"Care of Sable Brushes" Topic

I was talking with someone at my FLGS yesterday, and he was claiming that you can "recover" the point of a sable brush with salad oil.

I'd never heard of this before. Anybody have any experience with such a thing?

(I ask because I'm notoriously hard on my brushes, which is why I don't get Newton & Windsor 7s, like all the cool kids.)

Well, it will definitely make the bristles hold together, but I don't know if that's actually "recovering" the brush. I suppose it couldn't be any worse than using the hair conditioner out of your shower.

I use my wife's hair conditioner – Alberto VO5 works great.

With the time and energy spent on figuring out how to bring a point back to a $1.00 USD brush, you could have bought Gods brush. Going on two years for mine!

link

Even WN7's get old. Mine used to last years as well but now that I'm painting 12-18 hours a week they don't last for years anymore.

A splayed brush gets that way due to dry paint particles on the fibers, especially up near the ferrule (metal part that holds the bristles onto the handle). Also from just plain abrasion (wear) of the fibers -- obviously some brushes are so worn nothing can be done.

You can recover a brush by 1) cleaning the fibers really well to remove the embedded paint particles and 2) treating the fibers so the abraded sections are less absorbant and less rough, promoting better flow -- typically with a coating of moisturizer or oil.

To the extent that salad oil works, it would be doing one or both of these things.

Hair conditioner is formulated to do #2 for human hair, so it will work for brushes to the extent that its formulation can do the same thing for the brush fibers.

Personally I use artist's brush soap. It is formulated specifically for restoring and caring for brush fibers, is not that expensive, and one purchase lasts forever. I use The Masters but there are other brands.

Note, after cleaning, it's usually advised to use the soapy film (or whatever you've cleaned the brush with) to "train" or "shape" the brush into a point and let it sit. I do this just like everybody else, but it's only going to work well if you've removed whatever was causing the fibers to be out of place in the first place, i.e., the embedded paint particles I mention in #1.

Hair conditioner as already stated.

Tony

I use DickBlick.com brushes with the "lifetime warranty" where when you wear one out – they send you a new one. Works pretty slick.

Thanks, guys. I hadn't heard of the trick with hair conditioner, either, so it makes sense now.

I'm not sure it'll fix my brush abuse problem, though. I suspect that I dry brush waaaay too much — it's a great way to get pigment grains up into the ferrule, and the reshaping tricks won't fix THAT problem.

Drybrushing is for those cheap-o brushes. Never drybrush with a sable brush--total waste of money! You, my friend, are your own worst enemy! And why does anyone need to drybush so much? Unless you want everything to look like it just stepped off of sand dunes of Arrakis. Perhaps learning some better techniques might help? I'm not being snarky. I'm being serious.

Get a nice Escoda escoda.com sable brush, cheaper and better than W&N 7, and treat it well. Use Pink Soap to clean the brush when done. Apply some PS on the brush before setting the brush to dry. PS has a moisturizer in it to help keep brushes supple and retain their point. Easy peasy. Your painting will improve. I know mine did!

Clean brushes after each painting session with 'Masters Brush Cleaner and Restorer'. This stuff is invaluable for keeping your W&N7's in tip top condition.

My last size 2 W&N7 lasted nine years before it lost its point and painted over 20,000 figures.

Perhaps learning some better techniques might help?

It depends, I think, on what you consider "better". I can paint units of 10s and 15s lickity-split by drybrushing on top of a black basecoat, and it doesn't look dusty at all. (I'm really good at drybrushing.)

An example of the technique (15mm Prussians):

But I will take your advice and reserve good brushes for painting 28s and the very occasional 15mm personality, which I don't have to drybrush. We'll see how long they last.

I use a product called Mona Lisa Brush Shaper avail at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Works well after I was brushes with the same stuff that Fat Wally mentioned above.
I have even restored the point of damaged brushes with this stuff.

Larry

'Salad oil' is likely to polymerise on your brush, basically acting like oil based house paint – a great way to turn the brush into a gooey blob – if you leave it on there for a while.

All the advice on brush cleaning soaps & hair conditioner is good, and is well suported in other, non miniature figure painting forums.

The only Escoda brush I've bought dried up and became brittle in a few months, whereas my W&N Series 7 stay supple until it's last use. Pink Soap is the real deal, but I'll stick with my W&N's they're waaaayy better! ;)

Conditioner works well.

In days of old, signwriters and the like used to keep brushes in mineral oil / petroleum jelly, to keep things like sword liners etc in shape between jobs. Obviously you had to wash it out before use, but a little residue wasn't too big a problem in enamel type paints. In acrylics it might not be so forgiving!!!

My brushes get used and abused (just not this week since I am visiting my parents). I use WN Series 7 brushes. I clean them often and after every color change and again at the end of my painting sessions with Master's Brush Cleaner. If they start looking dry, and they do, I first soak them in WN brush cleaner to make sure they are clean to the ferral, I then wash them in Pink soap. Then they get a good coat of Humectus Hair Conditioner. I use the stuff when I am doing a lot of diving. It will restore the brushes to a certain extent. But remember, brushes eventually do wear out. Proper care will extend the life of a brush, but not forever.