I ended up with a Rubberset 49-2 as part of an auction for something else that I wanted. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to restore a brush. This was an undertaking for me, because I'm not at all handy with home projects, arts and crafts stuff, any of that.
The before and after photos are below. Because this is a wooden handle (Dogwood according to the Rubberset catalog info), the choices were to stain the wood or paint it. While harder to do, I really wanted to tackle painting the handle because I wanted a certain motif, that of a barber pole. Due to the shape of the handle, I wasn't able to tape it off in a typical spiral pattern of a barber pole, so I opted for alternating red and white sections.
For the painting, I opted for Rustoleum Painters Touch 2X Ultra Cover, primarily because it's what the local Home Depot had in stock and the colors were what I wanted. Also, they say the primer is already mixed in, so I could skip that step. I used the gloss version, going with white, apple red, and then the gloss clear as a finishing sealer.
Based on information that I saw in various threads here on B&B along with some Youtube videos, I first laid down three coats of the white paint, giving a very light dry sanding with 400 grit between coats just to knock off the gloss. In retrospect, I would have used 000 steel wool instead, but I didn't have any when I started. I then taped off the sections I wanted to keep white and laid down three coats of the red, again with the sanding in between. This all took quite a while, because I wanted to leave 48 hours between the coats for full curing. It may have been overkill, but I prefer to err on the side of caution.
After the colors had cured, I laid down four coats of the clear in 30-minute intervals, and then left that for 48 hours to cure. The handle then got a polish of Renaissance wax. As I noted above, I'm not really handy with this stuff, as you can tell by the amateurish results where the handle meets the ferrel.
The ferrel didn't need much, as the condition was decent and the paint in the imprint was still pretty good. I touched up the "49-2" with a china marker because a little red paint got into the "9" due to a crappy tape job on my part. I then gave the ferrel a coat of Renaissance wax.
For the knot, I opted for a 22mm Silvertip Badger from TGN. It fit really well in the ferrel after I drilled out and removed the old knot. I needed to use a nickel and a dime as spacers between the end of the handle and knot when setting it, as the knot wouldn't go far enough into the ferrel to butt up against the end of the handle. I used DevCon epoxy, opting for the version that sets in 60 minutes because I wanted to give myself time to fix mistakes since this was my first one. In the future, I'll go with the five minute epoxy. The loft ended up at about 57mm.
I can definitely see myself restoring more vintage brushes, but I think I'll stick with non-wood handles. The painting part was a pain due to the time involved, although stain would have taken less time. And I like the colors that are available in the vintage Bakelite, celluloid, and plastic brush handles.
Thanks for looking and reading the long diatribe.
BEFORE
AFTER
The before and after photos are below. Because this is a wooden handle (Dogwood according to the Rubberset catalog info), the choices were to stain the wood or paint it. While harder to do, I really wanted to tackle painting the handle because I wanted a certain motif, that of a barber pole. Due to the shape of the handle, I wasn't able to tape it off in a typical spiral pattern of a barber pole, so I opted for alternating red and white sections.
For the painting, I opted for Rustoleum Painters Touch 2X Ultra Cover, primarily because it's what the local Home Depot had in stock and the colors were what I wanted. Also, they say the primer is already mixed in, so I could skip that step. I used the gloss version, going with white, apple red, and then the gloss clear as a finishing sealer.
Based on information that I saw in various threads here on B&B along with some Youtube videos, I first laid down three coats of the white paint, giving a very light dry sanding with 400 grit between coats just to knock off the gloss. In retrospect, I would have used 000 steel wool instead, but I didn't have any when I started. I then taped off the sections I wanted to keep white and laid down three coats of the red, again with the sanding in between. This all took quite a while, because I wanted to leave 48 hours between the coats for full curing. It may have been overkill, but I prefer to err on the side of caution.
After the colors had cured, I laid down four coats of the clear in 30-minute intervals, and then left that for 48 hours to cure. The handle then got a polish of Renaissance wax. As I noted above, I'm not really handy with this stuff, as you can tell by the amateurish results where the handle meets the ferrel.
The ferrel didn't need much, as the condition was decent and the paint in the imprint was still pretty good. I touched up the "49-2" with a china marker because a little red paint got into the "9" due to a crappy tape job on my part. I then gave the ferrel a coat of Renaissance wax.
For the knot, I opted for a 22mm Silvertip Badger from TGN. It fit really well in the ferrel after I drilled out and removed the old knot. I needed to use a nickel and a dime as spacers between the end of the handle and knot when setting it, as the knot wouldn't go far enough into the ferrel to butt up against the end of the handle. I used DevCon epoxy, opting for the version that sets in 60 minutes because I wanted to give myself time to fix mistakes since this was my first one. In the future, I'll go with the five minute epoxy. The loft ended up at about 57mm.
I can definitely see myself restoring more vintage brushes, but I think I'll stick with non-wood handles. The painting part was a pain due to the time involved, although stain would have taken less time. And I like the colors that are available in the vintage Bakelite, celluloid, and plastic brush handles.
Thanks for looking and reading the long diatribe.
BEFORE
AFTER
