DIY: How to Make a Custom Horse Brush

Olivia   January 13, 2017   23 Comments on DIY: How to Make a Custom Horse Brush

DIY Do It Yourself How to make a custom wood burned horse brush

Since I’m cheap and okay with being tacky, I generally mark all of my grooming equipment with a sharpie so that none of it “wanders.” However, I have been seeing a lot of cool custom brushes over the holidays and though I should try to class mine up a bit. I got a nice natural hair brush in my prize bag for getting 3rd at Camelot. I put it away in my cabinet and hadn’t added it to my grooming bucket yet so it was sharpie free and ready for some customization.

This is a super easy project. It doesn’t look as awesome as some of the fancy painted custom brushes, but it certainly looks better than the sharpie and it’s a bit more durable since there’s no paint to chip off. Given that the Mustangs both like to put things from the grooming bin in their mouth and Shasta likes to knock the grooming bin over, durable is key.

Things You’ll Need:
a horse brush with a wooden base
a wood burning tool
wood burner letters (I have a mix of caps and lowercase, but you can do all of one or the other)
pencil and ruler
sand paper
oven mitt
stove pad
optional: heart stamp for wood burner

DIY Do It Yourself How to make a custom wood burned horse brush

Supplies

Step 1:
Clean and lightly sand the wood on the brush. You want to make sure there’s no sticker residue or anything else on the brush.

DIY Do It Yourself How to make a custom wood burned horse brush

Step 2:
Attach the middle letter to your wood burner and let it heat up.

Step 3:
Use a ruler to find the middle of the brush and mark it with a pencil.

Step 4:
Press the letter onto your center mark. If you’ve never used them before, practice with your wood burner and the letters in advance to see how long you need to hold the letter down. Rock the letter back and forth gently to make sure the whole letter burns in.

DIY Do It Yourself How to make a custom wood burned horse brush

Step 5:
Remove the letter with an over mitt and place the letter on a pot holder to avoid burning your table like I’ve done in the past.

Step 6:
Add the next letter and repeat steps 4 – 5 moving outwards from the center letter.

DIY Do It Yourself How to make a custom wood burned horse brush

Optional Step: Add any other embellishments. My wood burner came with a set of heart, star, and other decorative stamps. If you’re talented an/or have time, draw something onto the brush with the pen tips of the wood burner.

That’s it. As I said: it’s a super easy project and the end result looks a lot better than a sharpie.

DIY Do It Yourself How to make a custom wood burned horse brush

23 thoughts on “DIY: How to Make a Custom Horse Brush”

    1. Olivia Post author

      I’m still debating that. I might throw a coat of sealant on top. I was also thinking of sanding it down fully and adding a nicer stain so I haven’t sealed it yet.

  7. Sarah W

    Very pretty! I’ve had some luck customizing brushes by sanding the top, then using paint pens and hitting it with a fixative spray afterwards. 🙂

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