Vintage Bone Brush Restore

My lastest ( yes...it's my last...again.... )



This brush was originally on ebay in a set of three. The other two were very uninspiring so I shot the seller an questions re just buying the this bone one. Given time zone differences between UK and Australia, the next morning when I got up found they'd put up a BIN on it. Luckily in 9 hours nobody had picked it up.

Just arrived today. It's a lovely piece of work but it's a lot smaller than I thought...



Now though it looked like the bristle hadn't been used, it was shedding pretty bad and it stunk !! I considered leaving it as it was but there's no way that bristles getting near my face even after soaking in Hydrochloric Acid

I've been obsessing over what knot to put in it since I bought, and was considering keeping as boar given the lamp light "Pure Bristle" markings on it but now it's arrived, my choice is made.

Once again, using my extensive toolkit, it's been de knotted in less than 15 minutes.

The knot hole is 15mm and for loft I've got 40mm to play with



Now the smallest knot that Tony has is a 16mm Finest , so looks like that's it. I was considering the finest anyway as I think the two band will set off the handle really nicely. I'm about to shoot him an email to see if he's got a "small" 16mm on hand

I might however have to work the knot hole a bit to fit the knot in, but with 40mm to play with that shouldn't be an issue

Further updates to follow.

That's a cool little handle. I can't wait to see it finished.

I've had a small custom bone handle on order from Kimson for about 7 weeks now and am getting antsy for it to arrive. Mine is not quite that small and is being made for an 18mm knot with about 45mm of loft.

That one looks great. I recently used a 16mm finest and I think it was pretty true to that size at the plug. Nice little knot, and I bet that it will look very good in that bone handle.

Good score. The old work kit comes through perfectly once again.

Should make a great little brush!

If you need to drill out the hole- do so under water, it will prevent overheating the bone and splitting it as well as the horrendous odor will be avoided.

Is there anything special you need to do to clean/sanitise bone ??

I'm no germophobe, but being a porous material........... I figured I'd soap soak it in hot ( off the boil )water and soap, toothpaste and toothbrush it..... Soak....toothpaste.... repeat........

I might lose the lamplight writing on the front, but it's coming off already even after just deknotting and a mild water only clean, unless I leave a "dirty patch" around the writing where I don't clean it.

I actually don't mind if some of the Pantina stays on it as it gives it that vintage look anyways.

Why didn't they protect their lamp lighting better ? All the brushes I've found with this one it pretty much lose it after just cleaning, let alone from usage.

Any suggestions ???

Schwert said:

That one looks great. I recently used a 16mm finest and I think it was pretty true to that size at the plug. Nice little knot, and I bet that it will look very good in that bone handle.

Good score. The old work kit comes through perfectly once again.

Click to expand...

Schwert, does the knot "bulge" above the holder like the other Finest knots ??

Jim said:

If you need to drill out the hole- do so under water, it will prevent overheating the bone and splitting it as well as the horrendous odor will be avoided.

Click to expand...

Drill, I don't need no stinkin' drill , minimalism Jim...minimalism...I reckon enlarging the holes gonna involve sandpaper ( but thanks for the tip )

Nice brush Ian... I got a small one in my lot but I really like the handle... Will post pictures this week-end...

The knot bulges out just like all the other knots. The "waist" will probably give you about a cm above the plug if that.

You will likely have to taper that hole a bit with some sandpaper. I would HIGHLY recommend you do it outside and with a dust mask for sure.

You may want to see about using a tapered file rather than sandpaper too and doing it underwater. Bone is nasty material in your lungs....avoid that at all costs.

As to cleaning it up....I would not go too hot on the water....tap hot but not near boiling, and I think soap and a brush should be good enough.

Schwert said:

The knot bulges out just like all the other knots. The "waist" will probably give you about a cm above the plug if that.

You will likely have to taper that hole a bit with some sandpaper. I would HIGHLY recommend you do it outside and with a dust mask for sure.

