Just did a restoration of an old brush for our member Maher. The brush is a "Klenzo" butterscotch handle. This brush had a badger knot installed.
First, I cut the hair off as close as I could do safely with a pair of scissors and then with a box-cutter knife with a fresh blade installed. The hair was set in hard-rubber, like all good old quality brushes had. Next thing was to remove all the rubber and the residual hair. I used a couple of increasingly larger drill bits in my drill press, holding the brush handle safely in a special vise with a protective pad. The final bit was a 3/4" and with that I had all the rubber removed; I found the hole to be a tad shy of 20 mm in diameter.
Now, Maher wanted initially a Finest knot installed, but I had none on hand and my supplier, The Golden Nib, does not have a 20 mm Finest knot. What to do??
I asked Maher if I should put a 20 mm Pure Badger knot in instead, or should I drill a slightly larger hole to accommodate a 22 mm knot. He left it open to me and I decided to go the more risky route and enlarge the hole to get a 22 mm knot in. Now, with a 7/8" bit in the chuck, I very carefully drilled the hole to be sized for a 22 mm knot. Lucky me, it worked out very well!!
Then I used a micro sanding sleeve from a Dremel in my handheld drill to rough up the inside of the hole as well as the plug part of the knot, just to improve the glue surface.
The next step was to clean and shine up the handle through buffing with White Diamond compound. All grime came off and the handle looked like new. Finally, I glued in the knot with two-part epoxy, and here it is:
First, I cut the hair off as close as I could do safely with a pair of scissors and then with a box-cutter knife with a fresh blade installed. The hair was set in hard-rubber, like all good old quality brushes had. Next thing was to remove all the rubber and the residual hair. I used a couple of increasingly larger drill bits in my drill press, holding the brush handle safely in a special vise with a protective pad. The final bit was a 3/4" and with that I had all the rubber removed; I found the hole to be a tad shy of 20 mm in diameter.
Now, Maher wanted initially a Finest knot installed, but I had none on hand and my supplier, The Golden Nib, does not have a 20 mm Finest knot. What to do??
I asked Maher if I should put a 20 mm Pure Badger knot in instead, or should I drill a slightly larger hole to accommodate a 22 mm knot. He left it open to me and I decided to go the more risky route and enlarge the hole to get a 22 mm knot in. Now, with a 7/8" bit in the chuck, I very carefully drilled the hole to be sized for a 22 mm knot. Lucky me, it worked out very well!!
Then I used a micro sanding sleeve from a Dremel in my handheld drill to rough up the inside of the hole as well as the plug part of the knot, just to improve the glue surface.
The next step was to clean and shine up the handle through buffing with White Diamond compound. All grime came off and the handle looked like new. Finally, I glued in the knot with two-part epoxy, and here it is:
