Rooney Finest Family

Wow! I thought I had a problem!

I agree. I don't mind holding an intervention and buying some off of him lol

May I ask the history of Rooney? Was this a Sabini company? I see the font on the brush is similar to the font on the Brad Sears and Sabini brushes.

May I ask the history of Rooney? Was this a Sabini company? I see the font on the brush is similar to the font on the Brad Sears and Sabini brushes.

I don't have a lot of historical information about the the brushes, and I am uncertain about the truth of the information I do have, which is the following. Others no doubt can correct me and add more.

The company was said to have been started sometime around 1700 in Galway, Ireland. In 1796 the administrating Rooney family member of the time opened a branch in London at 27-28 Bishopsgate. This branch eventually was extended and became the main factory and Head Office. In 1886 they had a disastrous fire at their Bishopsgate premises, and most of their really old records were destroyed, so the exact date of the formation of the Company cannot be positively established. The freehold premises in Bishopsgate were sold in 1927, and all manufacturing was transferred to Walthamstow.

Lee Sabini took over as general manager (?) of Rooney's operation, which at the time (around 2000, I believe, but I am not at all sure), consisted only of the elderly owner and one worker. He then reportedly bought two other small brush making operations and merged them all into one company under the Rooney/City of London Brushworks name.

The brushes were also sold under various retail brand names (Trumper, Truefitt & Hill, etc.) for a number of years. I think that Classic Shaving became the sole remaining outlet for Rooney brushes, at least in the U.S., in 2005. Quality consistency and control became a major issue around 2010, brush production became erratic, and production of the brushes apparently stopped entirely sometime around 2013-2014.

What a noble family photo!

John's information is very close to mine.  Lee tells me he bought the Rooney company from the last Mrs. Rooney.  At which time, the company consisted of Mrs. Rooney, who was getting on in years and a 68 year old brushmaker who wanted to retire.  He also bought two other out of business brush making firms, primarily to get their equipment.  He took an active roll in rebuilding Rooney with the combined equipment and hired and trained new staff primarily to assemble brushes using his knots and CNC-turned handles.  To the end, he hired a young CNC engineer, who was quite accomplished--and together with Lee, refined and standardized what we now refer to as the classic Rooney handle patterns.  Interestingly, Lee tells me they got so good at making handles that their CNC could turn a complete handle in 60-90 seconds!  (Of course the turned handles were then polished with a winebarrel-sized tumbler for a week, but that's another story.)  Lee sold Rooney-not sure exactly when (possibly ~2010-2011?) to revive Morris & Forndran.  And at that time, he retained rights to all the Rooney brush patterns, to which he gave us rights when Nancy & I partnered with him in 2016.

The information given above with regard to Roony handle production during Lee's involvement is very different than mine.

Interestingly, Lee never mentioned hiring a young CNC engineer in any conversation we ever had, and I asked a lot of questions. The only name that came up in connection with with lathe operation, CNC, or turning handles was Frank McInroy. Frank was born in 1943 and did design work and handle production for Lee from 2003 until Frank's retirement in October 2013. I have a spreadsheet showing FrankLynn Tech's handle deliveries from October 2005-October 2013. My understanding has been that Frank and his wife Lynn (DBA FrankLynn Tech) created the CAD drawings for all the Rooney Heritage handle designs and made those handles as well; however, a number of so-called NOS Rooney Heritage have cropped up in several places over the past few years that are clearly distinguishable from the Heritage handles produced by FrankLynn Tech. I'd be curious to learn more about them (i.e., the non-McInroy Heritage handles), particularly when they were made. Recent references to a Colchester copy lathe owned by Roy Stevens, who once owned GPS Agencies and was a friend of Frank McInroy, sounds plausible. I'm not sure, but I think Roy died in 2012. FWIW, there are big differences between copy lathes and CNC lathes.

