This was my first attempt to restore a vintage brush. I would like to say that everything went smoothly, but that wouldn't be accurate. After perusing a number of restoration threads, I cut down the knot and removed most of the bristles using a drill bit in my variable speed drill to loosen them up and then pulled them out with a needle-nose pliers. So far, so good. I still had some stray bristles around the outside of the hole that I couldn't get the pliers on, and the epoxy in the bottom of the hole was as hard as rock. I was reluctant to get too aggressive with my drill for fear of damaging the handle and I didn't have a Dremel tool (I do now), so I tried using hot water to soften the epoxy, as I had seen suggested in several threads. That didn't go well. I over-filled the hole and some water seeped under the masking tape that I had wrapped around the handle. The water had no affect on the epoxy, but it did a number on the butterscotch patina around the ferrule. It looked like a cardboard box after it gets wet and is left with ugly water stains.
I was heart-broken. My wife found me my first vintage brush, butterscotch, no less, and I felt that I had ruined it. After a few days of mourning and self-loathing, I decided that the only thing to do was to remove the remainder of the butterscotch patina on the ferrule to give a more uniform appearance. So I used wet-dry sandpaper to do just that, starting with 400 grit, then 1000, then 2000. The light butterscotch color that was revealed is quite attractive, and I was tempted to just sand down the whole handle. Cooler heads (my wife's) prevailed, however, and I retained as much of the original patina as I could.
I opened the hole up to 21.5 mm and ordered a 20 mm TGN Finest knot. The actual measurements of the knot were 19 mm by 64 mm, so I left the hole at 15 mm to give a loft of 49 mm, matching the height of the handle. The knot barely fit at that depth, but it did. I'm actually pretty pleased with how this brush turned out considering my blunder. The knot has great backbone but is plenty soft at the tips, and makes plenty of lather. My only issue is the the brush doesn't seem to want to give up the lather very easily.
Before and after pictures follow. I didn't take any immediately after the hot water incident as I was too upset.
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I was heart-broken. My wife found me my first vintage brush, butterscotch, no less, and I felt that I had ruined it. After a few days of mourning and self-loathing, I decided that the only thing to do was to remove the remainder of the butterscotch patina on the ferrule to give a more uniform appearance. So I used wet-dry sandpaper to do just that, starting with 400 grit, then 1000, then 2000. The light butterscotch color that was revealed is quite attractive, and I was tempted to just sand down the whole handle. Cooler heads (my wife's) prevailed, however, and I retained as much of the original patina as I could.
I opened the hole up to 21.5 mm and ordered a 20 mm TGN Finest knot. The actual measurements of the knot were 19 mm by 64 mm, so I left the hole at 15 mm to give a loft of 49 mm, matching the height of the handle. The knot barely fit at that depth, but it did. I'm actually pretty pleased with how this brush turned out considering my blunder. The knot has great backbone but is plenty soft at the tips, and makes plenty of lather. My only issue is the the brush doesn't seem to want to give up the lather very easily.
Before and after pictures follow. I didn't take any immediately after the hot water incident as I was too upset.
004.jpg002.jpg007.jpg008.jpg
Kent VF5 Restoration
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