Making Custom Brush (Sort of) and want to know what to get the hole depth drilled at

Hey! My first post here!
So I am somewhat new at DE shaving, been going at it for about 6 months and enjoy it a lot more then the regular cartridge (not to mention I get a better shave too!)
I currently have a Tweezerman Cheepo Brush and a Parker 22R and thought that for my birthday I should get myself a nice gift. I know the two upgrades I want to make in the next two years (most likely self-presents) are a silver-tip brush and a stainless steel razor (probably an iKon or something else I find next year). I figured that since my brush isn't too great, I should get a new one, but wanted something special.

After looking around I saw that the Goldennib had some nice brushes (24mm Super Silvertip), and that handicraft-vn had some nice horn handles (Black Horn Handle). I was looking at a bunch and the black marble horn really stood out to me. I asked the price and found out that it would be $100 (their prices are very wrong on the site, you have to email them to see what they actually have in stock). The handle I finally settled for was the plain black horn which would be $50 with shipping. So it wasn't what I actually wanted, but I can sort of justify $90 for a custom brush like this as opposed to $140.

Now my one issue is I have absolutly no clue how deep to get the horn vendor to drill the horn, I know it should be a 24mm diameter, and the goldennub said the height of the plug is about 8mm, should I get the vendor to drill 8mm or a bit more just in case?

Thanks for the help!

Edit: Whoops! Thought I posted this on the brush making sub forum!

Most brush handles I have had come with 10~20mm deep knot beds. I personally like a very deep knot bed so I can play with lofts to find the loft that works best for me. If your getting a Super Silvertip, expect to set it very deep as its not all that densely packed and it does not have the most backbone. Its very soft, and I have, use, and like mine, but its loft is set very low. My 24mm Super Silvertip wound up working best at a 50mm loft for face lathering. You might set it higher to bowl lather, but I'd still get a deeper knot bed to play with.

I use shaving soap (Trying to find a nice Canadian source for TOBs right now) and bowl lather, from what I've read around a bit 52-54mm loft would be best for bowl lathering.
and idea of the 24mm x 67mm dimensions for the brush includes the 8mm plug?

If so, I think getting the handle drilled to 15mm would be best. When I do attach them together, it will most likely be permanent. Won't have time to experiment with me moving around so much (and the fact I've been growing a beard for the past while, so all I've been shaving is my neck)

+1 ~53mm sounds like the best place to start if you bowl lather. Your going to have a nice brush

Loric said:

+1 ~53mm sounds like the best place to start if you bowl lather. Your going to have a nice brush

Click to expand...

Oh I'm super excited! Not getting the exact handle I want, but regular black horn still sounds great. Hoping for this to be a lifetime brush now!
Any recommendations on a good 2-part epoxy?

I rarely use Epoxy, but my bottle of Elmer's 2 part has worked every time.

salim.nanji said:

Oh I'm super excited! Not getting the exact handle I want, but regular black horn still sounds great. Hoping for this to be a lifetime brush now!
Any recommendations on a good 2-part epoxy?

Click to expand...

Yes. I'd recommend using Devcon 2-part epoxy. I've used the version that sets in 5 mins and it works perfectly.

I'm using a badger brush with 50 loft to bowl lather. Not sure I would want it any more floppy than it is now. YMMV.

Got everything in and put it all together! I didn't have any epoxy and neither did anyone else I knew, so I just ended up using crazy glue. It's a really snug fit so I doubt it will fall apart. Although if it does, I'll go buy some marine epoxy to put it back together. No sense in wasting $10 for a 1 use thing unless I really need to.

Brush looks really good, the horn feels nice, hoping the brush breaks in nicely! Excited to use it tomorrow for the first time!

Looks like a keeper. Good luck with it.

salim.nanji said:

Got everything in and put it all together! I didn't have any epoxy and neither did anyone else I knew, so I just ended up using crazy glue. It's a really snug fit so I doubt it will fall apart. Although if it does, I'll go buy some marine epoxy to put it back together. No sense in wasting $10 for a 1 use thing unless I really need to.

Brush looks really good, the horn feels nice, hoping the brush breaks in nicely! Excited to use it tomorrow for the first time!

View attachment 295354
View attachment 295355

Click to expand...

Looks good! be sure to take some photos of post bloom

Flashisfast said:

Looks good! be sure to take some photos of post bloom

Click to expand...

I will soon!

I think I need to practice a bit more with it, couldnt get a good lather with proraso when I tried it yesterday. I'm going to blame it on me not being familiar with this brush, it is much floppier then my older one so my technique probably has to be different.

Here we go! Finally got around to taking photos post bloom:





On another note, the handle looks amazing now! The horn pattern is showing a lot more clearly now. When I first got the handle, it looked solid black so I was a bit disappointed as I wanted the grains to show. Although this brush is still too floppy for me, I may end up selling it soon.