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Dear Dakkanauts!

I am reletivly new to the hobby and I got myself into trouble: my base brush had developt a snake tounge on his tip. Is there anyway I can cure him out of this?

Kind Regards
herjan1987

From my experience, this tends to happen when paint dries and congregates on the brush, specifically where the brush hair meets the handle (I can't remember what it's called).

I'm no expert on brush care, far from it actually but I think that is the cause.

I had a GW basecoat brush, the ones with the chiseled tip and the same thing happened and I had to throw away the brush because the tip was to split. I guess I had to learn the hard way.

Hopefully this helps a little bit! ~

-Mikey

The metal bit that holds the bristles to the handle is called a "ferrule".

Paint in the ferrule is the #1 reason for the brush developing an afro. Don't dip the brush so deep into the paint that paint gets into the ferrule (paint from a palette, not from the pot).

Tip curl is caused by (usually) resting the brush point down in the water jar (the weight of the brush pushes it down and bends the bristles.).

It's also worth noting that when selecting brushes it's a good idea to avoid ones with the early signs of a split, lick/curl or any stray hairs.It will only magnify over time.
Literally take all of the brushes from the display, grade them and pick the best.
A good friendly store may even provide you with some clean water to see how the points form properly.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
A good friendly store may even provide you with some clean water to see how the points form properly.

Brushes usually come with some gum or starch on them to keep their point and protect them from when they're manufactured to when they get in your hot little hands, I'd be surprised if a store would let you wash it off all their brushes for them

I've actually bought a few brushes that looked a bit frayed out of the store and they seemed to come up fine after I gave them a wash in soap and repointed them... I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, I just bought them because they were the last ones on the shelves. But when brushes off the shelf look a bit frayed, it's usually because of the gum or starch in them, when used brushes looked frayed, it's because paint has gotten in the ferrule and dried.

Anyway, yeah, stop paint getting in to the ferrule is a big one, washing them frequently and thoroughly, not resting them in the bristles-down in your water jar and using sable brushes rather than synthetic brushes are the big things you can do to improve brush life. Synthetic brushes will tend to get hooked tips even if you treat them well.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Synthetic brushes will tend to get hooked tips even if you treat them well.

Is that just the bristle material? I was about to ask what was going on if I did not rest the point down in water but they still got little curls on the very tip, but I use synthetic... I think... so it might just be that. Honestly, where is a good place to get Sable brushes? My local craft store is a Micheal's that just has 3 different "levels" of brushes and sells them under vague headings of "beginner," "intermediate," and "professional." I use the professional ones (they are orange-brown in color), but I get a curl in a matter of months. I try to spin my brush a lot and not always use the same side, but it had not been helping

 Red_Ink_Cat wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Synthetic brushes will tend to get hooked tips even if you treat them well.

Is that just the bristle material? I was about to ask what was going on if I did not rest the point down in water but they still got little curls on the very tip, but I use synthetic... I think... so it might just be that. Honestly, where is a good place to get Sable brushes? My local craft store is a Micheal's that just has 3 different "levels" of brushes and sells them under vague headings of "beginner," "intermediate," and "professional." I use the professional ones (they are orange-brown in color), but I get a curl in a matter of months. I try to spin my brush a lot and not always use the same side, but it had not been helping

Yeah, the bristle material. There are a whole heap of different types of synthetics, so maybe some of them don't hook, but all the ones I've tried get a hooked tip after a few uses no matter how well I try and care for them. My Kolinsky Sable brush on the other hand has lasted through many many models and still has a perfectly straight and pointy tip.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I'd be surprised if a store would let you wash it off all their brushes for them

I used to let people do it in my store and would do it myself. Once I had enough to send back a whole load of rejects I would call and complain and be given replacements for brushes that were sub-par. Often I was just told to keep the sub par brushes and would sell them cheap to the kiddies, keep them for rough work or whatever.

