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MrH wrote:It's crappy water.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Redfinger wrote:
Lastly, dont paint with the tip, pull the paint with the side of the bristles.

I thought you're supposed to paint with the tip, at least that's what the guy from Awesome Paint Job said in one of his videos.

You can paint with the tip, just dont puch with the brush, always pull.

I gave my brush cleaning techniques alittle more thought last night as I was cleaning up for the night.

Normally I use Master's brush soap, I clean the brush repeatadly until the soap sudes are clean. I then allow the soap to dry on the brush, this re shapes the bristles as well as conditones them.

If the brush is especially dirty or I got some paint in the ferral I'll run the brush through some Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner and Restorer for a few mintues.

Hope this helps.

Ouch! I feel sorry for you I really do coz tbh I dont take care of my brushes as much as you do. While I keep the plastic cover on them when not in use occasionally the paint will meet with the ferule and I hardly ever wash them after painting.

Somehow my brushes appear to be ok. Though I do need a new tank brush due to it going walkies.

EDIT: Grammer.

johnscott10 wrote:
EDIT: Grammer.

Grammar.

I'm not the best painter, and am actually pretty hard on my brushes. The only ones that fail on me though are ones that I don't clean.
I can jam the tip of the brush flat against the bottom of a jar of water, and splay the bristles out as I grind it in a circle against the bottom of the glass.
But as long as I get the paint out of it, it always seems to be fine if I drag it along a flat surface and re form the tip. This also makes the dilluted paint water come out of the bristles.

I mostly use 10/0 Masters Touch 6050 Spotter paint brushes, and I've been using the same 3 brushes for .. 4 years?

Grrr, you guys are making me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry! It's really not fair how some of you admittedly mistreat your brushes and they last forever but here's me washing my brushes properly, storing them properly and using them properly and they give up on me before the fight has even started!

I left brush soap on my Rosemary and Co and it's been a couple of days so hopefully that's helping, the next model I paint will be an old school Ork Warrior or maybe an old school Gretchin depending on my mood. Hopefully I'll start one of them soon so I can see if the soap made any difference.

Perhaps pick up some distilled water? See if it is your tap water.

Places that I have lived that have naturally "hard water" meaning lots of minerals, etc. usually have done a number on my hair, so it stands to reason that if you local water was like that or ever different, it could effect the hairs in a brush.

As a Mariner, I have problems with Reverse-Osmosis obtained water onboard ships. The process removes alot of the natural minerals present in water and also has a little chlorine added to the tanks to stop bacteria. I shower in it, drink it and cook food in it. It leechs out the minerals in your skin and over couple of weeks it can affect my skin and hair.

I live in lovely Wales, It rains here Alot, I mean Seattle Washington level of rainfall. The Mountains and Valleys give us beautifull natural water resevoirs which are nicely filtered and full of minerals it is neither Soft nor Hard and keeps my skin and hair happy.

I tried painting onboard, during a calm patch and managed to paint some lovely models problem being I used water from the Ship's Taps. The paint, well, the best word for it is that it seemed to "Curdle", it was a vallejo Panzer Aces colour and I used it a week later at home with nice Welsh Water and it was fine (it was the same pot on the same pallette).

De-mineralised, distilled water is probably not a bad idea it's not too expensive (£1 a litre) (I doubt you have a still! and if you do your probably using it for a better purpose!). I am convinced water has a massive effect.

I look after my brushes, they have lasted 3 Years now, One or too have lost bristles and shape but they are now wash or Drybrush ones. I am anal to the extent that I have seperate Cheap crappy brushes (10 for £2 from Tesco) which i use exclusively for mixing paints, and blending on my palette. I think this the time you are most likely end up with paint on your Ferrule, so when mixing tiny amounts of white into a colour I use my cheapy mixing brush and I don't care if it gets it up the ferrule or whatever.

Mr H I feel your pain. I think it must be to do with water hardness as in Ireland I had no problem (soft water where I was) whereas in Oxford and Southampton the water is hard.

I've got the Army painter regiment brush. It has quite a different feel to it than my sable brushes. I find it hasn't got much of a point to it, it's kinda blunt at the end. That said, I've not experienced splitting with. I definately do experience splitting with my sable brushes, my W&N S7 in particular is very bad for it.

You treat your brushes way way better than I do, I just wash em and stick them in my box.

However I'm a definate, wash it, stick it in your mouth kind of a guy, there's simply nothing better for establishing a point.

