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The Ralph Lauren dream brush is in hand. Knot prognosis: not good.

I restored a pewter RL brush with a silvertip from TGN. The hole was quite a bit deeper than the base of the knot so I used a slice of synthetic "cork" from a wine bottle to "lift" the knot. It was exactly the same diameter as the base of the knot, which was convenient, and the two-pack epoxy I used is still holding everything together after 18 months usage.

Excellent reporting! That makes things so much easier. I should have assumed a pricey materiel like pewter would be hallow.
 
Here's another twist to our story...

I showed this to my metalsmithing teacher today, and she said very conclusively that it is NOT pewter. She thinks that it's nickel silver, which is really just nickel. She also said, as has now been confirmed here, that it's hollow and lathe-turned.

I'm glad that I'll have all the room I need to set the loft to my liking, but I really don't love the idea of using something like a piece of cork as a "booster seat" for the knot. Anybody got any other suggestions? I want something solid and preferably heavy.
 
My dad has the same brush handle and replaced the knot last year. From what I recall, the handle has a plastic liner that turns, along with the knot. He doesn't find it annoying, and we didn't want to muck around with it just in case we messed it up. I'm not sure what would happen if you somehow removed the plastic liner. He also had to use a washer/spacer made of plastic as the hole was deeper than the knot.

Those handles came in a set with a nice metal shaving bowl and some RL Safari soap. My dad ended up returning the bowl to the store, as it was turning color, but I'm not sure if it was a nickel coating that was wearing off or if it was something else. Those handles must be at least 17 years old now......

pac
 
Here's another twist to our story...

I showed this to my metalsmithing teacher today, and she said very conclusively that it is NOT pewter. She thinks that it's nickel silver, which is really just nickel. She also said, as has now been confirmed here, that it's hollow and lathe-turned.

I'm glad that I'll have all the room I need to set the loft to my liking, but I really don't love the idea of using something like a piece of cork as a "booster seat" for the knot. Anybody got any other suggestions? I want something solid and preferably heavy.

I recently restored an Ever Ready C40 with a TGN Grade A knot. I wanted a bit of heft and needed to fill the void, so I dropped some smallish nuts in the epoxy as I was filling the handle. It worked quite well!

Gorgeous handle, good luck!
 
I recently restored an Ever Ready C40 with a TGN Grade A knot. I wanted a bit of heft and needed to fill the void, so I dropped some smallish nuts in the epoxy as I was filling the handle. It worked quite well!

Gorgeous handle, good luck!

So, when you say this, are you referring to pumping an entire tube of 2 part epoxy into the empty space in the handle? Does that stuff self-level? I guess that would be one easy (but expensive) way to fill the void.
 
Well, I'm shipping this off to Rudy Vey today. I don't want to botch a restore on such a beautiful handle, and I know Rudy will do it 100 times better than I ever could anyway. I'll definitely post pics when it gets back from him!
 
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