I was wondering, what process is used to sterilize badger/boar/horse bristles?
how exactly do they sterilize the hairs?
- Thread starter Galhatz
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I believe it is done before the knots are formed. Gary Young once mentioned that brush makers receive the hair pre-sterilized. My guess is that they use low-temperature steam, carefully controlled so that it does not damage the hair.
Trying this at home could be risky. I have used an ordinary bamboo steamer to remove a badger knot from a handle, and it was hard on the knot. The hair felt different after 15-30 minutes of steaming, and the glue plug at the bottom of the knot was damaged.
Trying this at home could be risky. I have used an ordinary bamboo steamer to remove a badger knot from a handle, and it was hard on the knot. The hair felt different after 15-30 minutes of steaming, and the glue plug at the bottom of the knot was damaged.
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When a brittish or italian or any 1st world properly governed country maker puts a 'sterilized' sticker on a brush I am inclined to trust it.
Brush knots became a bigger business lately, looking at alibaba at all thouse knots and thinking of where they came from and the overal concern in that place for public health... well... i suppose the supplier for the big names would bother, even at cost and even at margins to properly sterilize the hair.
So i was wondering, what exactly is entailed in that process...
Brush knots became a bigger business lately, looking at alibaba at all thouse knots and thinking of where they came from and the overal concern in that place for public health... well... i suppose the supplier for the big names would bother, even at cost and even at margins to properly sterilize the hair.
So i was wondering, what exactly is entailed in that process...
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I heard once that they take the whole animal and give it a nice steam bath, prior to the hair being removed. The animal gets a free spa treatment, we get clean material for brushes, and PETA stays happy...
There are other ways to sterilize the hairs beyond heat/steam, such as UV radiation or ethylene oxide treatment. They would not damage the hairs, but I have no idea how your average badger wrangler sterilizes things.
Have you smelled some of the boar brushes? They give them a quick rinse with a hose.
I am sure there are a plethora of ways to do it
From the smell of Simpsons, I would assume the get doused with a ton of mothball like chemicals
From the smell of Simpsons, I would assume the get doused with a ton of mothball like chemicals
I heard that they have to castrate each hair individually, thus the expense.
Maybe they use The Veg (it does contain alcohol).
But seriously, I would guess it is a steam process.
Thanks,
Mike
But seriously, I would guess it is a steam process.
Thanks,
Mike
What is low temperature steam?
Scotch mist maybe.
horsehair is steamed.
I meant low temperature compared to a typical autoclave, not compared to a beer cooler.
Most of the gents here got just as far as I did in high school chemistry, so we know that boiling water at standard pressure is exactly 100-C. But steam has a wide temperature range. It can be much hotter than 100-C, and at low pressure it can be cooler. Steam tables are not just for caterers: engineers use them too.
Sterilization requires a combination of pressure, temperature, and time. To avoid damaging the hair, the process might a relatively low temperature for a relatively long time. On the other hand they do not want to let any anthrax through, so they may be pretty heavy-handed.
There are plenty of other options too, as folks have mentioned. Ethylene oxide gas has been a popular option for low-temperature sterilization since the 1940s or 1950s, for example. Back in the horse-hair anthrax scares, doctors recommended boiling their brushes - that probably ruined many of them, but boiling the unknotted hair might be safer than steaming it. The businesses that disinfect our badger hair, boar bristles, and horse hair doubtless use whatever is cheapest - and least likely to get them into trouble.
I actually laughed out loud when I read that!Similar threads