You may want to see about using a tapered file rather than sandpaper too and doing it underwater. Bone is nasty material in your lungs....avoid that at all costs.

As to cleaning it up....I would not go too hot on the water....tap hot but not near boiling, and I think soap and a brush should be good enough.

Click to expand...

Thank for the assistance and advice.

So it's been soak in soapy water. As I suspected the lamp light writing pretty much came of just from that

It's been cleaned up and I think it looked better with the pantina, but I reckon that'll probably come back pretty soon.



Just waiting on hear back from Tony whether he's got a "small" 16mm knot

fidjit said:

My lastest ( yes...it's my last...again.... )

Click to expand...

Ian,

I shaved with my 16mm finest set at 40mm this morning to confirm what I almost wrote last night...

If I was going to set this little knot again I would set it at 42 or maybe even 43mm....probably 42.

I was trying to make a slightly upsized Wee with the brush I did with the 16mm....but because it is a bulb compared to the very nice flat top fan of the Wee, my slight up-loft to 40mm was not quite enough to just slightly upsize the face coverage of the Wee sized knot.

So at 40mm I actually put this 16mm finest as slightly smaller on my face then the Wee.

I hope that make sense, but given that you have limited room to set this one in the bone, you may want to consider a higher loft than you may have imagined.

Tony got back to me. He reckons the 16mm Finest is about 15mm at the plug goes to about 18mm at the bulge however the 16mm Best is around 15mm all the way.

Because:

1. I don't have the tools
2. I don't like to change these "unique" brushes too much ( because I don't have the tools ? )
3. I don't have a Best in my bevy of brushes yet
4. They seem recommended by Schwert and Ian ( SliceofLife ) so I've got someone to blame if I don't like it

I've just ordered the 16mm Best.

Now the long wait from Arizona to Tasmania begins..........

To keep myself busy have to find a cork to fill the handle and make a shelf. Reckon I'll set at a bout 45mm for a slighly less dense brush, but we'll see when the knot arrives.

I have a 16mm finest in a little acrylic handle and it is a great little brush, but the bulge is about 18mm Having said that, I set it at 50mm and it has a great shape and plenty of backbone.

I also have a 16 mm best for a wooden handle I am working on, but haven't finished. It is prettier than the finest and feels about the same to my face, but hasn't been used or bloomed. I think the best will look gorgeous in that handle.

That BEST ought to be a good one. Even though I will likely set Finest knots whenever I can, I still reach for my two BEST brushes each week.

Cannot wait to see the end result.

Fidj, this is a very special handle. You may have to carve some beautiful images and you'll have yourself an incredible scrimshaw brush.

Lovely...does bone need to be sealed before use?

Nice looking brush Ian..!!!

Darjeeling Express said:

Fidj, this is a very special handle. You may have to carve some beautiful images and you'll have yourself an incredible scrimshaw brush.

Click to expand...

At least scrimshaw is ( semi ) permanent unlike the lamp light process they used to use !!!!



There's a great tutorial on scrimshaw here for those that are interested

So the knot arrived today

Once again, thanks to some good advice from Tony, this turned out to be real easy.



The Best is a 55m knot and I was worried I'd have to enlarge the hole down to about 10-12mm however the knot holder sits just fine in the 15mm hole with no modification and I end up with a nice 45mm loft

Kinda lucky as I got a bit concerned about all the posts re breathing in the bone dust



Waiting for the glue to dry ( hoorah work at work kit )

I'll be interested to see how the Best knot performs. Feels prickly out of the bag but then again so do the Finests.

I'll shoot some post bloom piccies

(Think I might need to build a light box at work )

That looks very good.

I have two best knots...one an 18 the other 20 and they are softer than the Finest knots. I usually use the finger grip squeeze to load them, then they lather up like a breeze.

I think that one is going to be great.

Did you just fill the whole hollow with epoxy, then shove the knot in?