Retaining Brush Shape

[Ong]

How does one retain the pointed "candleflame tip" on brushes? I'm painting with acrylics.

When I wash my brushes, I swish them around in water with Windex and then wipe them on a paper towel. Sometimes I drag them, or drag and roll the brush head on the paper towel to get that tip back. Am I washing my brushes wrong to cause the bristles to lose its shape.

Eventually, the bristles splay out and I lose the pointed tip. I tried spit on my fingers to get the shape back to no avail. Is the brush "ruined" forever?

Thanks in advance.

 

[DaddyO]

I found acrylics are pretty hard on brushes, but using some good quality brush soap after each session gets the last bits of acrylic out of the base of the bristles and keeps 'em looking good. Bent Bristle sell some great brushes and I saw at Folkestone that they also sell a pot of brush soap (Other suppliers are available)

I bought my pot from the local art supplies shop; cost about fiver and very little used so far. Wash the brush in water as normal and then swirl in the tub of soap working into the bristles with your fingers, rinse and repeat. I use the back of a finger nail and carefully rub at the point where the bristles join the ferrule and after rinsing again shape with your mouth (I know revolting)

Hope that helps
Paul

ps - don't stand a brush bristle upwards in a pot till it's dry because all the water/paint/soap that's left runs into the ferrule/bristle joint. Lay them flat first and use a piece of corrugated card if you are worried about them rolling off onto the floor

 

[frank h]

Hi
The only thing I can think of is paint being trapped in the ferrule.
This will not shift with washing during the painting session.

What may help recover your brush is to wash it with isopropyl alcohol
get it deep into the ferrule to let it dissolve any dried paint .

Hope this may be of some help

Frank

 

[Nap]

I use brush soap as well but as said acrylics do seem to harsh on brushes !

Nap

 

[Chrisr]

In addition to Paul's advice, a couple of tips I was given, is never mix your paint with the brush you are using to paint. Have an old one to do that, or use something else. The other was only have paint on the lower portion/ half of the bristles to help avoid it getting into the ferrule, and Paul's advice of not standing it up to dry. Nowadays I keep mine lying flat in a tray, not that I paint a lot. In the end they are going to lose their tips anyway, especially with a acrylics, but its about prolonging the life of the tip

How to fix the problem once it occurs, Frank's suggestion might help, but I think you are better off getting a new brush.

Chris

 

[billyturnip]

I think to sum up the above posts the thing to do is buy good quality brushes and look after them.

 

[Tommy Brown]

Masters Brush Cleaner is the only product that I use to clean and to retain all my brushes. It is good for cleaning all medium oil, acrylics, enamel and water colour.

 

[valiant]

I periodically clean my brushes in cellulose thinners, which gets all the accumulated gunk from round the ferrule. Once dried, I wash them in washing up detergent neat, on my hand, then rinse in warm water, then apply hair conditioner (my daughter's, but she doesnt know!) rinse again and reshape and allow to dry on a paper towel. Maybe drastic, but it seems to work

 

[Chrisr]

Many thanks for the video's Tommy - damn good advice. I use the Master brush cleaner and keep the plastic bristle covers, and the second video was excellent.

No more lying flat. The spring item also looks to be a good way of storing brushes tip down. I'll look at trying to get a couple.

Cheers
Chris

 

[Alex]

All my acrylic premium brushes have a perfect point.
Here is what I do

Use a stainless steel stick to mix my paint
Never ever get some paint near the ferrules
NEver ever paint with a dry brush
ONce a painting session is done, I will wash that brush under running water and use some hand soap
I will also very carefully remove any ring of dry paint near the ferrule with my fingernail
Once the brush is still wet, I will swirl it in masters soap and let it dry like that on the flat surface
THe brush will have a perfect point and will just need a quick rinse under running water before the next session.
Even if I take a brake of a few hours between sessions, I do the same procedure

 

[John Bowery]

All of the above tips are valid advice.
My very last cleaning step that I use is to clean the brush in Windsor/Newton brush cleaner and restorer. It is both an oil and acrylic cleaner and I transfer some from the larger bottle (16oz) to an airbrush bottle. I use this over and over as the paint drops to the bottom of the liquid. I clean the brushes by slapping the brush up against the side of the bottle and turning it. This is the way house painters stop brushes from dripping paint when they move the brush to the surface they are painting from the paint can. I wipe the brush to a point on a paper towel and remove the majority of the liquid. I leave the remaining moisture in the brush until I next use the brush on another day, and then rinse the brush first in the thinner for the paint I will be using. Water/turps etc. I am always surprised how much paint that the cleaner removes after I have cleaned the brush?????? If there is W/N cleaner in the brush and you don't rinse it out next time, it will remove the dry paint on the model instead of putting fresh paint on. Of course this has never happened to me????

This has worked for me for years.
Cheers
John

 

[Ong]

Thanks for all the replies and helpful info!

I do stand up my brushes in a container to dry and mix paints with my brushes...two big "no-nos" I see.

I'm going to try the Masters Brush Cleaner. The painters in the videos say that it works wonders so I'm willing to give that a try. I'll also keep the Winsor-Newton brush cleaner in mind as well.

 

[Ong]

I bought a jar of Masters Brush Cleaner and it worked wonders! I washed and "brushed" many old dry caked brushes on Masters and got a lot of the bristles cleaned and flexible again.

I also used Masters to get back the tips of my frayed small round brushes. Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions ! Yay!