Hey everyone! This is my latest project, and I'm really pleased with it. I hope you enjoy!
Recently I picked up at a craft fair what was determined to likely be a Surry/VDH brush in this thread I posted about it. It was in pretty nice shape, knot and all. But it was an inexpensive average boar in what I feel is a really classy handle. I studied it and an idea came to me. I've always wanted a large knot brush, and this handle had lots of room for expansion. I decided to go for it.
EDIT: Yesterday I saw a new VDH brush shaped like this one in the store. My brush here is not a new VDH. The plastic handle of the new VDH brush feels much lighter and is much more cheaply made, with big obvious casting seams and no weight. My brush here then is almost certainly an older Surry.
A large knot modification and restore. Here's how it went with pictures!
Here is a picture of the brush as it was when I got it:
As I said, good shape. I almost didn't want to cut that boar knot off. But I went for it, and as I did I found that only the outer layers of hair were dyed to look banded. I'm not sure if this is normal, but it made it feel like a cheaper knot so I stopped caring.
Got it all cut off and began the drilling process. I don't have a press or forstner bits, so I used my drill, stepping up the bit progressively larger to get that out. Pretty quick I started getting into some icky stuff. It was like rubber cement, and it was goopy. Probably melting from friction. Well long story short, I got all the guts out, and used Goo Gone on my bits and the inside of the handle to clean all that crap off.
Interesting thing was there was some other plastic inside. Something that looked like a cap. No idea what it was. Also that rubber cement goo was deeper in the handle. It was hypothesized that this handle may have been drilled and filled a little for weight in the other thread. Maybe!
Next step was to widen the opening. I used my Dremel with a sanding drum, being careful to sand evenly and not get too crazy; those sanding drums can get wicked. It took some time, the plastic would get a little soft from the friction and gum up, needing me to scrape it out with my fingers. Pretty easy process though. I widened it to where I was comfortable with its structural integrity as well as appearance. Worked out to be an easy 28mm.
After much internal debate and browsing I settled on a TGN 28mm Finest Bulb and placed my order!
I had one more step I wanted to do, restoration wise. The bottom of the handle was a little discolored, had a dark spot in the middle, and sat uneven. See here:
With a little hand sanding all that was cured, though it left the plastic kinda dull. Wasn't sure what else to do, so I taped up the handle and put a very quick light coat of Polycryllic on the bottom only to "seal" and shine up that bottom. Worked well, and either way, its just the bottom.
The knot arrives! It's an impressive beast of a knot for sure. After being held back all day by wife and kids, I head out to my workbench to get started.
Since the handle was totally hollow, I decided after reading here to use BB's to fill it and add weight.
I had these prepacked BB loads, and turns out one filled it exactly right, and would actually create a shelf for the knot to sit on too!
Since I didn't want the BB's to shake around like a freaking maracca, I glued and packed them in mixing them with some silicone. After that dried up I got ready to set the knot.
I used the Devcon 5 Minute clear waterproof epoxy, which was great to use by the way.
I carefully gobbed it in the handle with the little stick, making sure I had it evenly spread out and enough to really grab that knot base. I stuck the knot in, made sure it was just right, and set it down to harden. I knew it did this, but I thought it was neat the heat that the epoxy put out as the chemical reaction took place.
And here it is! A Surry/VDH brush modded to hold a large TGN 28mm Finest Bulb! I'm very pleased with the look, and that is a really dense knot! It also weighs a ton. I weighed it at almost 4oz. Looking back at it, I could have probably gone up to 30mm with no problem. I just may make another at 30mm one day...
I can't wait to try it out tomorrow!
Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed the process and result also.
Recently I picked up at a craft fair what was determined to likely be a Surry/VDH brush in this thread I posted about it. It was in pretty nice shape, knot and all. But it was an inexpensive average boar in what I feel is a really classy handle. I studied it and an idea came to me. I've always wanted a large knot brush, and this handle had lots of room for expansion. I decided to go for it.
EDIT: Yesterday I saw a new VDH brush shaped like this one in the store. My brush here is not a new VDH. The plastic handle of the new VDH brush feels much lighter and is much more cheaply made, with big obvious casting seams and no weight. My brush here then is almost certainly an older Surry.
A large knot modification and restore. Here's how it went with pictures!
Here is a picture of the brush as it was when I got it:
As I said, good shape. I almost didn't want to cut that boar knot off. But I went for it, and as I did I found that only the outer layers of hair were dyed to look banded. I'm not sure if this is normal, but it made it feel like a cheaper knot so I stopped caring.
Got it all cut off and began the drilling process. I don't have a press or forstner bits, so I used my drill, stepping up the bit progressively larger to get that out. Pretty quick I started getting into some icky stuff. It was like rubber cement, and it was goopy. Probably melting from friction. Well long story short, I got all the guts out, and used Goo Gone on my bits and the inside of the handle to clean all that crap off.
Interesting thing was there was some other plastic inside. Something that looked like a cap. No idea what it was. Also that rubber cement goo was deeper in the handle. It was hypothesized that this handle may have been drilled and filled a little for weight in the other thread. Maybe!
Next step was to widen the opening. I used my Dremel with a sanding drum, being careful to sand evenly and not get too crazy; those sanding drums can get wicked. It took some time, the plastic would get a little soft from the friction and gum up, needing me to scrape it out with my fingers. Pretty easy process though. I widened it to where I was comfortable with its structural integrity as well as appearance. Worked out to be an easy 28mm.
After much internal debate and browsing I settled on a TGN 28mm Finest Bulb and placed my order!
I had one more step I wanted to do, restoration wise. The bottom of the handle was a little discolored, had a dark spot in the middle, and sat uneven. See here:
With a little hand sanding all that was cured, though it left the plastic kinda dull. Wasn't sure what else to do, so I taped up the handle and put a very quick light coat of Polycryllic on the bottom only to "seal" and shine up that bottom. Worked well, and either way, its just the bottom.
The knot arrives! It's an impressive beast of a knot for sure. After being held back all day by wife and kids, I head out to my workbench to get started.
Since the handle was totally hollow, I decided after reading here to use BB's to fill it and add weight.
I had these prepacked BB loads, and turns out one filled it exactly right, and would actually create a shelf for the knot to sit on too!
Since I didn't want the BB's to shake around like a freaking maracca, I glued and packed them in mixing them with some silicone. After that dried up I got ready to set the knot.
I used the Devcon 5 Minute clear waterproof epoxy, which was great to use by the way.
I carefully gobbed it in the handle with the little stick, making sure I had it evenly spread out and enough to really grab that knot base. I stuck the knot in, made sure it was just right, and set it down to harden. I knew it did this, but I thought it was neat the heat that the epoxy put out as the chemical reaction took place.
And here it is! A Surry/VDH brush modded to hold a large TGN 28mm Finest Bulb! I'm very pleased with the look, and that is a really dense knot! It also weighs a ton. I weighed it at almost 4oz. Looking back at it, I could have probably gone up to 30mm with no problem. I just may make another at 30mm one day...
I can't wait to try it out tomorrow!
Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed the process and result also.
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