gist of what I'm working with.

Another question...what grit sandpaper would you suggest I use to really smooth out the surface of the handle? There were a couple of decent sized scratches on the handle when I bought the brush, but I was able to smooth them out pretty good with some semi-coarse grit sandpaper. I'm at the point now to where I'd like to really smooth out the surface though before I polish it up with Flitz. The finest grit that they had at my local Lowe's was in the 300's range, but I figured that that would probably still be too coarse for something like this. Thanks in advance for the insight!

 

[wildcatstrat]

Alright guys...tonight I finished up my first brush restoration! It went pretty smooth in my opinion, but there were a few things that I would have probably done a little differently if I had it to do over again. I went a little heavy handed with the sanding, and therefore the recessed writing on the brush was unable to be filled in properly. At that point I just decided that I'd just sand it smooth for a neater look. I ended up finishing the sanding process with 2500 grit sandpaper and followed that up with a couple of coats of Flitz polish. The finish isn't perfect, but it's very nice looking IMHO. Since this particular brush has a relatively large handle, I decided to fill it with several layers of coins and silicone adhesive. It's definitely got some heft to it, but I think it's appropriate for the sheer size of it. Once I got the "floor" (which ended up being a quarter) for the knot plug to set on at the appropriate level (about 12mm deep,) I allowed the silicone adhesive to dry sufficiently and began mixing up my epoxy to set the knot. After using an excessive amount of epoxy the last time I set a knot, this go around I went easy on it. Once I ensured that everything was setting level, I allowed the brush a few minutes for the epoxy to set and gave a gentle tug on the knot...nice and snug. I mentioned before that I was looking to make a brush that would be similar to a Simpson Chubby 2. I think what I've ended up with is a brush that is more like a Simpson Polo 10. Final measurements ended up at:

28 mm TGN Finest Badger Knot
58 mm loft
120 mm total height

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here she is!



I can't wait to see what this thing looks like post bloom! Thanks to everyone who helped me through this fun process! It was a lot of fun!

 

[wildcatstrat]

And beside of my Kent BK8 for size reference...

 

[SRNewb]

That's a gorgeous brush! Nice work!

 

[Big Jim]

That really did turn out nice. Wait until you see it bloom.

 

[Mike H]

Well done!

 

[wildcatstrat]

Thanks for the kind words gents! I'm tickled with how it turned out! Today is a "non-shaving day" for me, but I couldn't resist doing a test lather before work this morning lol. Generously loaded some MdC and went to my Georgetown Pottery G12 scuttle. This thing lathered like a champ right off the bat. This may be due to its greater backbone when compared to my BK8 which=more soap loaded? At any rate, I REALLY like the feel and weight of this handle. Glad that I filled it up with spare change, lol! I actually left the lather in the bristles to defunk it but will rinse it out after work today and see how it blooms. I'm expecting it to be pretty moderate with the loft set this high, relatively speaking.

 

[wildcatstrat]

After getting home from work yesterday I proceeded to rinse out the MdC out of the brush that I'd left in it for the day. It seemed to take quite a bit of the funky badger smell, however, after fully rinsing and squeezing the majority of the hair, I gave it a gentle shake and out popped the knot! I guess this time I used too little epoxy as opposed to too much last time I set a knot! After letting the brush dry, I RE-epoxied the knot in, this time making sure that I had enough epoxy to do the job. I let it cure for a couple of hours and decided to do a test face lather. Once again, excellent backbone and lathered up like crazy. The only downside is that this particular knot seems to be a bit scritchier than my other brushes, even my OTHER TGN F2 Finest. Is this generally to be expected with TGN Finest knots? Can I expect the scritch to get any better as the brush gets broken in, or is this just how it's gonna be? Maybe I've just gotten spoiled by the superb soft tips of my Kent BK8, lol! Anyhow...I used the brush again this morning for my shave and was VERY impressed with how easily it whipped up a wonderful lather. Today I bowl lathered some Strop Shoppe SE Barbershoppe with tallow...great shave! Obligatory post bloom pics to follow this evening!

 

[SRNewb]

Thanks for the report. RE scritch, I think the consensus I have read is that the F2 Finest has a bit more scritch than just the Finest grade, IIRC.

 

[wildcatstrat]

Thanks for the report. RE scritch, I think the consensus I have read is that the F2 Finest has a bit more scritch than just the Finest grade, IIRC.

Interesting... As of this moment I would say the opposite has been true with my two knots. If course my F2 knot is the "Super Two-Band Finest," that I'm not sure they even offer anymore. Hopefully my new brush's tips will soften up a bit with use.

 

[wildcatstrat]

Holy bloom, Batman!

 

[SRNewb]

Interesting... As of this moment I would say the opposite has been true with my two knots. If course my F2 knot is the "Super Two-Band Finest," that I'm not sure they even offer anymore. Hopefully my new brush's tips will soften up a bit with use.

Just ordered a 20mm Finest and an 18mm F2 Finest, so I will know the difference soon.
The brushes are lovely. Great work!