Final mock-up of homemade brush

Here's the final design for my 28mm GoldenNib Silver Tip:




This is English walnut with an oil finish.

The actual one will be made tomorrow (hopefully!) so I'll put some pics up over the weekend

Chris

Awfully Pretty.

I'm assuming you turned it on a lathe, my question is (as a complete newb to woodworking) do you drill the knot socket before or after turning?

Also, I've read that Superglue is one of the most popular waterproof finishes for wood. Is that what you plan to use?

Spatterdash said:

Awfully Pretty.

I'm assuming you turned it on a lathe, my question is (as a complete newb to woodworking) do you drill the knot socket before or after turning?

Also, I've read that Superglue is one of the most popular waterproof finishes for wood. Is that what you plan to use?

Click to expand...

Well this is a long story, but I'll try to make it simple!

It's my father's lathe and he's got all sorts of chucks and bits, but we've found the easiest way is by turning an extra 2" of wood at the base of the brush, then mounting this in a chuck made for holding a dowel, then using a drill chuck on the other end of the lathe - I'll try to take a couple of photos over the weekend.

Needless to say I'm sure there's an easier way to do this, but it's worked for us and it uses the parts we've got available!

The final finish will be superglue - this was a test on some walnut I just recieved.

Chris

Nice Job.

Very handsome. Visually the English Walnut exudes warmth and masculinity.
Do the pics, please and very nicely executed!

It looks great. Is it difficult making handles?

Beautiful work!

BTW - that is the exact same process I use for making a handle. A drill chuck in the tail stock and a forstner bit is the easiest way I've found to drill the hole.

mretzloff said:

It looks great. Is it difficult making handles?

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Not once you have the right parts for the lathe! In reality it's not too difficult if you know how to work wood anyway, and have an eye for carving/shaping.

ssilcox said:

Beautiful work!

BTW - that is the exact same process I use for making a handle. A drill chuck in the tail stock and a forstner bit is the easiest way I've found to drill the hole.

Click to expand...

Thank you!

We did experiment a bit with drilling or hand-turning the hole, but the drill was a million times faster

I got this small 3 jaw chuck from this site.
Fits a standard 1x8tpi spindle with and adapter for a 3/4x16tpi spindle.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/LCM18X.html
Best $60 I've spent on my lathe, they also have some nice reasonably priced turning tool.
I've reground some of my older tools for bead turning.

That is handsome. My grandfather was a wood turner and I am woodworking challenged. Became a printer so I could at least work with a wood derivative.

That is a NICE brush handle.

Your going to love the knot from golden nib as well. i have purchased several and they are excellent. Not the whitest silvertip out there. But give it a few weeks and you will be surprised....really surprised. I currently us a 24mm knot from the nib and it is really soft, dense and works great with both soaps and creams. A superb value, especially if you have the tools and skills to make your own handle.

Nicely done!

The father-in-law has an unused high quality lathe, and I've been thinkin...

What sort of woods are most recommended for water exposed handles?

What sort of woods are most recommended for water exposed handles?

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Well I suppose if you finish it properly it shouldn't matter too much, but an oily hardwood would be best. I'm limited to what I can get - this walnut was actually obtained from the carpenter who is doing some work for my father - he uses this to build exterior window frames so I'm assuming it should be sufficient!

lax1mxr said:

Your going to love the knot from golden nib as well. i have purchased several and they are excellent. Not the whitest silvertip out there. But give it a few weeks and you will be surprised....really surprised. I currently us a 24mm knot from the nib and it is really soft, dense and works great with both soaps and creams. A superb value, especially if you have the tools and skills to make your own handle.

Nicely done!

Click to expand...

How deep is your knot set? I'm thinking of setting mine up to the start of the dark band, as a 28mm knot would be ridiculous with a huge loft!

Neo, beautiful, beautiful handle. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Here it is!

The knot isn't actually glued in yet and the photo is crappy, but here's the final product:



I ended up going for Burma teak instead of the walnut - it was so oily I barely needed to put a finish on it!

I'll take a couple of better pics once the glue has dried

P.S. This thing is a beast of a brush, here it is next to my current Woods of Windsor boar:

Really nice!!

Apologies for the lack of photos during the process, but time was limited and I wasn't too sure about using the wife's expensive digital camera in the woodworking shed...!

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