So, this is not exactly a restoration, or making a brush, but i'd figured this is the best place to post this in. 
I have a Frank Shaving Extra Density Silvertip brush with a 24mm knot, that was my first brush purchase, after getting by with a vintage Gillette boar found in my GF:s grandmothers attic.
At first it seemed like a very nice brush - soft and nice water retention, with fast and luxurious lathe buildup with cremes. After a while it started feeling too mushy and as i started using soaps, it was just too floppy for my taste.
So, i thought i'd lower the knot in the handle for couple of mm's.
With the idea "if it breaks i have a good excuse to buy a new brush" i took the thing apart with steam in a kettle (took about 30min), and saw that there was ~3mm slab of glue at the bottom of the knot.
I sawed and filed the glue off, mixed some epoxy and glued the sucker back together, and what do you know; it actually has some very nice backbone, but still is rather velvety smooth against skin, once it is correctly assembled.
Here's some pictures of the operation, as i personally like projects with a lot of pic's:
The brush before any work (the one on the right! The left one is the old Gillette):
As you probably can see, the brush is very widely open, and the knot is little crooked.
The sawed off piece of glue:
Handle and knot (with the extra glue cleaned off) separated:
Since the brush fans out so much from the knot, it didn't go to the bottom of the hole in the handle (and that's probably why there was so much glue in there) i had to find a way to press the hairs together for the gluing. Otherwise it would just pop out as soon as i let go, and i was not about to sit with the damned thing in my hand for couple of days.
Fortunately i found just the right sized sleeve from my sanding drum kit:
After the glue dried for over 48h, the job was done, and if you compare this to the first picture, you can tell there was quite the change in the the brush:
This was my first dabble with shaving brush modification, hope you got something out of this rambling.
Ps. Sorry for any bad English or wording, i don't quite have the whole shaving slang memorized, and English is not my first language.
I have a Frank Shaving Extra Density Silvertip brush with a 24mm knot, that was my first brush purchase, after getting by with a vintage Gillette boar found in my GF:s grandmothers attic.
At first it seemed like a very nice brush - soft and nice water retention, with fast and luxurious lathe buildup with cremes. After a while it started feeling too mushy and as i started using soaps, it was just too floppy for my taste.
So, i thought i'd lower the knot in the handle for couple of mm's.
With the idea "if it breaks i have a good excuse to buy a new brush" i took the thing apart with steam in a kettle (took about 30min), and saw that there was ~3mm slab of glue at the bottom of the knot.
I sawed and filed the glue off, mixed some epoxy and glued the sucker back together, and what do you know; it actually has some very nice backbone, but still is rather velvety smooth against skin, once it is correctly assembled.
Here's some pictures of the operation, as i personally like projects with a lot of pic's:
The brush before any work (the one on the right! The left one is the old Gillette
):
As you probably can see, the brush is very widely open, and the knot is little crooked.
The sawed off piece of glue:
Handle and knot (with the extra glue cleaned off) separated:
Since the brush fans out so much from the knot, it didn't go to the bottom of the hole in the handle (and that's probably why there was so much glue in there) i had to find a way to press the hairs together for the gluing. Otherwise it would just pop out as soon as i let go, and i was not about to sit with the damned thing in my hand for couple of days.
Fortunately i found just the right sized sleeve from my sanding drum kit:
After the glue dried for over 48h, the job was done, and if you compare this to the first picture, you can tell there was quite the change in the the brush:
This was my first dabble with shaving brush modification, hope you got something out of this rambling.
Ps. Sorry for any bad English or wording, i don't quite have the whole shaving slang memorized, and English is not my first language.
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