Tip re: Obtaining Street Sweeper Bristles

by **krept** » 17 Mar 2006 14:06

Ok, in a google search, besides lockpicking101, I saw some artists are using the bristles to make baskets and gourds as a kind of recycled "urban art." (look here http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/ah_hobbies_interests/article/0,1801,HGTV_3121_1383989,00.html)

I live in a small suburb that has a street maintenance division which operates 1 sweeper.

I called up and left a message with the foreman, explaining that my mother saw these "urban art gourds" made from the bristles and that she wanted one for her birthday.

The foreman called back and said that this was the first time he's ever heard of this. I told him that the bristles were weaved together just like the people do when they make baskets with reeds.

He said that the distributor picks up the used brushes every 3-4 weeks (they just came yesterday, jeez) but he'd be more than happy to cut some off for me before they come.

Anyways, using a direct approach in conjunction with a good reason like making recycled art for mom seems to have paid off.

It's gonna take a lot of them to make a gourd

Will let you know how this comes out. Obviously if I make out like gangbusters, I'll share the wealth to those who don't live near a sweeper.

by **Omikron** » 17 Mar 2006 15:43

Excellent work!

I always prefer the direct approach to things and it usually pays off. Definitely keep us posted on how this goes for you!

by **pyropnoy4life** » 23 Mar 2006 23:20

hey i've read about ppl using streetsweeper bristles as picks. and have attempted it myself. Tho in my expierences with those bristles they are usually uber-rusty, and difficult to manipulate into the shapes i needed to create picks that worked. for me they often snapped in two when bent even a little bit. but maybe seattle streetsweepers have more rigid and unmalleable bristles. ya never know. so give it a try all the same and keep us all posted
best of luck to u with this

by **raimundo** » 24 Mar 2006 10:58

To look for bristles that are not rusty, look on a very clean, recently swept street.

by **bprzybyl** » 24 Mar 2006 11:34

To those of you that have found street sweeper bristles-
is it really that easy? If I go walk down the street in the city (never seen a sweeper in the suburbs), will they be pretty easy to find? Are we talking something like walking a couple miles only to find 2-3 in the gutter?

Thanks,
Brooks

by **pizarro** » 24 Mar 2006 11:45

looking outside late night opening takeaways that are near clubs may be a good spot to find them. If people leaving the club keep making a mess and it gets tidyied up, then they may use a street sweeper to do it.

by **krept** » 24 Mar 2006 14:40

^ Good tip, thanks.

pyropnoy4life, I looked for bristles the day after I contacted the guy from the Streets division and found some (i couldn't wait

). I bent them slow and they didn't snap. It's very possible that the ones you found had a poor heat treat, but... I'd think the people ordering the bristles would not want them to be so hard, because if they are, they will break down a LOT faster when hitting asphalt, curbs and rocks in the street.

bprzybyl, my community is shaped like an "0" and it's almost exactly two miles in diameter. I walked it a day or two after the original post (which was made the day after the sweepers swept the streets) and I found 17 of them. That was primarily searching the inside of the "0" because the outside does not have sidewalks (was walking my dog). Yesterday, I walked the same route and found 8 more. This is important because the streets are only swept once every 3 weeks, so these 8 were ones that I had missed previously.

In reality, even if you get only 4 long usable bristles, that will provide you will a lot of time consuming work.

Like Raimundo inferred, key is recently swept streets. You could probably call up the streets maintenance division and ask them how often the streets are swept and when will be the next scheduled sweeping. I'd say that 80% of the ones I found were rusty and/or pitted from people driving over them. I'll definitely be out there looking for bristles the day that the sweepers next sweep.

cheers

by **pretender** » 24 Mar 2006 19:02

always heat where you're gonna bend, and quench accordingly.

they, like hacksaw blades or what have you - can be very resilient, but require some care for best results.

by **KottonKang** » 27 Mar 2006 20:15

What is it that makes these peices of street britles so sought after ?

Is it the fact you can find them for free if you take your time to scour the city streets ?

Or is the material something that special i here they are rusted a lot.

Why not go to a builders supply and buy sheets of Stainless steel? They have all differnt gauges...

by **n2oah** » 27 Mar 2006 20:40

I rarely see a street sweeper in my part of the city. I can, however, easily find and follow a street sweeper in the more "industrial" parts of my town.

by **nezumi** » 28 Mar 2006 16:02

I talked with the street sweeper who works here and managed to buy some of his bristles. Didn't do very well. Now I have dirty hair in my lock. It makes me wonder what English people eat that they can pick locks with their bristles.

by **krept** » 28 Mar 2006 23:46

KottonKang wrote:What is it that makes these peices of street britles so sought after ?

Is it the fact you can find them for free if you take your time to scour the city streets ?

Or is the material something that special i here they are rusted a lot.

Why not go to a builders supply and buy sheets of Stainless steel? They have all differnt gauges...

With sheet metal, it's kind of a PITA to cut it down to the proper width. Certainly not big problems, but it adds to the hassle.

Stainless steel is very difficult to heat treat properly without an electronic oven.

Bristles come tempered to a hardness that is appropriate for their application - they take a severe beating on the job. Too hard and they'd break... too soft and they'd get bent in a couple minutes.

They DO vary from location to location. The ones here are the only ones I've been exposed to (never knew to look before coming to this forum) and they work very well from what I've seen.

by **krept** » 17 Apr 2006 14:18

well, the guy that I talked to had some bristles for me... but it turns out they are the yellow nylon ones. Dang... He said they switched to them from the steel ones back in January, so the ones I have been picking up are all the old type.

On a good note, he gave me the number to another supervisor in a city that is about 15 miles away and said they are still using the steel bristled brooms. The distributor is also out of that city as well. I'm going to try to get info from him.

oh well...

by **raimundo** » 18 Apr 2006 10:08

sometimes, the bristle is thick, and will snap off if simply held in a plier and the stress is all concentrated at the point where the bristle exits from the plier jaw, I have used two methods to bend this bristle cold. one is to put a sacrifical bristle in the jaw since if you are bending more than one at a time, its the one that is in contact with the edge of the plier that breaks, but the better method is to grip the bristles in two pliers, about a half an inch apart, and force from both pliers so that the radius of the bend is not sharp at the edge of a plier, but is distributed throughout the half inch. less < and more c

by **krept** » 18 Apr 2006 14:54

More good info, thanks.

I have been using a 4" vice and high density plastic vice jaw liners to bend them. In the roughly dozen picks I've made (still getting the design right) I haven't had a one snap yet. I'll test it to failure soon (what degree bend will fracture it).

I just got some bristles

. Will try to work something out with the admin of the site so people can get ahold of them if they are interested.

The "street sweeper bristle gourd as urban art" project worked like a charm. I'll have to actually make one now.

Cheers,
Erik

Tip re: Obtaining Street Sweeper Bristles

Tip re: Obtaining Street Sweeper Bristles

rusty bristles

Where?

bending bristle

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