My first knot replacement project - Rubberset handle

I had this hanging around for a couple of years. I got it at an antique shop for something like CAN$25.00. That's probably overpriced, but I fell immediately in love with the "pillars" on the white part, like a little Greek rotunda.
Plus it's fairly stubby with a narrow waist, both features that I like in a brush handle.



When I measured the base of the knot with calipers, it seemed to be only 18 mm diameter. A bit on the small side for me. It also means fewer choices of knots. I initially had a notion of getting something dramatic, like a Cashmere or a Yaqi Snow Leopard.



Of course the knot had issues. That's the glue bump in there, surrounded by a thin fringe of bristles. This was before I started working on it. 
I knew a bit about knot replacement, but had never done one before, in my six years of shaving-as-a-hobby.



"The courage to do a thing comes from watching six other people do it on Youtube" - from Words and Wisdom of John Rose
Finally I decided to do something about it a few months later, if only to see what was inside.

My steaming setup: A brush in a custard bowl on a wire star in a saucepan on the stove. The glass lid allowed me to check up on it and confirm that there was still some liquid water in there to make steam. This was a year ago this month.



Then out it came. Note the weird "mushroom stem" leaning to one side. It sticks up a few millimetres above the white ledge or rim. I wasn't sure what to do about that when it came to putting in any flat spacers later. I was afraid that an attempt to cut it shorter might cause a crack in the base.
I don't know if the lean was caused by the steaming, or if it was that way already.



After scraping out most of the debris, I measured the hole diameter again. It turned out to be 22.5 to 23 mm (being not perfectly circular), much bigger than I thought originally. Goody.

Much time passes. 

I came to my senses, and decided on getting a natural or at least natural-looking knot for it. But not a boar.
A few weeks ago I found a 22 mm Best Badger knot at Razor Emporium (and got the ball-end repro handle in the same order). I would've kept looking for a synthetic knot on my side of the border, but I wanted the ball-end handle from them anyway, which is why I was at their site in the first place. 
APShaveCo has 22 mm knots in SynBad and Faux Horse, but I find the SynBad to be a bit deficient in backbone, and I didn't want the dark brown colour of the Faux Horse (for this handle, at least).



So now I had no excuse. Since it's my very first re-knotting attempt, I decided that using silicone glue would give me an "undo" option if I screwed something up. 
I solved the problem of the spacers vs mushroom stem interference by having my son 3D-print me some bespoke plastic spacers.
The 5 mm thick ring has a conical inside wall, so as to give inside diameters of 14 and 18 mm.
Oh, hey - it looks like the Colosseum! (More Classical Mediterranean architecture.)
The thin end will go down and avoid the mushroom stem's tip, but then widen to give a bit more gluing surface on the top. I also had him print flat washers, 1 and 2 mm thick. My reasoning to include the hole is so that excess glue is more likely to ooze down through that, rather than creep up into the hairs.



Tah-dah! (Ring spacer glued in place)



My son also lent me his Dremel-like tool so I was able to clean it out much better and round off the edge a bit. 
Followed by buffing with a small felt wheel and some blue buffing compound.

I decided to do the gluing in two stages, because I'm a cautious sort of guy.
The nut and bolt is not glued in, it just provides a bit of gentle pressure. The weight of the knot is enough for the flat (1 mm) washer.
The velcro strap constricts the knot for later insertion, and gives me some place to hold it in the event that my fingers got covered in silicone glue.



After four hours I decided it was solid enough to glue the two spacer faces together.
The depth of the hole (mushroom stem notwithstanding) was about 18.5 mm, and the 5+1 mm spacers plus the glue layer will put it at a depth of about 12 mm. It was still pretty tight and I was worried that the knot might try to expand and pop itself out a bit before the glue cured.

The cap from an Omega Alum stick was just the right size, and rounded enough, that a bit of pressure would not flatten or splay the tips of the hairs too much.
The elastic provides some gentle pressure, and the green tape keeps the elastic in place.



Now it's all ready for some extra-vehicular activity.



But, actually, I took the cap off after about four hours and placed the assembly where it would not get disturbed for another 24 hours.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

Awesome! Very excited to see the finished product! Nice work, John!

Love the quote, too!

Nice and glad the steam method worked without damage. Always a coin toss with a vintage handle. Looking good !

Next day:


After a gentle tug and twist, it seems pretty solid. And straight. The loft ended up at around 51 mm (2 inches).
Gonna use it tonight. 

Now I need a new shave den to go with it.

Nice and glad the steam method worked without damage. Always a coin toss with a vintage handle. ...

Whoa! I glad I didn't hear that before.
It did make the kitchen pretty smelly for a while. 

Next day:


After a gentle tug and twist, it seems pretty solid. And straight.
Gonna use it tonight. 

Now I need a new shave den to go with it.

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Nice and glad the steam method worked without damage. Always a coin toss with a vintage handle. ...

Whoa! I glad I didn't hear that before.
It did make the kitchen pretty smelly for a while. 

I've had some implode but yours looks stunning

Next day:


After a gentle tug and twist, it seems pretty solid. And straight.
Gonna use it tonight. 

Now I need a new shave den to go with it.

Nice and glad the steam method worked without damage. Always a coin toss with a vintage handle. ...

Whoa! I glad I didn't hear that before.
It did make the kitchen pretty smelly for a while. 

Fantastic! Great work there. A brush to be proud of!

Well, I used it for my Shave of the Night.
It exhibited a bit more splay than I expected, but it did a good job of whipping up the lather and then applying it with a paintbrush technique.
I suppose I could have set it deeper than 12 mm, but the hole was already a tight fit, being 23-ish mm diameter for a 22 mm knot.

If I really need more backbone I can always use that extended three-finger grip you see in the old barbering manuals.



(Shut up John, don't complain about the backbone. The brush looks really cool and vintage-y.)

Wonderful documentation and outcome! Thanks for sharing.

Great job and beautiful brush!

That is a super cool project, and an awesome brush!