Troy Tools Custom Brush Handles

Huge amount of gold foil flake shoved into a mold of clear resin.
QC fail as that amount of gold foil flake introduced too many air bubbles that wasn't overcome by the pressure pot.
Its a NFS as a QC failure because the surface is pock marked with air bubble cavities, but pretty to look at.
Stopped trying hard on the shape when I realised it was a bust.
Glad I did the experiment, but not likely to repeat, at least not without vacuum chamber treatment before the pressure pot.
Lessons to be learned daily!

FOu5tWk.jpg

8Z6H5K7.jpg
 
Huge amount of gold foil flake shoved into a mold of clear resin.
QC fail as that amount of gold foil flake introduced too many air bubbles that wasn't overcome by the pressure pot.
Its a NFS as a QC failure because the surface is pock marked with air bubble cavities, but pretty to look at.
Stopped trying hard on the shape when I realised it was a bust.
Glad I did the experiment, but not likely to repeat, at least not without vacuum chamber treatment before the pressure pot.
Lessons to be learned daily!

FOu5tWk.jpg

8Z6H5K7.jpg
This one is so pretty I think SWMBO might even buy it and allow me to display in her perfume cabinet

]
 
This one is so pretty I think SWMBO might even buy it and allow me to display in her perfume cabinet
I sometimes wonder about this - a SWMBO could just as easily be a HWMBO, and I don't recall anyone here ever mentioning such an orientation. After all, inclusivity is supposed to be the thing, is it not?

I only bring this up because I lived for a couple of decades in a street in Perth where 50% of the other residents were gay, and I struggle with an assumption that P&C members have none amongst their number. :unsure:
 
Huge amount of gold foil flake shoved into a mold of clear resin.
QC fail as that amount of gold foil flake introduced too many air bubbles that wasn't overcome by the pressure pot.
Its a NFS as a QC failure because the surface is pock marked with air bubble cavities, but pretty to look at.
Stopped trying hard on the shape when I realised it was a bust.
Glad I did the experiment, but not likely to repeat, at least not without vacuum chamber treatment before the pressure pot.
Lessons to be learned daily!

FOu5tWk.jpg

8Z6H5K7.jpg
giphy.gif

giphy-downsized-large.gif
 
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My latest work of art is this Buffalo horn/resin hybrid shaving brush. A huge amount of planning and preparation work went into this piece to achieve this stunningly beautiful result. The outside of the horn is on the inside of the handle and is coated with Red/Gold/Violet chameleon pigment. The inside of the horn faces the outside of the handle and is coated with ghost chameleon pigment in Purple/Grey/Green before the whole thing was submersed in clear resin. Turned and polished on the lathe, and topped off with a 28mm 2 band finest badger bulb knot.
Both these brushes came from this one horn. Too bad it's not solid right through. Who knows what could be made with it then.
Two big handles for two big 28mm knots.
"Go big or go home" they say.

EKuvXSR.jpg

nG64FJN.jpg
VmE8Jnl.jpg
mQhV3VT.jpg

bV96hJg.jpg
 
My latest work of art is this Buffalo horn/resin hybrid shaving brush. A huge amount of planning and preparation work went into this piece to achieve this stunningly beautiful result. The outside of the horn is on the inside of the handle and is coated with Red/Gold/Violet chameleon pigment. The inside of the horn faces the outside of the handle and is coated with ghost chameleon pigment in Purple/Grey/Green before the whole thing was submersed in clear resin. Turned and polished on the lathe, and topped off with a 28mm 2 band finest badger bulb knot.
Both these brushes came from this one horn. Too bad it's not solid right through. Who knows what could be made with it then.
Two big handles for two big 28mm knots.
"Go big or go home" they say.

EKuvXSR.jpg

nG64FJN.jpg
VmE8Jnl.jpg
mQhV3VT.jpg

bV96hJg.jpg
Keep up the awesome work @TroyTools as these look amazing! (y)
 
My latest work of art is this Buffalo horn/resin hybrid shaving brush. A huge amount of planning and preparation work went into this piece to achieve this stunningly beautiful result. The outside of the horn is on the inside of the handle and is coated with Red/Gold/Violet chameleon pigment. The inside of the horn faces the outside of the handle and is coated with ghost chameleon pigment in Purple/Grey/Green before the whole thing was submersed in clear resin. Turned and polished on the lathe, and topped off with a 28mm 2 band finest badger bulb knot.
Both these brushes came from this one horn. Too bad it's not solid right through. Who knows what could be made with it then.
Two big handles for two big 28mm knots.
"Go big or go home" they say.

EKuvXSR.jpg

nG64FJN.jpg
VmE8Jnl.jpg
mQhV3VT.jpg

bV96hJg.jpg

I was going to ask you previously whether the buffalo horn can be stabilised,? I guess the above results more than answer that question for me.

Excellent results, especially the chamelion pigmentation(y);).
 
I was going to ask you previously whether the buffalo horn can be stabilised,? I guess the above results more than answer that question for me.

Excellent results, especially the chamelion pigmentation(y);).
Only part stabilised really, the external surface of the horn as you can see in the cross section of the horn at the orange pigment join has texture that runs a few mm deep into the horn. This is where air and moisture can hide and then spoil the casting when the clear resin is curing at really high tempreature. Any moisture will steam off into the clear resin and spoil it. I "treated" the surface with several coats of UV resin in the vacuum chamber with a UV torch shining in on the resin to try and seal this area before flooding with the clear resin in the mold. The rest of the horn is super dense and didn't need any stabilising, but the exterior horn surface (which is now inside the handle) is all weathered and beaten from a hard life in the sun and the wild, so better to treat it before discovering you should have after you didn't, wasting a good blank in the process).
The results are pretty clear.

T3PhQ4A.jpg
 
Only part stabilised really, the external surface of the horn as you can see in the cross section of the horn at the orange pigment join has texture that runs a few mm deep into the horn. This is where air and moisture can hide and then spoil the casting when the clear resin is curing at really high tempreature. Any moisture will steam off into the clear resin and spoil it. I "treated" the surface with several coats of UV resin in the vacuum chamber with a UV torch shining in on the resin to try and seal this area before flooding with the clear resin in the mold. The rest of the horn is super dense and didn't need any stabilising, but the exterior horn surface (which is now inside the handle) is all weathered and beaten from a hard life in the sun and the wild, so better to treat it before discovering you should have after you didn't, wasting a good blank in the process).
The results are pretty clear.

T3PhQ4A.jpg
Wow, well done. Art and science in tandem, just for a little shaving brush. I'm impressed. (y)
 
Meanwhile, while I wait for medallions for the handles to be delivered, knocked up a full chameleon handle, drilled ready for a medallion, when they arrive.
Approached this one differently than the others. Before carving into shape, this blank was hollowed out with a big drill and backfilled with black resin so there would be a dark base for the chameleon pigment to really pop against. Takes a while waiting for resin to cure twice over, but this thing really pops out in the sun! No transparent washed out orange look about this one now. Drilled to suit a 24mm knot. Had to keep it slim for the 2 resin layers around the knot socket.

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