An Experiment In Braiding

[8thsinner]

I have in the last few months taken up straight razor shaving finally, after many years of trying to get into it.

And I had a thought the other day, what happens if you cross stampede strings with tassels with badger hair...

I have no idea whether it would work but I need help to find out.

So, how would I go about putting the hairs from an old shaving brush into the end of a braid?

One thought I had was to glue the hairs into something about the right size...like twice the four strand braid I intend to use and then joining that up with a knot of some sort over it, It would be pretty small this way but probably not very tight either. So I don't know hoe to go about it.

Any ideas? I mean how is it normally done with horse hair?

[Aggiebraider]

What I would do is get the hair twice as long as you want the tassles to be. Then when you put a pineapple knot on the end of the string, do your spanish ring knot, then take the ends of your strings and loop them back through to secure it, but before tightening them down, run the hair through them. Id split it up and do a little hair at each string. Then once you tighten up your pineapple knot it will help keep the hair tight.

Hopefully that makes sense.

CW

[8thsinner]

I had to read it twice but I think I know what you mean, I am not sure badger can handle that sort of stress But I can find out.

Thanks Aggie, great idea as always.

[Aggiebraider]

Yeah I have no idea what badger hair is like but I assume pretty coarse. I would think it could still take folding it in half since horse tail hair can be pretty coarse as well, but I dont know.

Just trying to contribute to the collective knowledge lol.

CW

[8thsinner]

No, badger is actually really really soft, that's why it's used for brushes, by the time you get to a second or third pass with the straight razor all the old dead skin cells have been completely removed, a not so soft brush irritates like crazy.

I am not even going to be testing it with badger though, I have an old synthetic brush just, once my badger brush arrives I will be using it to shave with. A real test is going to have to wait but the synthetic might do it for now.

[megabit]

So have you been over to http://straightrazorplace.com/? I have been using a straight for about 3 years now. I don't see me ever going back.

Now on to your question. You could buy a badger knot for making a brush. I think they glue the hair together so maybe you could cut it into smaller knots and use that for your tassel.

You can get knots here: http://www.thegoldennib.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_9

Mike

[8thsinner]

Thanks for sharing that link by the way, I had looked for bristles sellers on google but found nothing helpful.

If I ever get around to this I will keep you all posted.

[Aussie Bob]

What I would do is get the hair twice as long as you want the tassles to be. Then when you put a pineapple knot on the end of the string, do your spanish ring knot, then take the ends of your strings and loop them back through to secure it, but before tightening them down, run the hair through them. Id split it up and do a little hair at each string. Then once you tighten up your pineapple knot it will help keep the hair tight.

Hopefully that makes sense.

CW

G'day from Bob,

I was wondering if you could just expand a little further for me the part about ( Id split it up and do a little hair at each string.) ...I'm fairly new to this and I have been wondering how to do this successfully for some time( the Horse Hair attaching I mean) and I feel that I'm nearly there , just need a little push over the line so to speak.

Cheers

Bob

Edited January 14, 2011 by Aussie Bob