Rooney brushes

This will come as a surprise to all that have posted.
I was the one who manufactured all the Rooney Heritage range and the later M&F brushes, they were all turned on CNC machines , polished in vibratory tumblers and then given a final hand polish with a swansdown mop for that extra lustre.
Lee Sabini produced the knots and assembled and branded and then sold via most of the well known London outlets.
All of the production was in the UK , all of the material for the handles came via
GPS Agencies the only UK importer of the Italian produced , polyester , acrylic and casien.
The Badger bristles all came from China as they still do today, what ever brand you buy.
So just to confirm all Rooney and M&F up until I retired were made in the UK.
Handles in West Sussex , assembly and marketing in East London.
Regards Frank McInroy
 
I don't quite understand the love of Rooney brushes. I have several very old Rooneys one NOS and to me they are at best "Meh". No backbone at all and very soft paintbrushes really? Also definitely not dense enough badger hair. Then recently on E-bay I paid $99 for a "New"as advertised last of the real Rooney brushes with a Persian jar shaped mock ivory handle. The handle is very nice looking but the brush hair is worse than the Old Rooney's I have and also definitely not dense at all. So, Who cares if Rooney is still a company or still in business? Not me for sure! My favorite shaving brush is one I put together myself using a Simpson Persian Jar handle and a purchased very dense top quality badger knot. I don't get the Rooney fan club at all?
 
This will come as a surprise to all that have posted.
I was the one who manufactured all the Rooney Heritage range and the later M&F brushes, they were all turned on CNC machines , polished in vibratory tumblers and then given a final hand polish with a swansdown mop for that extra lustre.
Lee Sabini produced the knots and assembled and branded and then sold via most of the well known London outlets.
All of the production was in the UK , all of the material for the handles came via
GPS Agencies the only UK importer of the Italian produced , polyester , acrylic and casien.
The Badger bristles all came from China as they still do today, what ever brand you buy.
So just to confirm all Rooney and M&F up until I retired were made in the UK.
Handles in West Sussex , assembly and marketing in East London.
Regards Frank McInroy

This is interesting to me as somebody who owns a couple of M&F brushes, one of which is fantastic and the other not so much. I would be interested to know when you retired.
 
Oh, the memories :)
I'm one of those who did get an M&F Blonde Badger from Lee in those years (2011-2012), probably with one of those handles made by Frank. Fantastic brush, and even better value. Shame that I didn't get to use it all that much, since Muehle came up with their V2 synths and forever killed any natural fibers for me.
But still keeping it as a piece of history!
 
This is interesting to me as somebody who owns a couple of M&F brushes, one of which is fantastic and the other not so much. I would be interested to know when you retired.
Started to slow down towards the end of 2012, finally retired 2013 , have not made a shaving brush since, still have all the machine tools and equipment plus lots of material left over. Now finally getting on with restoring my old motorbikes at lot more satisfying than producing even Rooney brushes.
Regards Frank McInroy
 
This will come as a surprise to all that have posted.
I was the one who manufactured all the Rooney Heritage range and the later M&F brushes, they were all turned on CNC machines , polished in vibratory tumblers and then given a final hand polish with a swansdown mop for that extra lustre.
Lee Sabini produced the knots and assembled and branded and then sold via most of the well known London outlets.
All of the production was in the UK , all of the material for the handles came via
GPS Agencies the only UK importer of the Italian produced , polyester , acrylic and casien.
The Badger bristles all came from China as they still do today, what ever brand you buy.
So just to confirm all Rooney and M&F up until I retired were made in the UK.
Handles in West Sussex , assembly and marketing in East London.
Regards Frank McInroy

It's a small world. During my New Forest Brushes period I knew a lot about the Rooney story. Suffice it to say that I regularly visited GPS Agencies in Sussex to collect the rods I used to have my handles made at our workshop in the New Forest. I didn't use CNC machines. Each of my handles was made individually on an old lathe by my turner. The lad at GPS was a former pupil at Churchers College which made an unsuccessful attempt to tame me in the 1950s. I was very interested to know about how all the well known brands were produced. At the end of the day, no matter where or how they are made, shaving brushes stand or fall by how we feel about them when we see, feel, and use them. I had some superb Rooney brushes and had one or more M&F. So thank you Frank for any that came from you! And I hope you are enjoying your retirement as much as I am mine.
 
It's a small world. During my New Forest Brushes period I knew a lot about the Rooney story. Suffice it to say that I regularly visited GPS Agencies in Sussex to collect the rods I used to have my handles made at our workshop in the New Forest. I didn't use CNC machines. Each of my handles was made individually on an old lathe by my turner. The lad at GPS was a former pupil at Churchers College which made an unsuccessful attempt to tame me in the 1950s. I was very interested to know about how all the well known brands were produced. At the end of the day, no matter where or how they are made, shaving brushes stand or fall by how we feel about them when we see, feel, and use them. I had some superb Rooney brushes and had one or more M&F. So thank you Frank for any that came from you! And I hope you are enjoying your retirement as much as I am mine.
It is definitely a small world , we must have passed like ships in the night. I was using the GPS material long before I got into shaving brushes with Lee Sabini, remember Roy Stevens the previous owner. I became his best mate after I took all the brown snail casein sheet that Conway Stuart had returned because they didn't know how to machine it. No wonder Conway finally went bust.
You don't take over a company and then sack all the skilled and experienced staff, I may be wrong but asset stripping comes to mind !!!
 
Well what can I say guys, it seems a lot of my brushes are still out there and being used. Yes I did make the Truefitt and Hill range and the Castle Forbes and all the Rooney Heritage and later M&F . It was a busy time , our main objective was to put quality and style back into wet shaving.
What is not known is that this all started with Dunhill who had a desire to produce a tortishell shaving set.
Dunhill being a corporate giant thought it knew all the answers and Lee and I had to jump through all sorts of hoops to reach the final product.
Was it a success ? the market place decided, the moral of the story for the small operator is get paid upfront !!!
Cheers Guys
 
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