Author Topic: Picks and brushes  (Read 6641 times)

Offline Dennis Glazener

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Picks and brushes
« on: July 18, 2008, 11:00:52 PM »
Davec2
Very nice work on the picks and brushes. I have a lathe and have been intending on making a few brushes/picks for my flint rifles. I have some small paint brushes with boar's hair in them and thought I would use those for the bristles. How do you manage to get them tightly into the hole in the handle? I assume a touch of glue in the bottom of the hole will hold them tightly in place.

I have never made any of these and thought I would get help from an experienced person so I don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Thanks
Dennis
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Offline davec2

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2008, 01:45:39 AM »
Dennis,

The replaceable brush I showed in the last series of posts is a commercially made item available from Gesswein - it is a "bristle end brush".  They come in various sizes and are horse hair mounted in a brass ferrule.  I thread the end of the shank to make them easy to replace.  As a consequence, I don't have to do any bundling or gluing.  However, I have made several other brush types that did require making up a custom brush.  If using horse hair, or something similar, the easiest way I am aware of is to bundle a sufficient number of strands and then seize the bundle (with thread, dental floss, or artificial sinew) at intervals determined by how long you want the brush part plus the length of the seized part that will end up in the handle.  I cut the individual brushes free with cable cutters (the blades surround the hair bundle and cut cleanly) just behind the seizing (leave a 1/16 inch so the seizing doesn't roll off the end) and put a drop of glue on the end of the seizing and the bristles.  The individual brushes can then be crimped or glued into whatever handle you come up with.  In like manner, I have made a few brushes where the seizing covered about 2 inches of the bundle.  One end I cut about a 1/16 inch from the seizing.  The other is cut about 3/4 inch away.  I then covered the seized area with a braid of very fine leather thongs.  The whole brush is leather and hair - no solid handle, but the leather braid cover makes the handle part very stiff....cute variation on the theme.

Dave C
"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company."
Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1780

Offline davec2

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2008, 03:55:47 AM »
Dennis,

I found a photo of a couple of the brushes (with a leather flint wallet) that are nothing but horse hair, sinew, and leather.  Not fancy, but quite usable and very easy to make - especially the looped one.  Just cut a hank of horse tail hair about 6 inches long.  Seize the middle 4 inches or so with sinew, double it over and sieze arround the two ends joining them together.


« Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 09:05:08 PM by davec2 »
"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company."
Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1780

Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2008, 02:08:01 AM »
Thanks Dave, will have to give it a try.
Thanks
Dennis
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend" - Thomas Jefferson

Offline t.caster

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2008, 05:20:28 PM »
Lot of neat & fancy ideas here, thanks for sharing! Thought I'd jump in & show what I've been using. It came with my shooting bag when I got it almost 25 yrs. ago. OMG, I must be getting old! Both were made by Don Rose in Michigan, traded a schrimmed map horn I made for them.



The extra horns are ones I won recently at shoots :o Sorry, just had to show off! The fish swallowing another fish, horn was first place at the Fish Creek Rendesvous...appropriately!
« Last Edit: July 23, 2008, 06:48:51 PM by t.caster »
Tom C.

Offline Ken G

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2008, 05:50:14 PM »
I love the brush / pick idea.  Now I have a new project.  Thanks for posting.
Ken
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Rickd

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2008, 11:34:27 PM »
Do you ever offer any for sale??

Mike Norin

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Re: Picks and brushes
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2008, 02:04:58 AM »
I use deer antler and horse hair to make a brush . I drill the antler with a 1/4 inch drill however long that I want to the doubled over horse hair to go into the antler , and then I drill a 1/16 hole from the top of the antler down to the larger hole , then use real stout fishing line and tie the doubled over horse hair and thread it through the large and smaller hole and put a good hard fast drying glue in the hole and pull it through and cut off the horse hair to the length you want it to be . Then I make a eye out of a peice of wire , just heat it and pound it square on the end and twist it when it is hot and it will kind of make screw then put a little glue in the 1/16 hole and screw it in and you can file or carve the antler to make any design you want . I make the pick out of wire too bend a loop in one end and heat it red hot then put in cold water it gets hard enough to use for a pic . Then put them on a chain .