Restore of an Ever Ready 500 with new 'mane'

[buma]

Hey all,

Okay, so there has been a lot of questions about the PC Woodcraft and Pen's horsehair knots and as I happen to have ordered one and had everything mostly ready, figured I should do a short show-and-tell about it!



First on the left, is the knot being mounted into handle that hig789 sold and kindly helped a forstner-bitless me enlarge the hole from 21mm to 24mm (thanks again for the help!) to receive the 23.5mm horsehair knot. The top of the handle has several stable cracks, but nothing to be concerned over - just adds some character to the vintage handle. As you can see, I have the ubiquitous blue painters tape ring around the top in little torn bits to help make it easier to go around the hole.

The brush is protected in a 'customized recycled knot shield' (i.e. a fast food receipt from lunch that day) to help protect from any oopsies during the gluing process and to help give it a good shimmy to help seat it, too. As I tend to like flop in my brushes, I set the knot as high as I could, just skirting the glue ring of the knot right below the lip of the handle. You can see where a bit of it is exposed as there was some stray glue on the knot from the knotmaking process.

The image on the right is and 'unbloomed' image of it just after the glue set. The knot seems somewhere in-between a bulb and fan shape at this stage. I was at first worried that there'd be a gap between the knot and the sidewalls of the handle as it was slightly smaller, but with a bit of judicious gluing (and as much fiddling and centering that a 5-min setup time would allow), I seemed to have centered the knot properly.



The above image is post first cleaning and first use, both of which were done with good ol' VdH puck that I break out for this occasion as it tends to be good for defunkification. The first cleaning produced some of yellow discoloration in the lather, as well as did the first pre-soaking. I assume it's from the processing of the brushes, but it easily washed out and did not affect the actual first use of the brush. A shorter soaking didn't produce any discoloration, but will keep track of it to see if it continues.

In use, the brush, even set at the highest loft, still has a lot of backbone and can easily cut into hard soaps. Tips were soft without any scritchyness that I feel in my boar brush even over the course of face-lathering which I'm not at all use to. And, it bloomed very nicely like a badger brush does, too - although like my other horsehair brush, in more of a 'crazy scientist' bloom vs a more coiffed 'Angela Davis' bloom.

After 2.5 uses (1 bowl lather, .5 attempt at hand lathering, and 1 face lather), it still smells of wet animal fur.. which... it is, but it's not overpowering and is quickly diminishing.

I'm very happy with how the PC horsehair knot is performing. I will update the posting as I use it more. Loved the way this turned out and looking forward to another restore sometime soon!

[brucered]

awesome, nice to see it's coming along.

i hope to have my PC horse here shortly as well.

looks to be blooming great.

[TnutsShave]

Shoot...I may have to try one now. I wasn't crazy about boars, but what the hell, I'll give another animal a shot.

Very nice restore...that's a great handle and a good choice for the knot. Looks great!

[oscar11]

Received my knot today, I might glue it up this evening. Nice job, looks great.

[PFP_Dad]

Wow, that bloomed great, makes me want to try one.

[hig789]

That turned out great. That doesn't look like horse hair though, I might have to give it a shot too.

[NexlevMM]

Wow trip out on that crazy bloom. Thanks for letting us know about those PC horse knots too.

[buma]

all - thanks for the kind words! Although I really only glued the knot in on this one, as the handle was pre-prepped by hig789 before I bought it, I'm very happy on how this turned out. Glad to have another horsie for the barnyard!

brucered - very glad that these horsehair knots are available. I've heard others buying the inexpensive Turkish brushes and splitting them to get the knots out which I was contemplating, but this is a good option too!

TntsShave - I was skeptical too about how nice horsehair would be too when I first heard of it. I mainly bought it because of the 'cruelty free' aspect, but it is an excellent all-around brush material too IMHO

oscar11 - can't wait to see it! Horsehair brushes seem to be under-appreciated here so anything to get it more exposure is good... um... well, if it makes it harder to get knots, hmm, maybe I better re-think my plan

PFP_Dad - I didn't expect it to do so, actually. I thought it'd splay out more than bloom, but I think its just the density of the knot versus the cheapy Turkish one I'm use to.

hig789 - Yeah, I was kinda expecting it not to be banded and wondered if I got the wrong one too at first. However, the bottom of knot said 'horse' so who am I to argue? That and it feels and performs like a horse, so I just think the looks are deceiving. Regardless, it still smells like wet dog...

NexlevMM - crazy scientist bloom you mean :)

[drocu]

Thanks for your post, buma. I think I'll have to get one of these knots now.

Is PC Woodcraft the only provider of horse hair knots in the US?

[TnutsShave]

It could very well be dyed like they do with the banded boar, you think? I'm skeptical of the tip softness. I've found that I don't like any scritch and have been using two-band badger almost exclusively (with the exception of one silvertip I've got with treated tips) because they are the softest I've come across. When you say no scritchyness...do you really mean it?

[drocu]

It could very well be dyed like they do with the banded boar, you think? I'm skeptical of the tip softness. I've found that I don't like any scritch and have been using two-band badger almost exclusively (with the exception of one silvertip I've got with treated tips) because they are the softest I've come across. When you say no scritchyness...do you really mean it?

I'd like to know as well. I've found that "no scritch" for others is quite different for me.

[chrismikehead]

Looks like "Don King" bloom to me.

Nice job!

[buma]

drocu - as far as I know, yes, but up until a month ago, I didn't know even PC existed... so. I think you might be able to get them from Vie Long too, but not sure exactly.

drocu & TnutsShave -Hey guys, let me define what I mean by 'scritchyness' as I may be misusing the term. To me, its the pin-prick scratchy nature of the brush tips against the face usually found (for me) in boar brushes, black badger knots (medium - mild), and vintage badger brushes (mild until they are broken in).

For the 3 horsehair brushes that I've owned, none of them have exhibited any degree of scritchiness. However, the tips aren't uber soft like silvertips, either. Their tips have this 'different' type of feel that isn't common to either of the other hair types. I do not have the vocabulary for what it feels like exactly, but it feels almost 'artificial' as compared to badger / boars - but artificial in the best possible way. It's hard to describe the face-feel, but whatever the terms are, I really like it so far.

Chrismikehead - Yes, that's a good description, too :)

[brucered]

as a good buddy (penmanship) would say....it's Cattywompus!

can't wait for mine to show up now.

[TnutsShave]

Well buma, that is how I would define "scritchyness", so you've nailed it there. BUT, I've also had silvertips with the "pin-prick" feeling as well. The only band of hair I've tried (and my experience is limited...and NO experience with high-end brushes) that is alway soft is the "finest" grade from The Golden Nib. I think you've convinced me to try one out...with the horse frenzy that's been going on around here lately, I should have no problem unloading it if I don't like it.

Only problem I see now is that there aren't any on the site! Am I missing it?

[buma]

I think they have sold out for the time being. When I bought mine a few weeks ago the counter showed only a few left at that time. Maybe email PC to see when they'll be back in stock?

Or maybe buy one of the Turkish horsehair brushes as the investment would be very minimal (under $10) to try it. Either way, I see a horse in your stable soon!

Good luck

[buma]

Second use of this brush was the other night and I can still report a bit of tinting of the soak water but not as severely as the first soaking and use. There was no tinting of the lather however so hopefully it's run its course.

Second shave in with prorasso this time and mounds of lather were generated easily. Barely any scritchiness was felt and am very happy with it so far!

[cosmicdoom]

have you cleaned it with shampoo?

[buma]

no shampoo for this one - just good ol' VdH and a few uses got all the yellow tinge out of the water and the 'wet dog' funk is almost completely gone too.