Aromatic is a far more polite way of describing my plight than saying that the green marbled Ever Ready smells like butyric acid, a smell that you might know from romano and parmesan cheeses and, unfortunately for me, from vomit.
Here's the story. Over the past two weeks, I acquired these five brushes one at a time on eBay. The knot on the black and amber Ever Ready pulled out by hand rather easily. The pale butterscotch Made Rite's knot (second from the right) had just the smallest dab of adhesive holding it into a metal collar, so it pulled out easily as well. The largest Made Rite on the far left had to be drilled out with a Dremel. Although I had masked fairly well, I will confess that I knicked a bit of the rim, but that's minor. The marbled butterscotch Ever Ready on the right cooperated on my brush removal pretty well.
But, then, there's that nasty green Ever Ready. The knot was moderately difficult to drill out. I poked through the shelf, mostly unintentionally. As I was cutting throught stump of the knot and the old adhesive, I was overcome by the nasty smell that's best described as fried puke. I've washed the cavity with Dawn dish soap (the stuff they use to clean water fowl after oil spills) and white vingear alternately, but still, the darned thing stinks. What to do?
Thought #1: drill out the remainder of the shelf in hopes that the odor emanates from the adhesive remenants and will go way when they disappear.
Thought #2: hope that rebuilding the floor with a coin, a wine cork and loads of epoxy seals in whatever nastiness remains.
Thought #3: the handle has got to go, as the smell will never leave.
I would hate to finish this little project (it's cost me about $10 for the handle) by adding a nice $15-30 TGN knot only to find that aroma is like the beast from a horror movie that will not die or go away.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem and does anyone have a solution???
On a related note, I've a question about choosing new knots. Sizing ... how much leeway do I have on knot diameter. TGN's site notes their knots are typically about 0.5mm nominally smaller than the stated size. All five of these brushes measure 20mm or slightly bigger, but none of them quite as big as 22. Should I buy all 20's and then file to fit where they're tight (that's gonna be a Yes) AND what of the ones where they're going to be a little loose? How loose is okay before you step up to the next size knot and file to make it fit?
I do not have the steady hands of my dentist. While I enjoy the act of grinding away with the dremel (and pretending as I do that I'm extracting pain and teeth from the dentists who have tortured my poor wife for many years), the reality is I'm not all that good at that part of this, so, I'd prefer not to be doing much resizing if I can avoid it. I'm not terribly concerned about drilling to adjust depth, but I am a little worried about messing up on diameter since mistakes there seem harder to hide.
A few before pictures:
that green one did polish up rather nicely using Flitz...
View attachment 409171
Here you can see that metal collar from one of the Made Rites. I presume there is no sense trying to extract that, right?
The butterscotch Simpsons 32 in the threaded holder will either go to Simpsons or Rudy Vey for restoration. This is a family heirloom (Mrs.'s grandpa we think).
Here's the story. Over the past two weeks, I acquired these five brushes one at a time on eBay. The knot on the black and amber Ever Ready pulled out by hand rather easily. The pale butterscotch Made Rite's knot (second from the right) had just the smallest dab of adhesive holding it into a metal collar, so it pulled out easily as well. The largest Made Rite on the far left had to be drilled out with a Dremel. Although I had masked fairly well, I will confess that I knicked a bit of the rim, but that's minor. The marbled butterscotch Ever Ready on the right cooperated on my brush removal pretty well.
But, then, there's that nasty green Ever Ready. The knot was moderately difficult to drill out. I poked through the shelf, mostly unintentionally. As I was cutting throught stump of the knot and the old adhesive, I was overcome by the nasty smell that's best described as fried puke. I've washed the cavity with Dawn dish soap (the stuff they use to clean water fowl after oil spills) and white vingear alternately, but still, the darned thing stinks. What to do?
Thought #1: drill out the remainder of the shelf in hopes that the odor emanates from the adhesive remenants and will go way when they disappear.
Thought #2: hope that rebuilding the floor with a coin, a wine cork and loads of epoxy seals in whatever nastiness remains.
Thought #3: the handle has got to go, as the smell will never leave.
I would hate to finish this little project (it's cost me about $10 for the handle) by adding a nice $15-30 TGN knot only to find that aroma is like the beast from a horror movie that will not die or go away.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem and does anyone have a solution???
On a related note, I've a question about choosing new knots. Sizing ... how much leeway do I have on knot diameter. TGN's site notes their knots are typically about 0.5mm nominally smaller than the stated size. All five of these brushes measure 20mm or slightly bigger, but none of them quite as big as 22. Should I buy all 20's and then file to fit where they're tight (that's gonna be a Yes) AND what of the ones where they're going to be a little loose? How loose is okay before you step up to the next size knot and file to make it fit?
I do not have the steady hands of my dentist. While I enjoy the act of grinding away with the dremel (and pretending as I do that I'm extracting pain and teeth from the dentists who have tortured my poor wife for many years), the reality is I'm not all that good at that part of this, so, I'd prefer not to be doing much resizing if I can avoid it. I'm not terribly concerned about drilling to adjust depth, but I am a little worried about messing up on diameter since mistakes there seem harder to hide.
A few before pictures:
that green one did polish up rather nicely using Flitz...
View attachment 409171
Here you can see that metal collar from one of the Made Rites. I presume there is no sense trying to extract that, right?
The butterscotch Simpsons 32 in the threaded holder will either go to Simpsons or Rudy Vey for restoration. This is a family heirloom (Mrs.'s grandpa we think).
