Horse hair brush

[stone knife]

I want to make a pan brush out of some horse hair from my wife's horse, any pics of some and also what works the best main or tail. I'll chop some off when she's not around :rotf:

 

[Semisane]

Bristles would be better. Does you wife have a pig? :grin:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

What does the horse think about this idea?

 

[BrownBear]

I played with it some and learned a few things.

It takes a lot more hairs than I thought it would.

Easiest was to whip finish thread near the middle of the bundle of hair, clip the hair about 1/4" from your whip finish where the bundle starts to get really tight, then rubber cement the hair bases along with the thread. Once good and dry, clip the other side of the thread to the length you want. I found anything longer than about 1" was worthless.

Horse hair gets really soft when wet. The brush works fine till the moment it gets a little wet.

Horse hair is in general pretty limp. Shorter is better on the length you use, but it's never going to be good enough when you get it wet.

 

[stone knife]

Bristles would be better. Does you wife have a pig? :grin:

No but the neighbor does :wink:

 

[David W.]

I want to make a pan brush out of some horse hair from my wife's horse, any pics of some and also what works the best main or tail. I'll chop some off when she's not around :rotf:

Horse hair make great paint brushes, but boar hair would be better for a pan brush.

 

[LaBonte]

Horsehair, tail hair in particular works fine - been using it for my pan brushes for over 40 years - here's one of mine - antler and horsehair...

 

[Ranger1759]

Here's a couple that I made from my Appy's tail...I used a piece or copper tubing and crimped the hair in place...

I started with both ends of the hair in the tube, like a loop, once I had it crimped, I cut the loop in the middle, and trimed the hair even...

It works good, however, like some mentioned, it could be a little stiffer....

Ranger

 

[Tony Logan]

nice looking tool set, I am going to have to make one, add that to the list

 

[Tony Logan]

I have been thinking about this, has anyone used white tail deer hair like from the tail?

 

[BrownBear]

I have been thinking about this, has anyone used white tail deer hair like from the tail?

If you stay with the stiffer hair up toward the tip of the tail it's okay, but the tips of each hair are pretty long and slender. In order to get much hair remaining out toward the tip of a brush, you need a real thick bundle at the base of the brush. if you clip off the natural trips most of that issue goes away.

The hollow hairs toward the base of the tail are hopeless for most things other than died deer body hair flies. Dandy for clipping short on floating flies, but I think it would be a real stinker for a brush.

Either gets instantly limp when wet, worse in fact that horeshair. Not a viable option for me in a wet climate, but might be just fine in dry climates.

 

[George]

In case neither you nor your neighbor has a horse or a pig, and you can't catch a deer, there is an easy solution. The Chinese eat a world of pork and they shave all those pigs for bristle paint brushes. Look at your local paint store and you'll find cheap Chinese bristle brushes, and even a small one will give you more pan brushes than anybody needs.

Spence

 

[Tony Logan]

looks like a good solution

 

[rustylaidlaw]

What about wild turkey chest tufts? Seems like pretty stiff hairs. I have one I might make a pan brush outta and see how it works.
Anyone else have one they can comment about?
- Rusty

 

[luieb45]

tried that one... turkey beards get very easy to break after a while. Plus the bristles aren't that fine so it wouldn't accomplish that much in your pan.

 

[Ranger1759]

I haven't tried turkey beards, but I can tell you that an old straw broom worked once!

I thought I'd try the broom just for something to do...the bristles are stiff and it does a good job on the floor... well after it was all said and done, I tried it in my pan and the brisles all snapped off at the crimp leaving my pan full of straw remnants...

I'm not saying it can't work, it just didnt work for me!

Ranger

 

[horseman1977]

I made this from a bit of one of my horse's tails. It works good. I folded the hair over to double it up and make a loop at the end that you can attach to a string. I wrapped some thread and glued it to hold it all together.