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My first re-knot. Ever-Ready C40

I've had this Ever-Ready C40 brush for so long, I don't even remember when and how I got it. It has made 3 moves and survived. I only started wet shaving a couple of months ago, so I am not sure why I kept the brush. Anyway, it had a boar knot and it was not broken in at all. When I tried using it, it shed like crazy and was not a super great brush for my beginning attempts at wet shaving. So, I got a little SBAD (along with RAD) and bought two best badger brushes and an Omega boar. I then proceeded to remove the old boar knot from the C40. I scanned this forum for help. Thanks, everyone for a valuable resource here! Knot removal proved more difficult than thought. I got stuck after getting the bristles flush with the handle. Then Larry Andreassen of Whipped Dog Straight Razors (check out his site! It's great and has a very valuable shaving manual that's applicable to DE shavers) provided my with a black pure badger knot that would work in this handle. Thank you Larry! Well, it took a bit of time and two gluing attempts, but the brush is ready and has seen its maiden voyage. I used cork from a bottle of wine (I have lots of those :) ) and 60 second epoxy to build up a shelf for the knot before gluing it in. I then used some Shoe Goo to set the knot. Well, Shoe Goo did not work out and the knot fell out after the first lathering. I did not have cleaned out the old bonding material completely either. This may have been the reason Shoe Goo didn't seal properly. So, for the second attempt I used a ball shaped grinding stone for the Dremel and cleaned out the space just under the hole. This is where a bead of glue would form a seal to keep the water out. I then used blue RTV to set the knot. I made sure the space I cleaned out was filled with RTV before setting the knot in. A bit of squeeze out occured, but easy to clean with RTV. Not sure what to do with epoxy in this case. This is why I chose RTV for my first re-knot.

Here are some pictures of the brush and its maiden shave. It performed beautifully with Arko face lather. I got 5 passes and still had enough in it to use for a wash after the alum.



 

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Sorry, I am not sure how to add descriptions to pictures, but they are taken before each shaving pass.

And here are more:

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Nice restore! Those brushes always remind me of Stewey Griffin from family guy. (Odd shape and colors lol)
 
Nice! That's a great looking example of that handle, it looks brand new. And it looks like you set the knot in straight, I think that's the hardest part.
 
Nice job on the brush!

I have used Larry's silvertips, but I haven't tried the black pure yet. How do you like it?

So far I only shaved twice with it. First time, as I explained in my original post, the knot came out at the end of the shave, but the lather with Proraso face lather was very good. The second time was when I took the pictures above today. Arko face lather, 5 or 6 passes and still enough to squeeze onto my had and apply after alum. I would say it lathers great. It is a bit scritchier, at least out of the box before breaking in, than the best badger ones or even the Omega boar brush I have (model 10275 and it's pretty well broken in by now). I am sure it will only get softer and better. This knot is also a lot less dense than my other ones. This makes it have less backbone, but somehow does not effect lathering and even helps placement of lather on the skin. It does not hog the lather like my 24mm Best does. It acts kind of like a boar, but floppier. Since it's also scritchier, I tend to press on the face less with it and the whole things works out great. All in all it turned out to be a great brush. The knot was 18mm, I think. The handle was set at 22mm, so I set the knot lower to end up with a 22mm brush. Feels different than my other three: Simpson Wee Scot, Royal Shave best badger, Omega boar 10275. This is a good thing since I got three very different and very good brushes now. I must say that the Royal Shave 24mm best badger gets the least use. It lathers like a monster, has good backbone and is extremely soft, but tends to hold the lather inside. It also came with a hollow plastic handle, which made me drop it a few times (very top heavy), so I drilled the out the back of the handle and filled it with epoxy, which helped a lot with weight distribution. I find the 24 mm knot too big. The whole brush seems unwieldy with too much soap that does not go to the face the way I want to. Wee Scot is the opposite of the huge 24mm, of course. It is tiny, but all business. It has amazing backbone, is soft (best badger) and puts the soap where I want it. Easy 4 passes for me with Proraso and more with Arko face lather. Omega 10275 boar is a very good brush. In fact, I tried another Omega boar, a bit bigger than the 10275 and I loved that brush right out of the box. I am thinking I'll be getting that one too. Omega makes some great inexpensive boar brushes and they seem to be pre-broken in somewhat. I really like the way a good boar brush feels.
 
Nice! That's a great looking example of that handle, it looks brand new. And it looks like you set the knot in straight, I think that's the hardest part.

I used Flitz on the handle and it just turned from grimy to this almost new look. There is a tiny crack near the hole, but hardly noticeable. To set the knot straight I shaped the shelf under it that I created out of wine cork and epoxy. I cut the cork to the desired height and set it inside the hollow of the handle by filling the space around it with 60 second epoxy. Then I adjusted the cork to be in the center before the epoxy set. I let that set for another 24 hours and then used the Dremel to shape it such that the knot would sit straight in dry fitting. Then I set the knot with blue RTV. It worked out for the hollow handle. I got a solid Ever-Ready handle coming now and will have to think about how to deal with that.
 
You did a good job setting the knot. I'm glad the knot is being worked! It wasn't happy sitting in the storage bin...

Larry, that knot will get some work out. It is already shedding very little and is well on the way to being broken in. It feels "floppy", compared to a boar or an over-stuffed Wee Scot, but it is amazing at holding the lather while you shave and releasing it when you need it on the face. The flow-through is awesome! It also dries in about an hour, it seems. Great brush. Interesting to see how it breaks in. I assume it will only get better at everything it does. Thanks again for the knot!

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VF
 
... but it is amazing at holding the lather while you shave and releasing it when you need it on the face. ...

In my opinion, the one down side to silvertip is that it holds lather too much, and sometimes the lather has to be squeezed out. (On the other hand, silvertip feels very nice!)
 
In my opinion, the one down side to silvertip is that it holds lather too much, and sometimes the lather has to be squeezed out. (On the other hand, silvertip feels very nice!)

Yep, you're right. Wee Scot is exceptional in this. It does not hold the lather, it just oozes it. It is best badger, not sure if silver tip is a higher grade than that, but my "big" best badger brush seems to be even softer than the Wee Scot and really holds on to the lather. I actually found a great non-shaving use for it the other day when I was giving my son a 16th birthday haircut (ended up with a Mohawk). I used the big 24mm best badger brush dry to brush the hair clippings off the neck and it worked amazingly well for that. It is really dense and so fanned out a lot over time and is a great brush to use dry for haircuts. I still shave with it, but it was great to find a second purpose for it.

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VF
 
You did a nice job on that. I love the black badger that I got from Larry, about a year ago, it is my go to everyday brush. I know it is not for everyone but my other brushes are now just for display. When I got the knot I figured I wouldn't like it so I put it in a rather plain handle, something I now regret.
 
You did a nice job on that. I love the black badger that I got from Larry, about a year ago, it is my go to everyday brush. I know it is not for everyone but my other brushes are now just for display. When I got the knot I figured I wouldn't like it so I put it in a rather plain handle, something I now regret.


It is a very nice knot indeed. As I said, it's less dense than my others, but somehow it does not effect the performance negatively. In fact, I think it actually makes the brush work better. I only shaved a few times with it, but every time I love the brush more and more. I think the tips will soften up in time also.
 
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