Sorry, I forgot the name of the gentleman who sold this handle to me, but hopefully he'll come across this thread. He asked that I post pictures after the resto.
First off, the brush was in really good condition, other than the knot having been left wet for extended periods and turned into a wad of bristle rather than a bloom. The handle was sturdy though, thankfully, since this was the most heartily set knot I've ever dealt with. I had to drill a starter hole down and use a diamond tip carving/routing bit to remove the base of the knot little by little. Once it was out though it went smoothly.
I ordered a 16mm finest from TGN, along with a 18mm for another handle I was going to do. Fortunate, since the brush turns out to fit the 18mm despite my measuring 16mm before ordering. It could almost fit a 20mm, but I'd risk breaking it trying to get it in there, I'm sure. So 18mm it is.
First pic is pre-bloom.
These 16 and 18mm (not XH) finests are nice little knots, but you can tell they are far less dense than the XH... they rely on the sturdiness of the 2 band hair and being set relatively low lofted for good performance. This is 18x42mm and it lathers great and has a nice amount of backbone. I wish I could have had a touch more density and thereby loft and thereby bloom, but I'm pretty happy even how it turned out.
First off, the brush was in really good condition, other than the knot having been left wet for extended periods and turned into a wad of bristle rather than a bloom. The handle was sturdy though, thankfully, since this was the most heartily set knot I've ever dealt with. I had to drill a starter hole down and use a diamond tip carving/routing bit to remove the base of the knot little by little. Once it was out though it went smoothly.
I ordered a 16mm finest from TGN, along with a 18mm for another handle I was going to do. Fortunate, since the brush turns out to fit the 18mm despite my measuring 16mm before ordering. It could almost fit a 20mm, but I'd risk breaking it trying to get it in there, I'm sure. So 18mm it is.
First pic is pre-bloom.
These 16 and 18mm (not XH) finests are nice little knots, but you can tell they are far less dense than the XH... they rely on the sturdiness of the 2 band hair and being set relatively low lofted for good performance. This is 18x42mm and it lathers great and has a nice amount of backbone. I wish I could have had a touch more density and thereby loft and thereby bloom, but I'm pretty happy even how it turned out.
