Kent C8, first purchase.starting of SBAD?

[refles]

hi everyone,
Sorry if this is a bit long winded, wanted to share with you the first images of a new brush I just received. It looked really appealing the shape and that it was unused so appears to be possibly New Old Stock.. from what I can see it appears to be that, very old that's for sure the handle developed some aging appearance to it and looks pretty darn cool to me. (plus its got that long slender shape of the M7 lol).
The loft of the brush is really short even compared to my starter AOS freebie sample kit brush. But the handle is very nice I have to say, very smooth with some sort of grain to it. Appears 3 .. or 2 banded depending on how its viewed as I've seen some pictures of ppl calling it 2 band but near the base there's some white. So I defer to the esteemed opinion of this group here

Anyone knows anything more of this I would love to know, I've emailed Kent and they have said they need to check as it 'appears to be ours' but that they need to check their Archives ... so I'm not sure how old this brush is.

Also, anyone have pointers in how to recondition this back to something usable, from what I can tell its new, its got a very faint smell of what reminds me of when you walk into an old store and that musky aroma permeates the air. But the bristles appear to be cracking or cracked already when I opened the box. So not sure what exactly is needed to hydrate the hairs back or rehab the bristles itself back to usable condition as its really got character.

relevant info:
Knot ~ 20mm
Loft ~ 48mm (might be 47, its not exactly straight, shows some hand trimming)
Handle ~ 78mm
Total Height ~ 125mm

** 16 Sept 2013 - had a conversation with the seller.. possible 1940's brush as it was bunch of items cleaned out in a Macy's , that's pretty unbelievable if accurate

enough words.. here's some pics below.

 

[JaxJim]

Sorry, I can't help with your questions, but that's one gorgeous brush you've got there! Nice score. I'm no expert, but if it were mine, I'd soak the knot for a few minutes and then make some lather.

 

[refles]

thanks Jim, no worries on the info, just wanted to share as you all have done... will probably soak it after i stop smiling at it in a bit (so dorky i know lol).

realizing its the hunt for it all that makes it fun but aggravating.

 

[beginish]

That is a spectacular brush. Regarding the knot, just lather it up and see what happens (unless you're a collector, in which case, DON'T). If it's NOS, it might perform just fine. If it falls apart, well, Kent might be willing to reknot it for you.

 

[codecheck]

That handle is beautiful!

 

[mblakele]

Try a soak in hair conditioner. I had a Kent with bristles breaking off, and after two treatments it stabilized.

This was a while ago, but as I recall I gently wet the knot in a cup of water for a few minutes, slathered hair conditioner on it, then left it standing on its base for an hour or so. Then I rinsed out the conditioner, and repeated the process.

 

[thatonesmine]

Very nice looking brush............. It reminds me of the Simpson "Emperor" like the grain effect of the handle Enjoy.


Charles U.K

 

[Badger]

Great find...enjoy!

 

[refles]

thanks all! It does visually look like an emperor in the overall shape the unique thing is the head appears to be very small in relation to the overall size of the handle, compared to my AP8 and BK8. The handle has these grains that run w/ the length of the brush and the polishing appears to have kept all these years. Though its possible that it might have started life all those years ago as another color (white/ivory maybe?) haha but overall its aged well I think, even the badger bristles is yellowed a bit when I have it under white lighting.

mblakele, do you mean dissolve hair conditioner as in the stuff we would use, that type of conditioner? Nothing special that I haven't read about yet in the forum, wanted to make sure as I think that sounds very straight forward. Thank you!

Can't wait to use this so exciting

 

[StuMcB]

Due to its age, would it be real ivory? Looks good to me whats ever it's made from.

 

[refles]

That would be an unexpected surprise if it was, but the box does say "celluloid socket"... so I think it could be a plastic of some sort from that time range. It does have some heft to the handle and the polish on could be a sealant... all speculation, hoping Kent will respond back as they asked for pictures.

according to the all knowing wikipedia ... its
"Celluloids are a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, with added dyes and other agents. Generally considered the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862[SUP][1][/SUP] and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily molded and shaped, and it was first widely used as an ivory replacement. Celluloid is highly flammable and also easily decomposes, and is no longer widely used."

easily decomposes... (!?!?!) that's sort of disconcerting.