Michaels does sell sable, iirc, but the selection can be a bit thin. The orange bristle ones are most likely taklon (synthetic). Their sables should be labeled on the side of the handle, or on the top of the plastic package . Other options would be an art supply store such as plaza art, or online.

Vejut wrote:
Michaels does sell sable, iirc, but the selection can be a bit thin. The orange bristle ones are most likely taklon (synthetic). Their sables should be labeled on the side of the handle, or on the top of the plastic package . Other options would be an art supply store such as plaza art, or online.

I did not know that there was an orange synthetic. I will have to go look to see if my Micheal's is hiding the sable brushes somewhere or I may have to make a trip to look for a place like that. Thanks for the info and tips

I really dislike almost all of the brushes that Michaels sells, to be honest. From a fine arts perspective, they are barely serviceable learning brushes. There are some coarse bristle brushes (like the dark brown handle W&N brushes) that have some limited uses, and there are some cheap brushes like Artists Loft that can be serviceable if they're discounted enough (like, 25% coupon after it's already been dropped down by 60% or 75%...).

The real problem is they're all synthetics that end up splitting and kinking, and aren't worth much after just a couple of models. I have a whole graveyard of various Michael's brushes.

 Talys wrote:
I really dislike almost all of the brushes that Michaels sells, to be honest. From a fine arts perspective, they are barely serviceable learning brushes. There are some coarse bristle brushes (like the dark brown handle W&N brushes) that have some limited uses, and there are some cheap brushes like Artists Loft that can be serviceable if they're discounted enough (like, 25% coupon after it's already been dropped down by 60% or 75%...).

The real problem is they're all synthetics that end up splitting and kinking, and aren't worth much after just a couple of models. I have a whole graveyard of various Michael's brushes.

That is disappointing... but I have similar experience. Went back to Michael's just yesterday, and on top of not wanting to help me at all, the old lady that worked there just told me to go to a different store down the way... yeah, never buying my brushes from a Michael's again...

 Red_Ink_Cat wrote:

 Talys wrote:
I really dislike almost all of the brushes that Michaels sells, to be honest. From a fine arts perspective, they are barely serviceable learning brushes. There are some coarse bristle brushes (like the dark brown handle W&N brushes) that have some limited uses, and there are some cheap brushes like Artists Loft that can be serviceable if they're discounted enough (like, 25% coupon after it's already been dropped down by 60% or 75%...).

The real problem is they're all synthetics that end up splitting and kinking, and aren't worth much after just a couple of models. I have a whole graveyard of various Michael's brushes.

That is disappointing... but I have similar experience. Went back to Michael's just yesterday, and on top of not wanting to help me at all, the old lady that worked there just told me to go to a different store down the way... yeah, never buying my brushes from a Michael's again...

LOL. That's helpful Q: "Can you help me with my Toyota?" A: "Go to the Subaru dealership down the road!!!"

When Michael's changes brands of brushes, they heavily discount what's left of the old stuff. Then, you can still use the 25% off of entire purchase including sale items coupon, making the brushes just short of free. In those cases, I don't really care if I don't get much use out of the brushes -- there are lots of times I need brushes I can cram into nooks and crannies and kill anyhow.

At the moment, in my neck of the woods, Michaels has some very coarse bristle Winsor Newton brushes -- the "Galleria" line. These are totally useless for painting 25mm infantry types, but the large ones are quite useful for basecoating terrain tiles (like SWM or Realm of Battle boards). You can get them like, 1/4, 1/2, 3/8 and up -- both flat and angled. With the big coupons (like 50-60% off), they become pretty good deals, because serviceable big paintbrushes aren't really cheap. A word of warning, they are vastly inferior to GW brushes for drybrush -- I've tried a bunch

A good place to satisfy brush fetishes in Canada is DeSerres.

