Not so great pic of my first restores...

[beeranon]

Ever Ready 200 (I think), black/green, and Klenzo cream/red. I opened both up so they could both take 24mm TGN Finest, fan in the ER and bulb in the Klenzo. The bulb is set around 54, the fan a little under 50 (going for a scrubbier feel with it). Test lathers were good, and I shaved with the Klenzo this morning with TOBS Avocado and was extremely impressed with the TGN Finest knot. Lovely, lovely shave, a smidge from a BBS (on the sixth shave with a Super Iridium, no less), which could have been accomplished if I had tried. I set both the knots with silicone so they could be adjusted; the Klenzo was super solid this morning and won't be touched, but I'm afraid I'll need to raise the ER a bit to hit the sweet spot.

I haven't decided yet whether to re-fill the writing on the ER. I kinda like the stealth look, but I also like the filled writing like on the ER 980-A in black/orange (WhippedDog silvertip in it), shown in an old SOTD pic (not my restore).

 

[diyguy]

They look great to me! Good work.

 

[hig789]

They all look very nice. The Klenzo is my favorite.

 

[chrismikehead]

Those look really nice. I just obtained a green/black 200 similar to yours, with the lettering completely gone, and I think would love it either way.

Can you give some comparison information on the TGN finest vs the Whipped Dog ST? I have a Whipped Dog knot in mine.

 

[GDCarrington]

Nice work and the pictures are good as well!

 

[beeranon]

Those look really nice. I just obtained a green/black 200 similar to yours, with the lettering completely gone, and I think would love it either way.

Can you give some comparison information on the TGN finest vs the Whipped Dog ST? I have a Whipped Dog knot in mine.

Having used both in the past few days, it's probably the best time possible to answer that question. Both load wonderfully, with my primary lather sources being croaps like QCS creams or the Italians like RazoRock, Cella, or P.160. I test lathered the Klenzo a couple of times in a bowl with Cella and it worked great. I shaved this morning, but used TOBS Avocado cream, so only gave it a swirl or two before building lather in the bowl. Both hold plenty of lather and give it up without much coaxing, though that's probably as much a function of the loft as the knot itself. I'll be interested to see tomorrow or Sunday if the TGN fan at the lower loft is a bit more stingy.

The only real difference to me is face feel. The TGN Finest definitely has a little more backbone, but is definitely not what I would call scritchy (like new black badger, for example). Tips are soft, but the knot seems to firm up quickly with just a little pressure. The WD silvertip is more like a cloud passing over your face raining lather. It's one of my favorite brushes, and I've only used it once since April; I intentionally chose another brush for Minimalist May (Semogue LE Bristle 2) because I was reaching for it all the time, but it'll get a lot of work this month. I think the lofts are almost identical, so the difference should be the hair. The WD is not floppy, mind you (I thought my EJ Medium Best was a tad floppy), just caressing rather than the teeny bit of scrub that I get with the TGN. Both are extraordinarily good choices for restores.

 

[Malache]

That Klenzo is gorgeous.

 

[brother cavefish]

I think you have quite done well,

 

[beeranon]

They all look very nice. The Klenzo is my favorite.

That Klenzo is gorgeous.

Re: the Klenzo

Funny more than one person should say this. I've had both these handles for quite a while, and still have at least two or three decent handles from the same lot I got off the 'Bay for a song months ago (poor description by the seller), but the reason I wanted the lot in the first place was for the black/green. Having never done a restore, I started with the Klenzo, as it was pretty ratty looking, and I figured no big loss if I mess it up. Well, it literally came apart at the seam, accidentally, and was completely hollow, making it next to nothing to cut out the old knot. I glued it back together, then got to work on the red part (I didn't want to mess with creamy part, as the patina was more attractive than anything I could do to it), and it polished up really well. I had a synthetic wine cork that was the perfect height for a shelf, so I mixed up a little club head epoxy and attached it to the base, waited for it to dry, then back filled around the knot with RV silicone. I let that set for a couple of days, then gave it another squirt of the same and set the knot.

