Knot for knot?

[ccman]

When you are restoring a brush do you feel compelled to stay true to the original knot, say, boar for boar, badger for badger? What if there is no marking as to the bristle? What if you want to upgrade?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Gigster]

No.

If I were to replace the original knots with "like" knots. . . .roughly two-thirds of my restores would never be used. No fun in that. lol

It's comical. . . .quite a few of brushes I've restored had "faux badger" knots. You know, the boar bristles or or horse hair with the cheesy, dyed badger stripe. I have yet to find anyone making "faux" badger knots.

The same goes with the vintage brushes with "nylon" knots. I have fairly sensitive skin and badger knots with scritch feels like a rake against my face. lol I couldn't image face lathering with a nylon knot. Thank God no one makes nylon knots.

So, instead of "faux badger" and nylon. . . .I go with the next best thing. . . .the real badger.

I do restores because I enjoy the almost endless variety of shapes and colors of handles with vintage brushes, and it's fun. It allows us to stick whatever "tickles our fancy" knot into it, paint the branding (or not) to original colors or do something different, leave it original or be as creative as you want. No matter what you do to it. . . .there's a piece of history behind it. I restore antique furniture as a hobby. It's very precise and exacting. For me, restoring shaving brushes allows a great deal of leeway in creativity.

 

[ccman]

No.

Bless you, brother!! I am free, I am free, I am free, at last. This is such good news. I will follow this, no matter what others might say. Have a good evening.

 

[Donnchadh_Sempill]

I plan to eventually restore my Grandfathers Ever Ready 150. I hope to go as original as possible. I'm hoping to capture a few brushes in the wild first...to use as practice.

What knot is most appropriate for the 150?

 

[Gigster]

I plan to eventually restore my Grandfathers Ever Ready 150. I hope to go as original as possible. I'm hoping to capture a few brushes in the wild first...to use as practice.

What knot is most appropriate for the 150?

Ever-Ready labeled a number of different style handles as "150." I've restored four labeled as 150 and none were the same. Two had Pure Badger knots and two had "faux badger" (boar with a dyed badger stripe) knots.

Post a picture.

 

[Donnchadh_Sempill]

Ever-Ready labeled a number of different style handles as "150." I've restored four labeled as 150 and none were the same. Two had Pure Badger knots and two had "faux badger" (boar with a dyed badger stripe) knots.

Post a picture.

I'll get a good one and post it over the weekend.

,

 

[Devonmoonshire]

Absolutely Knot LMAO No seriously, I have made a couple brushes from scratch and I have found that when I do manage to find a classic that I want to restore to usable condition it will have whatever knot I see fit to put into it and that will be one that I myself want to use. I don't believe it should HAVE to be put back to stock unless it is intended to add to a collectors den that has them either put away or up for display for historical accuracy.

 

[JaxJim]

I'm in the "NO" camp as well, for the same reasons articulated by Gigster and Devonmoonshire.

Also, I've found that the majority of knots used in vintage, inexpensive brushes-- even if found in unused condition-- are pretty crappy. For badger knots, if soft they tend to be extremely floppy; if they have decent backbone, they're scratchy as all get out. And don't get me started on clipped boar knots that seem to refuse to break in!

Unless you're restoring the brush for someone else to use, I'd say go with whatever knot your face would like. Enjoy!

 

[SRNewb]

It depends on the handle for me. I'm mostly in the "do whatever I like", camp.
But I recently reknotted an old Rooney handle. For that brush, it had a 3 band badger in it, and would look all kinds of odd with anything else in it, to a lot of folk, me included. I chose to keep that look.

 

[Cumberland Sausage]

I was intending to re-knot a Canadian brush I have "like for like", but then found I'd thrown out the old yard brush I had been counting on to supply bristles with the required scritch.

 

[SRNewb]