Restore of Fred

Hi,

Thanks to the generous PIF from Malanche I received this beauty in the post last week. Unfortunately as I triumphantly pulled it out of the envelope I dropped it Well clearly hard rubber is brittle as well. So here are the before pics....







So as you can see there is a chip out of the edge. Well this did have an up-side as it simplified the choice of the knot to order. As is the hole is about right for an 18mm knot. Don't know if you can see from the photos but the hole is fairly asymmetrical. So a couple of questions for those of you who have seen more Hard Rubber brushes (this is my first):

1. Was the hard rubber brittle new or is this a function of age ?
2. Is it normal for them to be asymmetric or is this because of age too ?

So have put in an order for a TGN 20mm finest fan XH - been quite keen to try this after recently using a Whipped Dog silver tip as my first badger.

This left me with a bit of wiggle room to enlarge the hole and hopefully get rid of most of the chip in the process.

No power tools so all the below steps done with elbow grease.

First up sanded the top upside down so as to flatten and start get the chip out - this also enlarged the hole slightly as the inside of the hole isn't straight but narrows in the last 5mm. Sanded on finer wet dry paper to leave a smooth finish.

Then found a socket with an outside diameter of 20mm (ironically landed up being a 9/16 socket) - wanted to use this as a mock knot to check that I didn't get the hole too big.

So once I had sanded the top flat till it looked kinda right I grabbed a round file and started working the inside of the hole edge to enlarge the hole but also to try and balance out the asymmetry. This was a lot easier that I feared since the hard rubber is soft/brittle and so quite easy to shape.

I sanded back the handle section with the intention of leaving some of the black paint in the pores for some patina and just to help the handle look like the vintage handle it is. Boy am I glad I decided to do that - whatever wood this is it is pretty hard. Took me about 20min to flatten out the bottom on 60 grit.

Then decided to give the top a buff with some kitten car polish i.e. some cutting polish for cars that I have. But how to do it without affecting the white paint, which is in near perfect condition.
<insert lightbulb here> just put the polish on a piece of eva foam I have (closed cell similar to what are used on jandals) and then rub the handle on that. Worked a treat and I am happy with the result.

So tomorrow I plan on using polyurethane on the handle - 3 or 4 coats with light sanding in between.

Below are the results of this evening's work - once the knot arrives I will post the rest.






P.S. Have named the brush Fred for no good reason

Wow! Nice save! I once chipped the handguard on a 1954 H&R M1 Garand rifle, but was able to get it glued together and refinished so that you can't even see it. I still have nightmares!

Nice recovery, and this will turn out beautifully.
Say hi to Fred for me.

Wow, great job! I think the original crack was a stroke of luck

Fred looks good.

Excellent.

Nicely done. Congrats.

i really like fred. pretty handle.

Well the 20mm Finest XH Fan has arrived.

First impressions are that it is a completely different beast to my only other badger, a whipped dog silver tip: hairs are definitely thicker and feel like a bristle paint brush as opposed to the silver tip which to me is more like fur. Seems to be less hairs per square kumquat than the silver tip (makes sense if the hairs are thicker).
Fully expect this knot to take some breaking in similar to a boar - will be interested to see if the tips split like a boar.

Have so far put on 5 layers of satin polyurethane with a light sand in between layers.

So tonight took a piece of lead and shaped to fit in the hole (assume from when the handle was turned) to add a touch of weight. And have glued the knot in with 5 min clear epoxy (Araldyte) making sure I painted a layer all around the inside of the hard rubber to provide some support if I have a spas moment again.

Will post pre and post bloom photos on the weekend....

Nice work, exactly what I'd have done to fix the chip and reinforce the remaining handle.

Here we go with the last photo set:

First a pic of the pre bloom - knot landed up being set at about 50mm as that was minimum without altering brush. At first thought that might be a bit much but the finest is a lot stiffer than silver tip.



So what soap to use first off ? Something American seemed appropriate so had to go with the piece of vintage Williams that was recently gifted to me by a fellow member



Definitely more backbone while whipping that up. Smaller on my face with more backbone as hoped for compared to the 20mm silver tip. But the bristles are prickly in a much sharper way than boar is - hoping that dies down as it breaks in.

So post bloom some pics and compared to the silver tip:







Hard to believe they are both 20mm knots!
I believe it is a reflection of the quality of the Whipped dog knot as well as the big difference between finest and silver tip.

Very interested to see how the finest breaks in - love the fan shape and the backbone. At the moment my feelings are that if it doesn't get less prickly I will be trying another silver tip with a shorter loft and giving up on the finest.
Must say as much as I praise the good ol' boar there is something special about the water retention of the badger especially the lovely warm feel on a cool morning.

Going to give it a couple of months before pigeon holing myself.

Finally many thanks to Malanche for the PIF - I enjoyed it and will enjoy this brush for years to come as a memory of your generosity and the fine community that is B&B.

(now off to keep an eagle eye on the BST for some more vintage handles )

Great job!

it turned out great, nice job.

A wonderful job for a wonderful handle. I am glad that the brush is being used and enjoyed.

Very nicely done, a good restore and it turned out beautifully