Resto In-progress now.

I have an old Plymouth "set in plastic nylon bristle" brush that I recently cleaned and prepared for a TWD Silvertip Badger 20/65 knot. I am about to head over to my Bud's place in about an hour to drill the loft height out and was wondering what you gentlemen think a good loft height would be? The height of the handle is 3.25". This will be my first brush and I like the idea of giving new life to old things.

Thanks for your help in advanced. This is all in preparation for my first DE shave.

Any idea on how to remove the "cloud effect" in the blue on the handle? Or shall I leave it? I am partial to either. It looks like Earth, but with no continents...



-Deeeebs

Loft height depends on the density of the knot and diameter of the hole compared to the knot. Less dense splays more. Wider hole allows more splay too.

Looks like you are pretty tight in there, might want to possibly open the hole out a bit...

Most people recommend 45 to 50mm loft. The couple of pages I perused went from 45 up to 55. Average 47-48.

Update...

Well after going to my Bud's it is sitting at about 60.325mm total loft pre bloom, not set in epoxy yet...

Looks good. Nice and shiny. Nice work.

BSAGuy said:

Looks good. Nice and shiny. Nice work.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment. Its my first restoration. I still have not set the knot in the handle yet. Debating on if I should take it down another 3~5mm... Not sure, as I have nothing to compare it against.

60mm loft is WAY too high. It needs to be set to 50mm as the maximum height. Keep sanding!

Drill baby drill.

I'd do 55 tops.

Haggises said:

Drill baby drill.

I'd do 55 tops.

Click to expand...

I would agree... 48 to 55 (YMMV). For me I like a lot of backbone so I would be closer to 50.

Set the knot with silicon instead of epoxy so you can easily remove it and experiment with loft. If you go too deep, you can build the hole back up with coins, which improves the heft feel of the brush anyway.

Personally, I like lots of loft, and you might too. My loftiest brush is set at 69 mm. The more common ones in my den are 55 mm to 58 mm. Embrace the loft and enjoy the full glory of badger instead of cutting it down to try to make it perform more like a boar.

So I took it down some more. Too much... Added a nickel and a penny. She sits right about ~54mm now. I'll see how she blooms after the epoxy sets for a few hours. Thanks for all your suggestions. I am very pleased with this being my first brush. I am now ready for my first DE shave this weekend.

Aw that looks very nice. It might bloom quite a lot, but the proportions with the handle look good.

Really nice setup!

Thanks for the compliments on the setup. Its all I have so far. Need to find me a nice pre-shave oil and maybe some after shave. Here is a post bloom pic. Mmmm that fresh badger smell.

Good job, very cool, I'm liking that NOS Old Spice Soap as well, you'll be off to a nice start....