Custom Aluminum Brush Handle

Shaving brushes are probably my favorite part of the traditional wet shaving experience, so I figured that I'd give it a go at making one! A little bit of background: I work as mechanical engineer and enjoy tinkering around with designs in CAD software, so I find it fun to design something on the computer and then see it come to life. My coworker has the lathe and some scrap metal; we we'll see what we can come up with!

I intend to update this thread with pictures as things progress. Without further ado, here are some specifics:

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Badger Knots: Whipped Dog 24mm Silvertip & 24mm High Mountain
One of these will be for myself, the other will be for my coworker who is helping me out (and designing his own handle). I don't believe that he has ever used a shaving brush, so I'll give him a few creams to test the waters with. Maybe he'll catch the wet shaving bug like I did...

Handle Material: Aluminum
Steel is right out, for obvious reasons (oxidation/rust). Aluminum is cheap and easy to machine, so for this first round I'll stick with aluminum. If it turns out well and I decide to make more, maybe I'll look into titanium or some other material.

Designs:
I've modeled up two different designs. Design 2 is the end-goal; Design 1 is simpler and more for experimentation, to figure out the kinks on the lathe and maybe test out some surface finishes. The "virtual" knot is approximately to scale, as I measured dimensions from the WD Silvertip.

Design 1 - 1.75" x 1.25" dia with a few chamfers and decorative lines. The hole will be 15-20mm deep, to allow for setting the knot at different depths with use of spacers.

Design 2 - 2.00" x 1.38" dia. The hole is 18mm deep to allow for different lofts; if it's any deeper the material starts to get too thin near the 2nd chamfer from the top, but 18mm should be more than enough depth. I might have went overboard with the decorative lines, we'll see how they pan out. I figured that in the thinner section, they'll add a little bit of texture for gripping. I left the top section largely blank, outlined by 2 decorative lines - that would be a nice area to engrave my initials into the handle, if I can figure out how to do that without it looking terrible.

Stay tuned for updates!

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Custom Aluminum Brush Handle