A Brush from the Wild. Anyone Know what it is?

Was out with my wife today at a antique/craft fair and found this brush. No info was able to be given by the seller. She only wanted $15 for it so I said what the heck. It's in good shape, and it looked kinda familiar.

Hoping more educated guys can help me ID it. Here's some decent pics I took.

Enjoy the pics, but please help a guy out!



The handle feels solid, a good weight. Not really sure what it is.



Can't say for sure on the knot. It's pretty stiff, but still has a bit of softness.



Can see a dark spot centered on the bottom. From turning? A little bit of uneveness there.



There's a bit of a "seam" there that can be felt and slightly seen here. It's on both opposite sides.



That's all. Hope it was a great score! Thanks everyone!

IMHO, it appears to be a Van der Hagen DELUXE brush ... I've only seen these for sale at CVS, around $8.

Its a much better brush than their green-handled NATURAL brush, the one you can buy anywhere. Quite nicely functional for a beginner, or a travel brush, or a spare to keep in your locker at work or the gym.

The handle is not turned on a lathe. It is made from injection molded plastic, and is hollow and lightweight as it comes from the factory. Some people have drilled a hole and filled it with epoxy or other material to add some heft to it. That may be what the dark spot is from.

What he said !!!!

It is a VDH Banded Boar brush. The handle on both of mine are solid injected molded resin and they cost around $8.00 - $10.00 new at your local Walgreens or CVS or RiteAid. They are $16.85 for a three pack from Amazon. Here

I think this actually probably a Surrey brush. Surrey predated Van Der Hagen, and was making brushes like this in the 1970's. I am not sure of the relationship, but Surrey, and Van Der Hagen are basically the same company; not sure if VDH bought Surrey or what.

Beautiful brush ya got there.

michiganlover said:

I think this actually probably a Surrey brush. Surrey predated Van Der Hagen, and was making brushes like this in the 1970's. I am not sure of the relationship, but Surrey, and Van Der Hagen are basically the same company; not sure if VDH bought Surrey or what.

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+1,i had to take some pics and upload them so here they are

Thanks guys!

I'm inclined to go with it being a Surrey. Not because I wanna hope it's older LOL. Two reasons actually. dpm802 said the VDH handles are a hollow lightweight plastic. Pretty sure this brush is plastic, but it doesn't feel hollow or particularly light. But, it does have some kind of drill hole at the bottom, so his theory could be right. Also, though it looks pretty good, it definitely feels generally older than a newer product. Granted thats a subjective opinion. Last, is I had alot of trouble finding a white handled VDH brush by any title, natural, deluxe etc. listed anywhere.

Wish it had some kinda ID on it. Oh well, even if it's a newer VDH brush, I didn't overpay too bad. Doubt Surreys are really valuable, but if it's one at least the age adds something to it.
Thanks again everyone! Any more thoughts, please share!

i really enjoy my surrey,its a fine boar.ther isnt any rule that says a good brush has to cost a lot.i restored a white handle surrey with a 24mm black badger from tgn and talk about sweet.

eastomjac said:

i really enjoy my surrey,its a fine boar.ther isnt any rule that says a good brush has to cost a lot.i restored a white handle surrey with a 24mm black badger from tgn and talk about sweet.

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I dig that! The contrast looks really nice. I have an old ER red and black 300PBT handle I restored with a black badger. I haven't used it much, but it looks pretty sweet. Thanks for the pics!

I think it's definitely a Surrey. I have a blue one just like it that I'm planning to restore:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/250741-Surrey-restoration-Boar-or-Badger

I still haven't decided badger or boar...but I'm in no hurry.

The VDH boar I picked up from the bin-o-death at my local CVS for $.25 was actually somewhat hefty. Could be either; not easy to tell (and there's not really any difference). In any case, enjoy! I personally think the handle shape is great.

I like the handle too. Has a classy yet simple look to it. I know the knot looks pretty dang good, but I kinda wanna upgrade it. eastomjac, hope you're still reading, did that 24mm black fit as is or did you have to widen the opening? I'm looking at the handle design and thinking there is potential room to widen it even further and get a 26-28mm in there, which I've been really wanting! Thoughts?

CyberJCM said:

I like the handle too. Has a classy yet simple look to it. I know the knot looks pretty dang good, but I kinda wanna upgrade it. eastomjac, hope you're still reading, did that 24mm black fit as is or did you have to widen the opening? I'm looking at the handle design and thinking there is potential room to widen it even further and get a 26-28mm in there, which I've been really wanting! Thoughts?

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i had to enlarge the hole with my dremel and a sanding drum to fit the 24mm,but it still had lots of room on the top ledge you might get another mm or two,it made one nice brush.on a side note vdh seems to be surrey under a new corporate heading and still sells the surrey handle

eastomjac said:

i had to enlarge the hole with my dremel and a sanding drum to fit the 24mm,but it still had lots of room on the top ledge you might get another mm or two,it made one nice brush.on a side note vdh seems to be surrey under a new corporate heading and still sells the surrey handle

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Thanks! I think I've decided to go for it. I mean, it's not a high end handle, easily replaced, so I say why not, have fun! It's a classy design though, so I'm thinking a TGN 28mm Finest bulb would look real nice. I'll post a big thread all about it when I get it done!

CyberJCM said:

Thanks! I think I've decided to go for it. I mean, it's not a high end handle, easily replaced, so I say why not, have fun! It's a classy design though, so I'm thinking a TGN 28mm Finest bulb would look real nice. I'll post a big thread all about it when I get it done!

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cant wait to see it,if you mesure the top after you remove the old knot youll see where you can go.

I have this same exact brush no pictures of it at the moment but it bought under the CVS label. The handle does not appear to be hollow and has a decent weight. Also the bristles softened right up after a week and I love it.

So I removed the knot. I felt bad about it since it was perfectly good... but I felt better when I found that only the outer layer of hair was dyed to look banded. Dunno if thats common but it made it feel cheaper and thus less bothersome. The innards were very interesting... It was as if it had something like rubber cement put into it, it wasn't a solid amount. And strangely it was still kinda goopy. Even more odd was there was some kind of plastic cap inside. Nothing I recognize, and I couldn't tell why it was in there. Anyway, had to use Goo Gone to get the gunk out, and now it's ready to be widened and measured for a new large knot.

I'm gonna take pics of the whole process and make a nice thread about it when it's all done!