 

[mblakele]

mblakele, do you mean dissolve hair conditioner as in the stuff we would use, that type of conditioner? Nothing special that I haven't read about yet in the forum, wanted to make sure as I think that sounds very straight forward. Thank you!

Not sure where "dissolve" came from? Anyway I got the idea of a soak in hair conditioner from our benevolent dictator Joel - quoted below. I used whatever was handy at the time: no memory of the brand name. One thing to watch out for is that the conditioner will leave residue, which can interfere with lathering. As I recall a cleaning in dishsoap took care of that.

Here are a couple of endorsements from past threads. Click through for context.

I breathe new life into old "scratchy" brushes by working a decent quality hair conditioner into them, and letting them sit (treated with the conditioner) for 20-30 minutes. Makes it SUPER soft, and the hair looks/feels a lot healthier, with a new "restored" shine/look to it.

I have saved some antique store finds that were brittle with careful baby shampoo cleaning followed by a high quality hair conditioner. These were obviously already broken in but had become dry from years of sitting unused. After conditioning I could safely proceed with more aggressive cleaning and sanitizing and had a very nice brush at the end.

 

[refles]

Was thinking actually to put the conditioner into solution then put the brush into that, for some reason that's how I pictured it, so thank for pointing that out. Running through so many different ways in my head, but wanted to get it all ironed out first because I would really like to make use of it but don't want to ruin the brush if its potentially so brittle. Alot of it still has some flexibility but you can see some cracks in the bristles themselves where it flakes off when you run the brush gently against your palm.. its like non stop, so wanted to rehab it in the most careful and proper way possible.

thanks again for the assist mblakele , will post the pre/post bloom affects and the treatment

 

[refles]

Ok so I spent the wee hours of the morning trying to condition this brush instead of sleeping lol. (only b/c its a project and something to do other than real work, plus my son wasn't feeling well so I was constantly getting up anyway to console him... is what i'm sticking with )

first pictures, just before soaking in warm water for about 10 mins and then a picture of the brush head sitting around getting its conditioner treatment. (had time at lunch so popped out to find this organic conditioner specifically for brittle hair, wife just looks at me now like.. really? but it was on sale!! lol)


I did that a total of maybe 4 hours, first treatment was washed off after 30 mins and reapplied again this time I didn't remove it for just under 3 hours, tons of bristles just started coming off. It was quite disconcerting to see that but I would love to be able to use this beauty in a practical sense so had to keep pushing forward. (from the bristles that were coming off, it was from all over the knot there wasn't any one place as it appears to be snapping off, but I can confirm that its 3 band hair as its distinctly white/black/white that is coming off).

Here are the photos after the initial treatment, rinsed out with warm water for almost 10 mins or so to get all the conditioner out


Because I've only had a Kent AP8, BK8 and AOS trial brush all considered very soft mimimal backbone brushes, I was expecting similar maybe? But when trying to work the conditioner in the bristles were extremely stiff and dense. I couldn't spread the hairs apart as I was anticipating. I thought it was with age of the brush but it appears to be a characteristic of the brush itself that the tips are, how you guys put it 'creamy' and the bristle concentration is so packed together that it doesn't really allow you to move the bristles all that much. So when using my open palm to lather/work the conditioner into the head of the brush only the tips kept swaying and it took considerable effort trying to move the conditioner deeper and closer to the knot. The Bloom that you see above is sorta strange to me as I've got very long lofts on the 2 Kents. So this one is like a swollen head? lol... to me its unique its not expanding much I thought it would, but considering this is probably its first long soak in what could be years upon years of idleness.

next group of pics is after having it rest for a bit is first go at test lathering immediately after


it looks like the lather is packed in there but this was just the first attempt at lathering as it was like 5am lol.. so will try again later when I get back. I couldn't get that head yet as the brush was already just finished a long conditioner session, rested a bit and then lathered a hard soap. But its got this serious porcupine look to it. There's less bristles than before falling out now but I think it should normalize over time but might continue to happen as even in the last picture putting it to dry, the knot was still very wet even after gently squeezing it dry/towel off the excess and whatever else I could remember before sitting it on the sill to air dry.

so here's the C8 up against its younger relative the AP8



thanks all the the direction and information, hope this was a enjoyable read.. will probably use it in a few days as when I left this AM for work, the knot was still very damp so want the brush to recover before I try anything else to it.