I am ready to try my first restoration. I picked up a vintage handle and have it all bored out and ready to go. The hole is currently 23 mm in diameter and I was wondering if you would recommend boring it out a little more and using a 24 mm knot or leaving it as it is and using a 22 mm? Also I have pretty much decided on getting the knot from TGN and am having trouble deciding between the finest or the standard silvertip knots, so what would you recommend? A little background on me, this will be my first badger brush and I'm strictly a bowl latherer and use a 70-30 split between creams and soaps. One final question what loft would you recommend? I will greatly appreciate any help you all can give me.
What knot and what loft?
- Thread starter rotto66
- Start date
You can probably take your choice of a 22 mm or a 24 mm knot and that would come down to your preferences as to how full of a brush you want. My preference would probably be a 24 mm knot set with about 55 mm loft. Many here prefer less loft. My preference would be Whipped Dog Silvertip. TGN should be considered, especially if you want to end up with more loft.
Last edited:
Recently i restored an EverReady 100T with a Whipped Dogg Silvertip 24 mm and a loft at 50 mm. I was originally wanting a little lower, but I was afraid the brush would look misproportioned. I've used it multiple times and it is one of my favorite brushes, up there with my Simpson's Chubby 1. At that loft it's not floppy, but that may be due to the denseness of the Whipped Dogg.
22mm is fine for a daily driver, and your hole size is just right for it. I'm a big fan of the TGN Finest XH knots and a loft of 48mm. Works well for bowl and face lathering and for soaps and creams.
I also would vote for a 22mm knot rather than going through all the extra effort just to get a 24mm knot. In the end, you're just going to have to decide which knot you think works best for you. The conventional knowledge would say that for a bowl lathering cream predominant user, the silvertips make the most sense. I personally don't really subscribe to that convention. I think the TGN finest XH is by far their most superior knot, better than all the silvertips. When I say most superior, I don't mean necessarily the softest (their premium silvertips and super badgers are softer), but I simply say that from an all around performance standpoint. It will absolutely work just fine with creams and bowl lathering. On the flip-side, many of their silvertips are pretty floppy, and don't make for very good face lathering brushes.
Another vote for a 22mm. Whipped Dog silvertip or TGN finest.
- Thread starter
- #7
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've decided to take the advice of most of you and go with the 22 mm knot and I think it will be the TGN Finest XH. Think I may also just buy a complete 24mm Silvertip brush from whipped dog since its only like 4 bucks more than just the knot itself and see which I prefer. I know if I don't like either one I will be able to recover most of my money by selling it on BST.
