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Feeling Some BIG Adoration For This Restore

This is not only the coolest looking handle I have ever come across, but it's the biggest one also. I thought the bottom section was Lucite, but it tested positive for Bakelite. The dealer at the antique store where I bought it referred to it as "apple juice" Bakelite, which sounds appropriate since it is exactly the same color as apple juice. This thing is HUGE. The handle alone measures about 86mm, and I restored it with a 28mm x 70mm TGN Super Badger knot with the loft being set at 57mm for a total brush height of 143mm.

To give you a good scale for the size of this brush, keep in mind that my mitts are big enough to palm a basketball.

Big, bad, beautiful, and Bakelite! :001_smile



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That's very nice restore on a beautiful brush. I would say that the bottom is lucite though. I have never seen clear Bakelite, even the apple juice colored is not translucent.
 
I would say that the bottom is lucite though. I have never seen clear Bakelite, even the apple juice colored is not translucent.

As I said, it tested positive with both Scrubbing Bubbles and odor. There are a lot of apple juice Bakelite items at Etsy.
 
As I said, it tested positive with both Scrubbing Bubbles and odor. There are a lot of apple juice Bakelite items at Etsy.

Yeah sorry didn't see that. I have a Rubberset with the same colored bottom on it, good to know its Bakelite and not lucite. Thanks.
 
Kinda reminds me of a giant baby-pacifier! :lol:

Then it's perfect for my "baby butt smooth" shaves. :wink:

You know, I really wish I had taken some "before" pictures. There were scuffs in the black upper section of the handle, LOTS of oxidization on the Bakelite, and a real long and ratty looking boar knot in this thing.

It really was quite a transformation.
 
I have a brush with that exact handle. It is un restored and the bristles appear to be white boar and probably 3 1/2" long giving it the longest loft of any. I had it several months now and when I got it the black portion of then handle had several scratches which I had worked out with some very fine w/d sandpaper. I went out a little while ago and got an old piece of t-shirt some automotive rubbing and polishing compounds and proceeded to finish. Got everything back to a high shine now but need some guilding type paint to refresh the lettering on the handle.

I am going to give it a try tomorrow morning with the long bristles and see how it works, if not to my satisfaction I may remove and replace with a good badger knot.
 
I took mine last night to see how it would perform making lather with the original knot which looks unused. As I thought it was just so long as to be extremely floppy.l

This morning after it had dried, I took it to the kitchen and put it on the cutting board, got a sharp knife then cut off about 3/4 inch. I never realized how hard boar bristle would be to cut . Not getting the most even cut possible, I wrapped it with a piece of paper then bound tightly with a rubber band and headed to my workshop.

I fired up the grinder, using a coarse stone and literally ground the ends of the bristles smooth and level, then went around the edges to give a slight bevel. All of this left me with a nice looking boar bristle with a 57mm loft.


It whipped up a nice bowl of lather and goes on with a bit more scratchiness than I am used to with the badger bristles, but then I now have what is basically square cut bristles on the end. I may get a piece of fresh sharp sandpaper and brush it a bit after the knot dries today and see if that helps. If all fails and I don't like the results I can always dig it out and install a nice TGN boar knot.
 
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