How to make a Hide Glue brush

[John Coloccia]

Mental note: if you ever visit George, grab a sandwich on the way...

[Sam Takeuchi]

Since I use glue ice cubes, I just put water in the glue pot, and in the middle of it, I have a 2 ounce glass jar where I pop glue ice cubes in. My glue pot is a generic one that's sold everywhere, that black one with aluminum container. I just cover the top with aluminum foil. I used to use glass marbles to line the bottom in order to avoid glass jar contacting the bottom of the glue pot, but it doesn't seem to overheat, so I don't do that anymore. Once I'm done with gluing, I just fill the glass jar with hot water from the glue pot along with the brush, so by the time I take it to the sink, it's easy to wash it off clean. My glue pot and glass jar have no glue residue anywhere

P.S. In my experience, the day after making glue ice cubes is the hardest time to pop glue cubes out of the tray. Maybe because glue is still slowly solidifying from gelled state. If I wait one more day, they pop out much easier. Maybe it's just me.

[John Coloccia]

The glass beads are important for the Rival hot pot. That heating element gets SUPER hot. It boils water in about a minute. The more traditional glue pots I think are just regulated with a PWM of some kind, and never really get that hot, but they take forever to heat up in the morning. I prefer the real glue pot, actually, and I'll be happy to have my little brass pot back!

[Adam Cherubini]

Hi John,

You get a stick, dip it in hide glue, then wrap it with a bundle of hog bristle. You want the hair to lap the stick a good 1" or more. While the glue is still soft, you apply more glue to the outside of the hair (in the area of the stick, then "whip" or over wrap the hair with twine. Once the glue is dry, you can trim the bristle to shape. The business end should be hemispherical.

Adam

glue brushes.jpg

P.S. Since I know people are going to ask, you may be able to find horse hair or other sorts of hair on line that are suitable for this. I have used a variety of different sorts of hair. For a glue brush, long fibers aren't as important as they are for a paint brush. You can often use the hair from a worn out shop dust brush. You may be able to find really cheap "China Bristle" dust brushes from the likes of Harbor Freight and simply up-cycle them.

[John Coloccia]

Thank you, Adam. That's exactly what I needed to know. Do you have a source for information how to wrap the twine? I did a search for "brush whip" and got something completely different than making a glue brush.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Looks similar to what I do on when twining the end of the tape on my bike handlebars . . . plenty of videos online if you look for that. Also look for instructions on whipping rope - same kind of deal. There's a nice PDF on that here: http://www.ropeworks.biz/reader/whipping.pdf

[Adam Cherubini]

That's it Joshua! Thanks a ton. I was wondering how I'd describe that. I use method 2.

That's funny John. I wanted to buy eye glasses for my daughter some years ago and typed in "girls glasses" and promptly lost my respect for humanity.

Adam

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

That's it Joshua! Thanks a ton. I was wondering how I'd describe that. I use method 2.

That's actually pretty much what I use on the end of my bicycle handlebars, too.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

It's not the kind of brush you want, but I found this mesmerizing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHs27N-xmN8

It's part 4 of 5; the first ones are interesting too (especially the tin template for the holes).

[John Coloccia]

I'm actually now discovering that just getting a hold of some bristles is quite a pain in the behind. It doesn't seem like anyone just sells a little tin of bristles retail. Oh well...I'll find them somewhere.

[John Coloccia]

Thanks for that, Joshua. Very helpful and very simple.

[Alex Holden]

You get a stick, dip it in hide glue, then wrap it with a bundle of hog bristle. You want the hair to lap the stick a good 1" or more. While the glue is still soft, you apply more glue to the outside of the hair (in the area of the stick, then "whip" or over wrap the hair with twine. Once the glue is dry, you can trim the bristle to shape. The business end should be hemispherical.

Here's my first attempt (I was trying to make one with quite a small head for musical instrument work):
glue_brush.jpg

Is there a trick to gluing the bristles to the stick neatly without making a complete mess? I dipped the stick in the glue, pushed it into a small bundle of hog bristle... and when I let go, about a dozen bristles stuck randomly to the stick and the rest fell off on the bench. I then applied a bit more glue to the stick, picked up some of the fallen bristles from the bench, and attempted to apply them to the stick. Result: a few more bristles untidily stuck to the stick and a large mat of bristles stuck to my fingers! A few more rounds of this and I managed to end up with an uneven but adequate head of bristles on the brush. The whipping stage went fine, and the end result after trimming looks usable though not very neat and even.

[Alex Holden]

Actually, thinking about it again this morning, I'm guessing the too-obvious-to-mention step that I missed out is, "tie the bundle of bristles together with a piece of thread before you try to glue it to the stick or most of them will fall off."

[Bob Glenn]

I use an acid brush for small glue ups and a one inch cheapo boars hair brush (the throw away kind with a wooden handle and yellowish bristles that you can get at home centers) No need to throw either away, just put it in the water bath in your glue pot to wash it out before the water cools.

[ken hatch]

I make 'em the easy way. Go online to TRWW and order a half dozen....takes a couple or three minutes max. Good brushes to, I expect a pack of 6 will last until I'm planted and pushing up daisies.