Two pronged brushes used to really annoy me, not just for miniatures, but also at art school, and with the brushes I use at work. I eventually discovered that it's caused by twisting the bristles. Twisting is quite a natural thing to do to reform the tip, but it trains the bristles to curl in different directions, which eventually leads to the splitting. Since I stopped twisting the bristles, it hardly ever happens. Try to pull down and away when you reform the tip.

As for fixing one that's already split... you can sometimes improve them with a regular clothes iron (and starch if you like). Wet the brush and run the bristles along the underside of a hot iron. If you're careful you can straighten the bristles out (or at least get them all pointing the same way). It's the same principle as straightening hair. I doubt it's good for the longevity of the brush, but since they're pretty much unusable once they split, there's not much to lose.

 Talys wrote:
LOL. That's helpful Q: "Can you help me with my Toyota?" A: "Go to the Subaru dealership down the road!!!"

When Michael's changes brands of brushes, they heavily discount what's left of the old stuff. Then, you can still use the 25% off of entire purchase including sale items coupon, making the brushes just short of free. In those cases, I don't really care if I don't get much use out of the brushes -- there are lots of times I need brushes I can cram into nooks and crannies and kill anyhow.

At the moment, in my neck of the woods, Michaels has some very coarse bristle Winsor Newton brushes -- the "Galleria" line. These are totally useless for painting 25mm infantry types, but the large ones are quite useful for basecoating terrain tiles (like SWM or Realm of Battle boards). You can get them like, 1/4, 1/2, 3/8 and up -- both flat and angled. With the big coupons (like 50-60% off), they become pretty good deals, because serviceable big paintbrushes aren't really cheap. A word of warning, they are vastly inferior to GW brushes for drybrush -- I've tried a bunch

Fair enough. Any of those brushes would prob be the cheapest "I don't care if I wreck it" brushes, but I already have a giant back load of random brushes floating around from old HS art classes and stuff. They work great for terrain, but if I run out, I will have to keep an eye out for the sale.

 Smacks wrote:
As for fixing one that's already split... you can sometimes improve them with a regular clothes iron (and starch if you like). Wet the brush and run the bristles along the underside of a hot iron. If you're careful you can straighten the bristles out (or at least get them all pointing the same way). It's the same principle as straightening hair. I doubt it's good for the longevity of the brush, but since they're pretty much unusable once they split, there's not much to lose.

Now that is interesting. Does it need much heat? Because if not, just using a hair flatiron might be a little safer (for the brush at least) - and that is already intended to smash and flatten things.

Only problem then is finding someone that has one...

What brush did you use? Synthetics will hook. Cheap natural hairs have variable results. I have yet to find a company-brand hobby brush I like. And, sometimes, you may even have a bad batch for a high-quality sable hobby brush. Since I paint to advanced tabletop, I'm fine with a size 0 and 00 Raphael 8404 and Winsor and Newton Series 7 for detailed work, and sometimes basecoat.

Different brushes have their uses. Cheap brushes are fine for drybrushing, sometimes washing, and sometimes terrain. You might find a cheap natural brush for basecoating and sometimes detailing (especially metallics, which supposedly you don't want to use your expensive hobby brush for). Expensive hobby brushes can be used for pretty much anything, but, when I began painting, I ruined two by not properly caring for them. (Amazon's sable nail brushes are worth a shot when they're three for under $2: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BLN17K/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Remember brush care. I prefer Pink Soap liquid soap and conditioner because it's easy to use; dip the brush in it after cleaning to condition the brush. Use two rinse jars. (Also, make a wet palette, which is cheap and may improve your painting noticeably.)

 Red_Ink_Cat wrote:
Now that is interesting. Does it need much heat? Because if not, just using a hair flatiron might be a little safer (for the brush at least) - and that is already intended to smash and flatten things.

Only problem then is finding someone that has one...

Regular iron is probably easier, as they stand up on their own, and you don't really want to be smooshing and ripping at the brush with hair straighteners. Hotter temperatures work faster, just make sure the brush is damp, and run it along the iron like you're painting a line... and obviously don't try it with your synthetic brushes!