My son and I "rehabilitated three old EverReady shaving brushes one evening while I was up visiting him last weekend.
We had some old hollow, molded plastic, EverReady brush handles we intended to fit with various grades of badger hair knots, from "best" to "finest silvertip." We made one each for my eldest son and me and an additional for our youngest son to try out when he comes in from Afghanistan next month at the close of a Marine deployment. These handles were acquired from forum member ilpadrinohttp://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/297190-Den-Clearing-Toggles-Red-Rocket-Khaki-Floid-Alt-After-Shaves-Galore!?highlight= and had already been prepared by cutting and drilling out the old boar's hair brush. We thought to attempt to add stability and a more balanced, luxurious feel to the brushes by weighting the bottoms with a view toward making them more stable when they were standing.
I had some boxes of left over bullets hanging around on the reloading bench. Just dibs and dabs, either from where a box was overfilled or else from some reloading project. We played with a 110 grain .357 diameter jacketed hollow point, a 148 grain hollow base wadcutter, a 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter, and a gargantuan 525 grain cast lead .45-70 bullet.
The jacketed bullets were finally ruled out as it was assumed that any moisture admitted might cause verdigris to form on the copper bullet jackets which could leach into the plastic, discoloring it. So, for the twin short squatty handles we hot-glued a 158 grain .38 Special lead semi-wadcutter apiece into their bases. We tried filling them up with a mixture of hot glue and some aquarium gravel but despite liberal application of glue we had a rattly rock. For the taller EverReady handle we affixed the big .45-70 slug into its base with hot glue and filled it up. A dime, used to form a base for the knot, was seated on top of the fill of each brush when it was determined that we'd achieved the correct level. Then Marine epoxy was substituted for the hot glue and the knots were seated. Enough epoxy was applied to the insides of the holes to act as a seal.
The knots were acquired from The Golden Nib. One each 20mm knot in Silvertip Grade A, Super Badger Fan, and Finest Badger XH were ordered and represented good value for the money. A bit of excess epoxy oozed out of the tall EverReady handle but we shaped it as best we could and allowed it to dry. It formed a sort of "decorative" ring that may be able to be carefully trimmed away though I've not tried that yet.
After allowing a cure of 24 hours my eldest son and I shaved using our new brushes which both had a pleasing heft and balance to them and whipped up and held lots of lather compared with the boar brush I've used. The brushes, when wet gave off the unmistakable "fragrance" of ... a wet badger! It's said that after a few uses this odor leaves or one can especially wash his brush. I'm not going to bother as there's no need to subject the brush to unnecessary wear. We didn't use the taller brush with the .45-70 bullet in its base but the bullet choice was unquestionably appropriate to give the brush a pleasing heft and balance.
The finished brushes. The two short brushes are EverReady Model C40s and the tall one in the center is an unnumbered EverReady model. The shorty handles feature bulb-shaped brushes and the tall handle has a fan-shaped brush.
Razors, left to right: All classic Gillette models, a 1934 Aristocrat, a 1959 Model 195 Adjustable "Fatboy", and a 1920 New Improved.