As for the young mystery engineer and Lee getting so good at turning handles they could complete one on a CNC lathe in 60-90 seconds, I'm not sure what exactly you mean, but I find the statement incredible. My own experience has been that the better I get, the slower I go. It usually requires several roughing passes to turn a workpiece down to a shape ready to run the profiling passes. I started out roughing at about 5 ipm (inches per minute), but backed off to 4 ipm several years ago. I used to run the final profiling cuts at 3 ipm, but now I generally stay in the range of 2.4-2.6 ipm. I don't like to do cuts deeper than about 1 mm. I turn handles on the same make and type of lathe Frank McInroy used, and I have many of his source files, so I know the feeds and speeds he ran, which are closely comparable to mine. 60-90 seconds isn't in the ballpark. If I tried to turn a handle that fast, it would result in disaster.

Incredible collection, John. Well done!

John's information is very close to mine.  Lee tells me he bought the Rooney company from the last Mrs. Rooney.  At which time, the company consisted of Mrs. Rooney, who was getting on in years and a 68 year old brushmaker who wanted to retire.  He also bought two other out of business brush making firms, primarily to get their equipment.  He took an active roll in rebuilding Rooney with the combined equipment and hired and trained new staff primarily to assemble brushes using his knots and CNC-turned handles.  To the end, he hired a young CNC engineer, who was quite accomplished--and together with Lee, refined and standardized what we now refer to as the classic Rooney handle patterns.  Interestingly, Lee tells me they got so good at making handles that their CNC could turn a complete handle in 60-90 seconds!  (Of course the turned handles were then polished with a winebarrel-sized tumbler for a week, but that's another story.)  Lee sold Rooney-not sure exactly when (possibly ~2010-2011?) to revive Morris & Forndran.  And at that time, he retained rights to all the Rooney brush patterns, to which he gave us rights when Nancy & I partnered with him in 2016.

The information given above with regard to Roony handle production during Lee's involvement is very different than mine.

Interestingly, Lee never mentioned hiring a young CNC engineer in any conversation we ever had, and I asked a lot of questions. The only name that came up in connection with with lathe operation, CNC, or turning handles was Frank McInroy. Frank was born in 1943 and did design work and handle production for Lee from 2003 until Frank's retirement in October 2013. I have a spreadsheet showing FrankLynn Tech's handle deliveries from October 2005-October 2013. My understanding has been that Frank and his wife Lynn (DBA FrankLynn Tech) created the CAD drawings for all the Rooney Heritage handle designs and made those handles as well; however, a number of so-called NOS Rooney Heritage have cropped up in several places over the past few years that are clearly distinguishable from the Heritage handles produced by FrankLynn Tech. I'd be curious to learn more about them (i.e., the non-McInroy Heritage handles), particularly when they were made. Recent references to a Colchester copy lathe owned by Roy Stevens, who once owned GPS Agencies and was a friend of Frank McInroy, sounds plausible. I'm not sure, but I think Roy died in 2012. FWIW, there are big differences between copy lathes and CNC lathes.

As for the young mystery engineer and Lee getting so good at turning handles they could complete one on a CNC lathe in 60-90 seconds, I'm not sure what exactly you mean, but I find the statement incredible. My own experience has been that the better I get, the slower I go. It usually requires several roughing passes to turn a workpiece down to a shape ready to run the profiling passes. I started out roughing at about 5 ipm (inches per minute), but backed off to 4 ipm several years ago. I used to run the final profiling cuts at 3 ipm, but now I generally stay in the range of 2.4-2.6 ipm. I don't like to do cuts deeper than about 1 mm. I turn handles on the same make and type of lathe Frank McInroy used, and I have many of his source files, so I know the feeds and speeds he ran, which are closely comparable to mine. 60-90 seconds isn't in the ballpark. If I tried to turn a handle that fast, it would result in disaster.

Yes, your information appears to be different from what I shared back in July.  That post reflected my understanding gleaned from a conversation Lee and I had almost three years ago.  In a recent conversation, Lee told me he outsourced some of Rooney's production to at least two other companies to provide supplemental production capacity to meet higher than expected demand.  One, curiously enough, was a button maker, whom I understand was equipped with full-scale production CNC lathes.  

The bottom line is that neither you nor I have the complete story.  Since "inquiring minds want to know," Lee is currently working on what he tells me will be a fairly complete history of his time at Rooney.  The intent is to publish that history on our website as soon as it becomes available.  Any who might be interested are invited to periodically check our website for updates.

Regarding CNC handle turning, I mentioned the 60-90 second timeframe simply as a matter of curiosity.  I expect it will be cleared up.