Floss Burnishers and Dubbing Brushes

**hap** · 12-11-2012, 04:14 PM

Following the discussion the other day about burnishing floss I turned a couple brush handles and made a new-to-me style burnisher per the sample posted by Hans. From the left; Central American "rosewood" of some flavor, bocote, and osage orange.

I have been making the standard handle shape for years and using .357 cleaning brushes for roughing dubbing, and pulling it around when doing full-dress stuff. The tails have multiple edges that work well for burnishing floss and I usually make a flat iron shaped ivory burnisher that is threaded and can be swapped for the brush.

This photo shows the SS burnisher tip best. It was a SS screw turned down to be threaded 8-32 and then shaped, bent, and polished a bit.

I managed to whack both hands on the lathe the other day an like most dumb things I still do not know exactly how it happened... Until yestrday I was fairly convinced I had broken my right hand. It is doing fine now and I was just being a hypochondriac.

Now they are off to the Post Office and on to the Old Country...

**hap** · 12-11-2012, 04:17 PM

Not sure how I did it, but the last image was a duplicate. And I could not find a way to edit it... Last photo should have been:

**hap** · 12-11-2012, 04:24 PM

As they say in the Oil Patch "Use it like you brother sells it!" My brother must sell borax! Sorry about the white powder.

**ScottP** · 12-11-2012, 04:45 PM

Better the white powder than little livestock roaming amongst the feathers. Really nice lathe work.

Regards,
Scott

**Byron haugh** · 12-11-2012, 05:09 PM

A man of many amazing talents.

**chewydog** · 12-11-2012, 07:23 PM

Most excellent.

**Uncle Jesse** · 12-11-2012, 07:51 PM

I am a little jealous, I would really like to have a wood lathe, just cannot manufacture enough sawdust with a table saw. There's an osage orange tree in my brother in law's pasture I am planning to cut a limb from at the next opportunity. I want to try a homemade bow using it and hickory. Back home it is more commonly called bois d'arc (wood that bows) but pronounced "bow doc". I remember my dad talking about making single trees from it.

**James Smith** · 12-11-2012, 08:06 PM

Hap,

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing the idea with us. I've never used a burnisher on dubbing, but I'm certainly open to the idea. What type of finish do you use on your wood burnishers? I would think that the heat generated from burnishing could soften the finish causing it to discolor the dubbing? Do you find that the wood burnishers perform any differently than the metal ones? Also, I have quite a few deer antler tines and they look like they might also work well. Your thoughts...

Jim Smith