Question about Sunrise synthetic knots

[tbberman]

For my first ever shaving brush knot restore I practiced by putting a 22mm Sunrise knot from Maggard's into old Vie-Long handle (I had removed the horse hair). I set the loft to 50mm thinking that would be good for face lathering and while it looks great, the knot isn't very dense and doesn't hold much lather. I've seen great reviews of this type of knot so I wonder if I goofed by setting the loft too high. Has anyone else used this type of knot in a vintage handle restore that has liked it? I think this style would look good, but I'm not wedded to it.

Right now i'm currently working on restoring an Ever Ready 200T (blue over cream) and am thinking of ordering a 22mm 2-band badger and a 22mm tuxedo knot to see which I like better. I don't think I want to go any bigger on knots until I've had more practice restoring handles. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tbberman]

I should have mentioned that I should be able to widen the hole in the 200T to about 23-24mm for the new knots with my Dremel if I'm careful.

 

[gwsmallwood]

For a 22mm knot, you generally want about a 24mm hole. You need a bit of room for the glue bump and the natural form of the knot to splay a bit. The Sunrise was a great knot at the time, but that was quite a few years ago when the Plisson first made synthetics popular (and good). Since then, I think the new synthetics have gotten much better. Far better density and softness both. That being said, 22mm synthetics probably aren't going to feel all that dense. I prefer the 24mm synthetics, but you would need a 25-26mm hole to set one properly.

You could try setting the Sunrise a bit deeper, but in my experience, once you start getting down toward that 2:1 Loft/knot ratio, synthetics start to get a bit springy and tend to fling lather around. They also have a tendency to start holding water in that recessed area below the lip of the handle, and they'll release it unexpectedly leaving lather running down your hand.

You just need to experiment a bit and try a few different knot combos. That's part of the fun. Good luck.