Zenith Brush Crack
- Thread starter UPmit
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I would contact the seller and ask the question. Hopefully you have some sort of warranty with the brush. I had a similar problem with an Omega Boar that I bought but I was soaking the brush in too hotter water and it apparently expanded the glue knot and that caused the cracks. Lucky for me the brush is still holding together and usable.
Mine has not done that. I only soak about 3/4 of the length of the bristles in a mug of water.
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- #4
It came from overseas so I’m not going to worry about warranty since it still works for now. I don’t soak more than halfway up the hair but maybe the knot still soaked up some water. It definitely looks like it was caused by expansion.
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- #5
That seems like sound advice. I usually only go about halfway up when I soak my brushes so not sure what happened. It’s still useable for now so I’m not overly concerned.
Internally, there is a plastic socket that the knot is glued into. The socket locks into the handle somehow. I think there are some little tabs. If you wanted to, you could put the knot into another handle. It's a pretty good inexpensive knot.
I also had the same issue with an Omega. I liked it so much I dremeled the knot out to set it into a replacement handle. While doing this I found it does not rely on the cracked area to hold it in place due to the socket that NorthernSoul mentioned. I could have left it in the original handle. I guess you could leave yours as it is if you're not too bothered about the appearance.
Exactly, this is how you need to soak pig bristle brushes in water... the pig's hair absorbs the water and if immersed up to the collar, absorbing water expands, breaking the handle
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- #9
I never soak them more than halfway or so up the bristles.
strange, it depends on how long you leave the brush soaking?
Still usable yes , but more prone to harboring bacteria . I would give it a nice 3 minute soak ( complete submersion ) in properly diluted Mar-V-Cide or Barbicide every 2 weeks .. I speak from experience and lessons learned from Rudy Vey .
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- #12
I soak them maybe 10 minutes most. I think it was just something weird with this particular brush. I have a few Omegas, two Simogues, three Stirling brushes and two Zeniths. The Zeniths are the newest additions with the others being 1-5 years old. None of the other brushes I own, including the other Zenith, have any issues.
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- #13
Interesting. Just from build up in the cracks?
You could always stabilize the cracks and not worry about it as long as it still works as it should for you...
That’s unfortunate. I’m a big fan of their knots both boar and badger.
That stinks, but Zenith makes a similar knot with better handles very inexpensively. Some really cool resins and nice looking olive wood as well.
Crazy or Super Glue will fix the crack.
I have a Zenith olive wood boar which developed a crack...I stabilized it with CA and no further issues still a really good brush. Surprised that the plastic/resin handle developed cracks anyway.
Some peaple buy a Zenith brushes with cheap handles to "mine" the knot. They set the mined knot in a nicer handle. Finish mining the knot and set it in a nice handle.
Olive wood is prone to cracking. Rarely see a resin handle crack, but I also have one. A Rooney badger that did this.
