I forgot to take a true before picture. By the time I realized this I was well into the process. Here's an outline of how I went about it.
1. Cut existing hair as close to handle opening as possible with scissors.
2. Once hair is cut, use a drill bit and drill three small holes into the center of the knot.
3. Widen the three holes to make a single large hole in knot. From here you'll be left with a ring of the original glue and remaining hairs.
4. Use a pocket knife to scrape ring out as close to the wall of the handle as possible.
5. Use a high grit sandpaper to sand down remaining glue down to the handle plastic/resin.
6. Continue to sand until handle opening is large enough for knot. You can use the following as a point of reference on how large to widen/sand opening.
- Dime = 16mm
- Penny = 18mm
- Nickel = 22mm
- Quarter = 24mm
7. Once you have a sanded down opening to desired diameter you can begin to clean the handle itself. I first cleaned it to the best of my ability with just some soap, rag, and water.
8. I then used some Flitz polish. I applied the polish to a dry rag and began working the polish into the handle until I was satisfied with the appearance of the handle.
9. For my restore I chose to go with a boar knot. Rather than purchasing a boar knot by itself I opted to purchase a Semogue wooden handle brush. In this case the 1460 for about $12. The reason for this is that Semogue places their knots into a metal ring which is then glued to the handles. This allows for an easy extraction of the knot.
10. Using a chisel I split the wooden handle until the knot came free.
11. Mix two part epoxy, this can be any two part from my understanding. I used Gorilla Glue's Two Part Epoxy.
12. Once mixed apply a thin layer of epoxy to the metal ring of the knot and the inside of the handle.
13. Push knot into handle. Also due to the Semogue metal ring I didn't have to worry about the loft height as its already set. Push down until ring lip is flush with the handle.
14. Excess epoxy will begin to come out from the handle. Use a Q-Tip to create a seal and clean up any extra epoxy.
15. Let sit for 24 hours.
16. Your brush is now restored and ready for use!
17. Pat self on back and post to Damn Fine Shave.
