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I just ordered my first set of kolinsky sable brushes from Rosemary & Co, and I am pretty excited. I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on cleaning methods, so that I might get the most out of these brushes. I already use Masters Brush Cleaner, and have for quite a while. But until now, I have stuck mainly with cheap brushes. So, naturally, I am wanting to put a little more effort into the upkeep of these new brushes.
I came across this video, which gives a few tips that I will probably try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRXoZ9asJTk
What cleaning and care methods do you use? And how long do your brushes typically last?

Thanks

Regular rinsing during use is the single best thing you can do to preserve your brushes, as it doesn't allow paint to collect and form tip-splaying deposits near the ferrule (which is what probably >80% of brush cleaning is about rectifying). An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.

Beyond that, Masters is about all I use. If I see deposits around the ferrule, I lather, rinse, and repeat until they're gone. Likewise if the bristles are stained. Likewise if I've used the brush a lot that day. Likewise if I've only used it a little, but it's been a while. You needn't be completely anal about it, but more is better than less - the stuff won't ever hurt a brush from overexposure. Any time I clean (as it's generally the last step in a session), I do one extra lather and reform the tip, leaving it in until the next time I paint.

I know that some people prefer to soak their brushes in liquid solvents and conditioners, instead, but I've found Master's to do the trick, all on its own.

Winsor & Newton makes a brush cleaner that's fantastic and cheap. I pick it up the giant size one for about $14 at Michael's with a 50% coupon, and it lasts a very long time (pour some into a small glass jar).

It is much easier to use than the Masters, because basically you just swish your brush in it a bit, and then wipe off the paint, and then clean it in water. It's easy enough that I keep a second jar by my painting station, for the times that I use my ultrafine brushes for things like eyes, so that there's never paint dried up on them. Even though I use a completely separate set of brushes for metallics, I use the W&N brush cleaner to get metallic paints off after I'm done with a color, because otherwise they don't rinse off very easily/completely.

Now, I use the Masters soap too, but just not as a daily maintenance. Maybe a couple of times of month? I use quite a few types of brushes (though some much more frequently than others), and I don't bother using Masters on things like my wash, drybrush, and basecoat brushes. They just accumulate too much stuff, and eventually I ruin them anyhow by poking 'em in places and in ways that is not nice to paintbrushes

This stuff works great and I use it for my Kolinsky.

http://www.amazon.ca/Masters-Brush-Cleaner-Preserver-1-Ounce/dp/B001TNR7VM

I use brush soap during painting if needed and after every use.
I try to use brush restorer sparingly.
And as a final step plain regular hair conditioner. About once a week. I leave the conditioner infor a few minutes and rinse thrice making certain I have gotten rid of the conditioner.

Since I use some brush restorer I have stopped being a brush licker, mostly. A 20 year habit is hard to break. :p
So instead I have a tissue covered sponge handy for shaping the brush after every rinse

I use hand soap while painting. Every few minutes or immediately if paint gets up near the ferrule I'll rinse the brush in water then roll it through a bar of cheap hand soap. You can see it gets out a good deal more paint than just the water alone would do and leaves the bristles in a pretty good condition unlike some harsher soaps.

I do that every few minutes of painting and make sure to give it a good wash with the soap after each use.

That's been my only regimen for a while now and my current brush still has a really good tip to it.

I have several Winsor & Newton sable brushes. I also just received a set from Games and Gears.

The Masters Brush Cleaner stuff you have is just fine for them. I used to go through a couple cheap brushes once a week before I found that stuff and moved up to "good" brushes. By comparison, using the brush cleaner religiously my first set of Winsor & Newton ones lasted about 2 years before I replaced them. I've been on my second set for a little over a year so far; still pointy. I've only used the G&G brushes twice so far and I have to admit I like them better than the W&N ones. The body of the hair is just better.

The main things you need is to periodically rinse the brushes during a paint session. The paint we use tends to dry pretty quick. If it looks dry on the model then it's already getting close to that inside the brush. Just rinse it out every so often to get rid of that stuff. Then load it back up and continue working. For example, if I'm painting details on a squad I'll do 2 models, rinse, reload and start on the next two.