Imgur Album of Handle and Process
The finished product
Well I've been working on something of late that came to fruition yesterday afternoon. It started when my Uncle who has been turning blanks into pens, told me about a guy that may be able to make a handle up for me. Tony runs Perfect Pens and Pencils and dabbles in a whole heap of other stuff (seems like all the handle makers turn pens as well). Anyway, I made contact with him and asked if he'd be interested in working on a custom cast blank and handle, which he was.
I ordered a Bob Quinn 26mm Manchurian White Fan (knot height 67mm) and received it via shipito. Notes from Bob were to set it 15mm deep in a 28mm wide hole (didn't know why at that stage). When it arrived, I took it down to Tony and gave him a rough idea of shape and directions from Bob. He hadn't cast a blank in quite a while so had to go and stock up on resin again. He cast 4 blanks (2 in the colours I suggested, and 2 in a copper/orange/black) and turned one. He sent me through photos of the handle with knot placed in (not glued). I asked him to modify the brush shape a little (at about 7pm) and at midnight received some new photos back.
Happy with the results, I went down yesterday and went through the knot setting process. I had done a test lather prior to giving Tony the knot, so knew roughly that it splayed quite a bit and was very soft (hair width/strength and tips). He had drilled it down 15mm @ 28mm wide, and this is where the learning began. The glue bump width on the knot was around 29mm wide, and was preventing the knot from hitting bottom. We had to widen the hole a little to fit the knot, and checked the backbone. Happy with the result at that stage, set it in with a 52-51mm loft. Here's a video of what happened to us yesterday.
Link to youtube video (start time 2:13)
I left it to set for 24 hours and gave it a test run this afternoon. I also took some more photos (see album link at start of thread) of the handle, as I didn't think the others really did it justice. The swirls and patterns in person, are totally set off by the polish finish.
Now to the knot. It's been lathered 3 times (2 palm test lathers and one face lather today). For reference, the only other badgers I've used are a Shavemac 2-band silvertip 25mm @ 50mm loft, and the mens biz starter pack one. I will be comparing to the SM. The tips, whilst not hooked at the moment, are softer than the SM and do have a gel feel (even without the hooks). The SM I can feel individual hairs and get a little scrub, whereas this one has no scrub at all. It really is like being punched in the face by a pillow. The density is also quite impressive, and I would say that it is more dense than the SM (26mm vs. 25mm so you would expect slightly more hair). That density partially offsets the softness of the hairs, which I would say are less thick than the SM, delivering less backbone. I could have set it 2-3mm deeper and still had no worries (wouldn't go more than that, it would eat way too much soap). After face lathering today, I'm a fan of Bob's knots. I feel like it's a bit premature to go into too much depth about performance, so will update over the following couple of weeks as it breaks in.
It was great to learn about resin blanks, different ways they are cast and methods, and actually setting a knot in a handle. Much greater respect now for people like Bernd and Sabini and understand why people trust them.
<<Link to Tony Forsyth's facebook page>> - was an absolute pleasure to deal with. Very invested in delivering quality.
<<Link to Elite Razor - Bob Quinn's page>> - his response and mailout times were very good. The knot is excellent
The finished product
Well I've been working on something of late that came to fruition yesterday afternoon. It started when my Uncle who has been turning blanks into pens, told me about a guy that may be able to make a handle up for me. Tony runs Perfect Pens and Pencils and dabbles in a whole heap of other stuff (seems like all the handle makers turn pens as well). Anyway, I made contact with him and asked if he'd be interested in working on a custom cast blank and handle, which he was.
I ordered a Bob Quinn 26mm Manchurian White Fan (knot height 67mm) and received it via shipito. Notes from Bob were to set it 15mm deep in a 28mm wide hole (didn't know why at that stage). When it arrived, I took it down to Tony and gave him a rough idea of shape and directions from Bob. He hadn't cast a blank in quite a while so had to go and stock up on resin again. He cast 4 blanks (2 in the colours I suggested, and 2 in a copper/orange/black) and turned one. He sent me through photos of the handle with knot placed in (not glued). I asked him to modify the brush shape a little (at about 7pm) and at midnight received some new photos back.
Happy with the results, I went down yesterday and went through the knot setting process. I had done a test lather prior to giving Tony the knot, so knew roughly that it splayed quite a bit and was very soft (hair width/strength and tips). He had drilled it down 15mm @ 28mm wide, and this is where the learning began. The glue bump width on the knot was around 29mm wide, and was preventing the knot from hitting bottom. We had to widen the hole a little to fit the knot, and checked the backbone. Happy with the result at that stage, set it in with a 52-51mm loft. Here's a video of what happened to us yesterday.
Link to youtube video (start time 2:13)
I left it to set for 24 hours and gave it a test run this afternoon. I also took some more photos (see album link at start of thread) of the handle, as I didn't think the others really did it justice. The swirls and patterns in person, are totally set off by the polish finish.
Now to the knot. It's been lathered 3 times (2 palm test lathers and one face lather today). For reference, the only other badgers I've used are a Shavemac 2-band silvertip 25mm @ 50mm loft, and the mens biz starter pack one. I will be comparing to the SM. The tips, whilst not hooked at the moment, are softer than the SM and do have a gel feel (even without the hooks). The SM I can feel individual hairs and get a little scrub, whereas this one has no scrub at all. It really is like being punched in the face by a pillow. The density is also quite impressive, and I would say that it is more dense than the SM (26mm vs. 25mm so you would expect slightly more hair). That density partially offsets the softness of the hairs, which I would say are less thick than the SM, delivering less backbone. I could have set it 2-3mm deeper and still had no worries (wouldn't go more than that, it would eat way too much soap). After face lathering today, I'm a fan of Bob's knots. I feel like it's a bit premature to go into too much depth about performance, so will update over the following couple of weeks as it breaks in.
It was great to learn about resin blanks, different ways they are cast and methods, and actually setting a knot in a handle. Much greater respect now for people like Bernd and Sabini and understand why people trust them.
<<Link to Tony Forsyth's facebook page>> - was an absolute pleasure to deal with. Very invested in delivering quality.
<<Link to Elite Razor - Bob Quinn's page>> - his response and mailout times were very good. The knot is excellent
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