When I first got my AP brush, i pretty much dismissed it after a while, but I've found myself returning to it more recently as I'm finding the blunt end quite useful.

Be sure to post back when you get a new brush, i'd be interested to know how you get on.

Where did you get your brush soap from? My brushes could do with a bit of TLC...

Hangfire you can get this stuff..It's great though it is expensive, it is pretty much the best thing on the market.

http://www.greatart.co.uk/MASTER%20S%20BRUSH%20SOAP-brush-cleaning.htm

I use Army Painter Brushes and Kolinsky Sable's. I only have 2 Kolinsky's (due to price) but I have 10 or so AP ones as they are a good balance of Quality, price and durability. I do find AP brushes seem to shed their bristles slightly quicker than other brushes, my insane Detail brushes seem to have a very shot life.

P.s Love your Avatar, reminds me of the VW advert where the Kid pretends to zap the Car and the Dad hits the alarm button.

I share the same problem with the op, I've had a fair few of my brushes split. Granted I've been treating them waaay better now, one of my latest cheap ones has about 5 curved bristles.

By curved I mean, I have a good tip up until some of tem bend outwards to the same side. Is this because of lack of care or am I just wearing a crappy brush down?

The reason I'm asking is because it looks as tough my bristles stopped popping back into the tip and just stay bended as if caught mid-stroke.

MrH wrote: it didn't split, but the tip developed a small curve mid way through the model. I tried reshaping it with conditioner but it won't budge.

yeah you've got a fish hook (or is it fish tail?) now. I find that mainly happens with cheaper brushes or synthetics. dont chuck it actually can be useful sometimes to paint the raised edges of things.

I find the W7 have been the best for me, but when i use my 1 it will split after a bit, some brush soap and it's better. you may have just gotten a bad batch, the w7's have lasted me ages. I will investigate the raphaels though

I'm a pretty rubbish painter, but i've been painting (rubbishly) for about 12 years, i've always washed my brushes in water then use my tounge to reshape the brush into a tip, using this technique i've actually used the same GW standard brush for the last 3 years, its starting to get a little tired now and i have to reshape it slightly more often but its still managing to return to a good shape.

I usually take sharp scissors and clip the head to make a sharp tip again. After awhile you'll get it down low but you can use that as a dry brush.

Hey MrH how goes your rosemary brushes? Do you have an update for us?

LilLoser

LilLoser wrote:Hey MrH how goes your rosemary brushes? Do you have an update for us?

LilLoser

I have a series 33 pure kolinksy sable on the way, which should come tomorrow. I've tried their series 401 red sable/nylon blend and they're OK for the price, they were only like £2 each. I will say they developed a hooked tip extremely fast though, the #2 lasted one model before the hook tip formed, the #1 has a very slight hook tip after only one model also, this is a common problem with nylon brushes but it doesn't usually manifest so quickly, I thought the fact it was a sable/nylon blend would have prolonged the time it took. They're not unusable or anything, and leaving them in brush soap did help, but I wouldn't suggest the series 401 as a "main" brush, you want something a little better quality.

Here's a good photo I found depicting the "hook tip" and other brush problems:


(Left to Right) pointed, fishtail, stray hairs, hooked tip)

Yup, that Picture sums up the common problems. I still swear by Gum Arabic, dip it, shape it, let it dry. Then when you put it in water it retains it's shape.

i have painted lips after every painting session. Sometimes I forget I was licking the end of the brush and go about my day in public.

The only thing I suggest cleaning your brushes with daily is clean cold water. If you want to swish them in mineral spirits or something once every few months thats ok, but nothing more than water on a paint day to paint day basis.

Also after you're done with your project for the day, lick a healthy coat of saliva on the brush, bring it to a point, cover it with the tube, and store them brush tip up. While you paint, I also recommend licking the tip of the brushes routinely to keep them pointed during paints. Also make sure your brush isn't getting too dried up during your painting.

By doing this, I've kept plain ole red, blue, and black handle GW brushes going for years at a time.

Also never paint out of the pot. Use a palate, and water down your paints. The thicker paint will go rough on the brushes.

Paints with a heavier pigment load to them are also harder on brushes. I've had issues with recent batches of the W&N S7's as well, with two fishtailing and another splitting after a month's painting. I do paint almost every day and take very good care of my brushes. That said, I still have a set of four S7's that were a gift for Christmas two years back that I use every day and are in great shape.

I'm really interested in the Raphael brushes now, looking at them for my stocking stuffers.