John Kartchner: Two-piece Basting Brush

This project consisted of turning the handle for a basting brush suitable for receiving a 3/4 inch diameter basting-brush tuft available from Craft Supplies USA.

The project was done in two parts: the handle itself and the tip that would be joined to the handle and would receive the tuft. Doing the project in two parts has the advantage of allowing the use of different woods for each part. It also allows a longer handle than might otherwise be possible on a mini-lathe.

The wood chosen for the tip should be dense and hard since it will be bored with holes in each end, one to receive the tenon joint with the handle, and one to receive the tuft. John has had good success with ebony, African black wood, and lignum vitae. The wood for the handle proper should be straight grained and strong since it will be turned to a fairly long and narrow taper. John has used persimmon and maple among others. In this demonstration John chose lignum vitae for the tip and Goncalo Alves for the handle. Wednesday night these two woods were close to the same color, but with time the lignum will darken to provide a nice contrast.

John first turned the tip. The finished length of this piece should be about 2-1/4 or 2-1/2 inches and the diameter large enough to allow sufficient wall strength outside the 3/4-inch boring for the bristle (about 1 inch). The design shape is entirely optional to suit the turner. Although the holes in each end of the tip could be bored on the lathe, John chose to pre-bore them with a drill press using forstner bits and a pen centering vise. (The bristle tuft hole should always be bored with a forstner bit which provides a flat bottom and gives the bristle tuft better glue purchase.)

The 3/8-inch diameter mortise to receive the handle tenon was bored to a depth of 3/4 inch. The 3/4-inch diameter hole to receive the tuft in the opposite end was bored deep enough to hide the glue line on the tuft (about 1/2 inch). Care must be taken not to drill completely through the length of the blank and to remember where the bottoms of the holes are so that you don’t pierce them while turning the exterior tip design.

John mounted the tuft end of the tip blank on a pre-turned mandrel (jamb chuck) with a 3/4-inch diameter tenon to match the tuft bore. This wood mandrel allows him to completely shape the end of the tip without danger of contacting the metal chuck with the gouge. The tail-stock end of the piece was stabilized with a cone center in the mortise hole. The blank was then turned to a cylinder using a spindle roughing gouge. The tip was then shaped with a spindle gouge and sanded.

John likes to cut his abrasives into quarter sheets and then fold the quarter in two directions to form a nearly square pad. This makes four fresh surfaces available. John generally sands to at least 600 grit but will go as high as 2000 grit for woods that demand it, e.g.: ebony. He uses automotive grits for the super fine work. He finds the automotive grits will not stain light colored woods if only light pressure is applied while sanding. He always wipes off the piece between grits to avoid carrying over any grit from the preceding grade. For these wipes he prefers Brawny Industrial Napkins produced by Georgia Pacific. After sanding, a cellulose sanding sealer was applied and buffed with a soft cloth. John feels it unnecessary to apply additional finish to the tip since it will soak up plenty of oil during use in basting.

For the handle John selected a Gonçalvo Alves blank about 1 × 1 × 12. The blank was mounted between centers using a steb drive and a cone center so that the tenon end was against the cone center. The blank was turned to a cylinder with the spindle roughing gouge. The roughing gouge was also used to create a long taper toward the tail stock end. The last couple of inches were left at full diameter to create a flair and a tenon at the joint with the tip. The taper and flair were refined using a 3/8-inch bowl gouge ground with long wings as a shear scraper. The shape and dimension of the flair has to be complimentary to the tip so the final assembly will mate gracefully. It will probably be helpful to undercut the end of the flair where it will mate with the tip.

A parting tool was used to cut the 3/8 inch diameter tenon in the end of the handle. The tenon was a bit shorter than 3/4 inch long to fit the mortise in the tip. John cuts a couple of V-grooves in the inner half of the tenon to capture any excess glue and prevent squeeze-out when the tip and handle are joined. (At our next meeting’s show-and-tell John will show us what you can do if you have squeeze-out in spite of precautions.) The wide end of the handle was rounded off with a gouge leaving a narrow nib that can be removed with a fine saw. The entire handle was sanded to finish and sealed with cellulose sanding sealer.

To join the tip and the handle, John applied flexible C/A glue to the interior of the mortise and sprayed the tenon with accelerator before inserting it into the mortise. The flexible C/A is less brittle that regular C/A. The bristle tuft can then be glued into the end of the tip. It is usually necessary to clean up the glued end of the tuft with a razor blade so that it fits properly in the boring.

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