How do you measure a Knot ?

Some knots have a fat section above the glue base that's larger than the advertised size. It's good to have the knot you want before you make the hole, but you can always make the hole larger or flare it out at the top, sometimes the hole needs to be 1.5~2mm larger than advertised. On the other hand some boar knots I've gotten didn't get larger above the base, unfortunately there is no hard and fast rule.
 
Read this page of posts to see how these knots measured out, it'll give you some idea.

 
A year or so ago I removed what was supposed to be a 25mm knot from a Semogue brush to fit it to a handle that had a 24mm knot. I was worried that the knot was going to be slightly too big but it was not, it had 2mm to spare so I don't know what was going on there.

Then, with a similar handle, 24mm knot, I fitted a 24mm badger knot that I bought from Maggard and it was also a very loose fit.

I'm toying with the idea of re-knotting another brush that has a Shavemac's knot that I don't like but I love the handle. I need to find a good badger knot for it that is reasonably priced, not a Maggard knot, it appears that unfortunately Maseto dont do badger knots anymore.... I'll find something :)
 
A year or so ago I removed what was supposed to be a 25mm knot from a Semogue brush to fit it to a handle that had a 24mm knot. I was worried that the knot was going to be slightly too big but it was not, it had 2mm to spare so I don't know what was going on there.

Then, with a similar handle, 24mm knot, I fitted a 24mm badger knot that I bought from Maggard and it was also a very loose fit.

I'm toying with the idea of re-knotting another brush that has a Shavemac's knot that I don't like but I love the handle. I need to find a good badger knot for it that is reasonably priced, not a Maggard knot, it appears that unfortunately Maseto dont do badger knots anymore.... I'll find something :)

 
I've discussed this with knot manufacturers in the past and they've always said it's the size of the glue plug.

I would agree with this because if it's measured where the knot exits the handle, a brush maker could put a 22mm glue plug knot and drill the hole at 25mm. The knot hair will expand outwards and easily fill the 25mm hole and sell it as a 25mm brush.

This would obviously be cheating because it's a well known fact that the hold should always be wider than the knot to facilitate the bloom of the knot.
 
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