New hobby-making up some shave brushes using original simpson uk badger

[jimthecamera]

Was generously recently gifted some 36 or so original uk and Simpson Manchurian badger loose knots

These came from the original owner of simpson who squirrelled away the last remaining stock when they moved in the late 70's to chinese badger

these all seem to be in lengths of 100mmm or longer-whereas the chinese badger used now is apparently only round 60mm in length?

so I went and bought myself a monster lathe

then discovered I needed to spend as much again on chucks etc?

so not a cheap hobby to get in to

Here are my first attempts :-

the 2x Zebrano -or zebra wood -
both in 35mm diameter knot sizes-were made this morning as was the extremely dense African mahogany handle in only 28mm diameter
I finished them with sanding sealer followed by 3 coats off friction polish
and then added a coat of Carnauba wax

I earlier made up 2x 35mm diameter from cocobolo wood and soaked them with 5 coats off pure tung oil but took around 4 weeks to dry?



if any one on this forum with much more experience than I please get in touch

as I have a lot still to learn?

thanks for looking

 

[TobyC]

Gorgeous!

If the pure tung oil is raw it will take years to dry, if it's processed it will be useable in a month but won't fully cure till about three months or so.

 

[jimthecamera]

first 2 coats dried in 2-3 days later coats took up to or over a week to dry in-gives a nice matte sheen and totally waterproof-i used pure tung oil

 

[Teiste]

Sir, you have a holy grail there. That type of badger hair—real Meles meles—is amazing.
I haven't been able to try a brush with Meles meles from a UK maker, only from Plisson (circa late 1970s) and Vie-Long (a special edition for my old shaving forum).
Whatever handles you decide to use for them, you’re in for a real treat. And if you ever decide to sell one, I will gladly take it!
Thank you for sharing this piece of history.

 

[jimthecamera]

these knots all date from the late 1970's
some are almost 110mm in length?

I have so far only made up around 6 knots

as took ages to find how to tie and shape them
I even had to devise then make up a block to set the fan shape
and even also 2 blocks to set the resin that I then neb=ver used`?
I nused thin superglue with 5 coats off glue rather than resin !
as was told it has more hold than any resin when cured
so far so good

 

[gile]

Great stuff and I'm glad you used wood for the handles. For finishing wood handles I'm using Osmo polyx hard wax oil in 3-4 coats. Every layer cures in about 5-6 hours. I have never worked with tung oil but with Osmo I same the handle with 240 before applying first coat and then sand with 320 and 400 for the next coats. Last step is usually 600 grit scotch brite.

 

[jimthecamera]

Thanks for the advice and much appreciated

I use 240 400 600 then for final coat use 1000 grits

like that new open mesh sandpaper ?

will need to check out your Osmo polyx hard wax -not one I have heard of before

Been-very much a learning curve?

especially in how to tie and set knots?
as seems to be nothing at all on your tube and or google?

like my choice of lathe-thought it might prove to be too large for small shave brush handles

started off with a small pen lathe which was far too small then a record power with v belts

so decided to splash out on a variable speed machine?
and have no regrets
other than i spent as much again to add chucks etc to mine?

been an expensive business as also added 4x vicmarc chucks a 150mm a 120mm and a pair of 100mm ones as hate changing jaws-me!
along with 3 more by nova their supernova 2 model
all in direct thread 33m 3.5 pitch fitments
as all can be used in reverse for sanding etc locked in place by a collar

 

[jimthecamera]

just spent 20 minutes in adding a beaded base-to each of the 3 brush handles I made yesterday
a great time saver indeed having chucks to hand one to machine the wood with and others to grab the insides of the various internal hole sizes!

today everything lined up perfectly so had set aside 1 1/2 hours
and was finished within 1/2 an hour


most of the time was adding sanding sealer -then sanding
3 coats of friction polish final sand with 1000 grit
then 2 coats each of pure carnauba wax!
a nice very glossy finish on these models?

 

[gile]

Lathe cames up the cheapest of the equipment. I paid mine 350 euros but with all the chucks, drills etc. it come up to 1000 easily.

One tip for sanding, once you finish the sanding with lathe on, turn it off and manually sand with the grain. That way you're going to remove sanding marks.

 

[jimthecamera]

I managed to secure an Australian made Vicmarc lathe?
new these run at around £7-£8 k depending on what is supplied
mine came with the rather expensive bowl outboard turning attachment-

I paid £1900 then another £350 to have it delivered

chucks ranged from £350 to around £250 each and I must have around 10 of them already?

I also picked up some 200+ uk made chisels from 2 locals who had given up wood turning so only paid around £1 each for most of mine?

also picked up a lovely tormek wet grinder so upgraded mine and fitted a 600grit diamond wheel new water tank and new buffing wheels-etc to the
latest spec-then I picked up a 3 phase double ended pedestal grinder locally

so I stole- one of my vfd converters from my 2x metal lathes
and after a lot of faffing about managed to get it to run as the wiring was German and did not match any uk drawings that I could find?

so now have 3x diamond wheels for the pedestal grinder
even managed to make up an interchangeable live centre with screw on ends so made 2 large solid rubber heads and a solid nylon head for it very handy in use
I had spare er 40 collet sets left over in both imperial and also metric

so made up a screw in locking bar so can now hold very delicate or thin pieces of woods

since found that I have an elderly water cooled grinding machine stashed away in a spare garage-
so next project is to convert it also to run on single phase so I can then make up some very fine tipped tools for a sorby engraving unit that I bought and then had a part made for it that was missing?
always something to engage our spare time?

 

[Teiste]

Have you tried any of the brushes yet? How does the hair compare to the other badger brushes you own or have tried?

 

[DesertIguana]

Nice work.

 

[jimthecamera]

yes the older uk knots are superior to the chinese variants now used-pillow soft after 2-3 shaves
initial shedding as anticipated but soon settles down after a couple of shaves
so the trick of using very thin superglue rather than resin to set them seems to work pretty well-

 

[jimthecamera]

Nice work.

thank you
a lot of trial and error in getting the knots set properly
with no information at all on google or YouTube?

 

[jimthecamera]

Lathe cames up the cheapest of the equipment. I paid mine 350 euros but with all the chucks, drills etc. it come up to 1000 easily.

One tip for sanding, once you finish the sanding with lathe on, turn it off and manually sand with the grain. That way you're going to remove sanding marks.

I also run mine in reverse and using 1000 grit for final sand as my chucks all screw on and can then be locked in place on the safety collar

and yes I always go over them lengthways just before final sand
been a bit of a learning curve for sure
but now feel I am getting somehere
and great to re-learn how to properly use my favourite skew chisels for most of my turning work!
as a bonus
think I will have a go at making up some acrylic handles for my next project
as want to clone a few of the simpson butter churn style handles and maybe a chubby 3 or similar
was also gifted a brand new and real ivory original simpson brush whilst my son was gifted an ivory butter churn style ivory model?
Jim