When Restores Go South

I was pretty stoked about my latest batch of handles to restore -- all styles not commonly seen and all made of Bakelite.

L-R: Made Rite, Erskine, No Name.



Disaster #1 occurred when attempting to drill out the rock-hard knot on "No Name" and my Forstner bit bounced and took out the edge of the opening.



Disaster #2 occurred when I dropped the Made Rite while sanding out the inside. It developed some interior cracks when I drilled out the knot, and the floor finished the job.



The Erskine survived, but it came with two undisclosed dents that look like cigarette burns in the upper portion.



Not a good day of restoring, and enough headaches to make me want to stop for a long while -- if I ever do any more.

Sorry to hear about your first two mishaps. I drilled through the side of my first brush restore attempt, luckily I was only out $6 so it was an inexpensive lesson. On your Erskine you could probably wet-sand out those stains and polish into a flawless beauty if you so desire.

Oh man that sucks. Not to pour salt on the wound but that Made Rite was beautiful. Were you using Forstner bits on it also? I like the good old regular drill bits and a dremel.

Don't give up on the first one. I had nearly finished work on this eveready handle when I dropped it, chipping the lip. I carefully squared it off, and I actually thing it looks better that way.

I used to do restores all the time and then I had a series of 3 utter failures as a result of bad drilling on my part. I got lazy I guess. The rising cost of vintage brushes in need of restore and the fact that no one really needed me to do any for them finally put to bed my restore days. I never had any mishaps with any brushes I was asked to work on for others but The 3 I ruined for myself were pretty devastating. I am sort of trying to get back into it now but I haven't got on the horse yet.

It happens to all of us at one time or another when dealing with aging items that cannot take the stress or we make a mistake in dropping, drilling, etc.

My rule of thumb is if you mess up on one, stop and don't do another one until a day or two later when you are not trying to overcompensate for the prior issue.

Good fortune to you.

hig789 said:

Were you using Forstner bits on it also? I like the good old regular drill bits and a dremel.

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I always start with a spade bit and then switch to a Forstner once I get down inside the edge of the opening. I use a Forstner bit slightly smaller than the opening and then use a Dremel to clean it up. The handle just couldn't handle all the vibration from the drilling.

It really was going to be a nice brush. I thought it was Lucite when I bought it, but it did turn out to be Bakelite.

The "Made Right" is the only total loss. I would sand the top of the "No Name" until flat like "Legion" did with his 2100Z. Also, as "brzlfn" suggested, sand out the stains on the Erskine and polish that beauty up. Josey Whales said "...if you give up, you neither win nor live". Everyone has a bad day. Be sure to re-post pics when they are done.

Ronnie

Legion said:

Don't give up on the first one. I had nearly finished work on this eveready handle when I dropped it, chipping the lip. I carefully squared it off, and I actually thing it looks better that way.

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+1. I actually had a problem like this with a brush. It was one of the 100s.... I wound up just making the whole wider so now it has a bigger knot.

Legion said:

Don't give up on the first one. I had nearly finished work on this eveready handle when I dropped it, chipping the lip. I carefully squared it off, and I actually thing it looks better that way.

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I'm certainly not against this idea and may take a stab at it, but my inability to drill out the old knot still exists. This is the hardest knot I have ever encountered.

ras120 said:

I'm certainly not against this idea and may take a stab at it, but my inability to drill out the old knot still exists. This is the hardest knot I have ever encountered.

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You may have hit a pocket of glue/epoxy mixed with plaster. I have encounter that on a couple of the older brushes and the stuff is like concrete. Very hard to remove.

ras120 said:

I always start with a spade bit and then switch to a Forstner once I get down inside the edge of the opening. I use a Forstner bit slightly smaller than the opening and then use a Dremel to clean it up. The handle just couldn't handle all the vibration from the drilling.

It really was going to be a nice brush. I thought it was Lucite when I bought it, but it did turn out to be Bakelite.

Click to expand...

I guess that's why I have never ventured out and used Forstner bits or any thing besides my cordless drill and dremel. Those other bits seen like they would be pretty violent when they went into the knot. And like GD said with the frailty of some of the old materials I guess I assumed it would put unneeded stress on the handle.

But that Erskine can still be made to look like new, sand down those marks and polish it up and it will look like a rand new brush.