The black/green ER had been finished for a couple of days by this time (it didn't need quite so much shelf work), and once the knot was solid, I test lathered them both. After the bloom, the Klenzo just looked "right"; maybe it's the fan in the old handle, though I've seen others that looked fantastic, or maybe I got lucky and hit some golden proportion for the knot size and loft, but it was a sweet shave this morning, and it does look really nice on the counter.

I'll try to get a couple of better closeups of it tonight.

 

[rebos]

the klenzo is also my favorite of the bunch. great job on all of them.

 

[NexlevMM]

I have to agree with the guys above, that Klenzo is amazing! Something about it just pops. Both look great though. Funny how sometimes the brushes we dont expect to get much out of turn into the chosen ones haha.

 

[MeanGene]

Those are amazing brushes. Nice work!

 

[beeranon]

OK, here's some updated pics; took a few minutes while in the midst of decluttering to list our house to fill the ER lettering and thought I'd take a couple of shots. I think I'm going to leave the paintfill, now that I've looked at it for several days without it. It just looks more like a restored brush with it, methinks. Got alittle mor polishing to do on the ER near the knot, and I'm going to shave with it a couple of times to see how the loft works, but other than that I think I'm done.

 

[hig789]

Re: the Klenzo

Funny more than one person should say this. I've had both these handles for quite a while, and still have at least two or three decent handles from the same lot I got off the 'Bay for a song months ago (poor description by the seller), but the reason I wanted the lot in the first place was for the black/green. Having never done a restore, I started with the Klenzo, as it was pretty ratty looking, and I figured no big loss if I mess it up. Well, it literally came apart at the seam, accidentally, and was completely hollow, making it next to nothing to cut out the old knot. I glued it back together, then got to work on the red part (I didn't want to mess with creamy part, as the patina was more attractive than anything I could do to it), and it polished up really well. I had a synthetic wine cork that was the perfect height for a shelf, so I mixed up a little club head epoxy and attached it to the base, waited for it to dry, then back filled around the knot with RV silicone. I let that set for a couple of days, then gave it another squirt of the same and set the knot.

The black/green ER had been finished for a couple of days by this time (it didn't need quite so much shelf work), and once the knot was solid, I test lathered them both. After the bloom, the Klenzo just looked "right"; maybe it's the fan in the old handle, though I've seen others that looked fantastic, or maybe I got lucky and hit some golden proportion for the knot size and loft, but it was a sweet shave this morning, and it does look really nice on the counter.

I'll try to get a couple of better closeups of it tonight.

The more restores I do the more that I find that there are a lot of brushes that the bottoms come off of. And yes you are right it makes it very easy to get the old knot out. I always check and see if the bottom unscrews before I go to diving into a knot from the top.

 

[dfollett_98]

Jay:

Those are a couple of beauties. Very well done, my friend.

Thanks for sharing and enjoy your shaves.

Don

 

[chrismikehead]

Those both look fantastic. I like the lettering on the ER - well done.

And thank you for the Whipped Dog vs TGN breakdown.

 

[Sledgehammer39]

Looks good to me!

 

[beeranon]

Used the ER this morning, face-lathering Tabac soap, and have to say I liked it better than I expected. I think any knot less than the TGN Finest would be too scrubby for me. I'm still amazed at how much backbone this knot has while keeping the soft-feeling tips. I'm not an expert on knot diameter, shape, and loft effects on brush performance, and I will say that the jury is still out on the flow through. The third pass, while not skimpy, was certainly a little more of a challenge to get good coverage for the ATG work, and a squeeze of the base of the knot afterwards pushed a HUGE wad of lather to the tips for the touchup work. This was only the third or fourth lather, though, so I'm going to be patient and see how it works with a little more time (and experience for the shaver) on it.

 

[Adam R]

The WD silvertip is more like a cloud passing over your face raining lather. It's one of my favorite brushes.

Those are some great looking brushes! Nice write up on your technique as well. I came across this thread while trying to figure out which knot to buy for an old Klenzo I found. The Whipped Dog knot in the black/orange Ever Ready looks like a real winner (and Larry is a good guy to do business with.)