"Why won't my brush stay pointed?" Topic

This is a peculiar thing to me.

I have found in using a couple different sable brushes, that no matter how well I treat them, clean them, keep them pointed with brush soap between uses, etc. they have invariably developed "wings", that is to say those stray bristles that stick out at an angle. They developed this perfectly symmetrical thing with a wing on each side that pop out like rocket fins.

Within a second of putting paint on just the end point of the brush, within the first stroke the wings pop out, ruining the point and the ability to get into fine detail areas. No matter how much I drag and turn the brush to get a pointed tip with paint just on the end.

Incidentally, the two brushes I had this problem with were Wargames Foundry sable brushes.

More recently I bought a couple Army Painter nylon bristle brushes of the same size. They seem to keep a much stronger point and seem to apply paint just as effectively as the sable.

So, is this a sable thing? Soft nylon is better maybe? I know all brushes eventually will wear out and begin to lose shape. But the Foundry brushes are pretty new, I had only painted maybe a couple dozen minis. before it happened.

It's not like I'm drybrushing with them or stressing the bristles.

So it's kind of strange to me!

Sable won't curl but it does fray for me as well.

My nylons develop a little curve before that begins to spread too.

The specific problem you have seems to me the paint has entered and dried in the ferrule, no matter how much you clean it with soap it wont go. If you paint with acrylics try alcohol and a little bit of acetone to remove the paint from the ferrole, beware as you can also remove the glue from the brush. Also could be an issue with the quality with the brush.

If an issue with the quality of the brush, change it to a good one. If you like painting then use good tools and forget about cheap ones.
Best ones are Windsor and Newton Series 7 miniature brushes. More expensive but usually a 1 and 2 will last for a long, long time before changing.

A sable brush needs to be 'loaded' to work properly. That means that it needs to have liquid further up it than just the tip. I doesn't need to be paint, water will do but you must have enough moisture in the body of the brush to hold the hairs in place.

Use Windsor & Newton Series 7. It won't happen, if used correctly. I paint 5 hours a day, six days a week. I only need to exchange it for a new one after 2-3 months of very intensive use, and still can be used for work that doesn't require precission.

Third vote Windsor and Newton series 7.

Just had problem with some GW brushes , hardly used, washed properly, tip bent! Ordered some W&N on above recommendation!

Tally Ho! xxxxx

Another vote for Series 7. They will keep a straight tip for quite a while if cared for properly.

Yup, W/N Series 7. And Uncle Goblin has a valuable point: Keep paint out of the ferrule. Once dried inside. It will separate the bristles.

Also, I've found lower-end brushes I use for dry-brushing will eventually take on the characteristics you describe, and nothing I know of can help once they do. Perhaps dry brushing wears away the outer layer of the bristles, causing the "wings" to form.

Won't waste my time with anything other than a W/N Series 7.

Yet another vote for W&N 7s. In fact, the moment I saw your topic title I thought to myself: "Because you're not using W&N 7s"…

I've taken a look at the Winsor and Newton site and I see that Series 7 are classed as water colour brushes. They have other ranges that are specifically for acrylics. Are these acrylic-specific brushes inferior than Series 7 even when painting with acrylics?

DBDD

Use an X-Acto knife and cut the offending bristles off, very carefully.

Some (very few) brushes can be retrained by leaving brush soap or even hair conditioner on the wet bristles after shaping them to the desired shape. You should rinse well before using.

I go through brushes like crazy with this problem. I figured out its dryed paint at the ferrule as well, am trying to keep them clean better. Sometimes like the curled tip to get in areas.

Use the brush, I paint primarily with acrylics, clean it thoroughly in clean water, wipe it dry and then I resort to a technique a friend told me about. After washing the brush, you "tip" the brush with your mouth. Gross, perhaps, unhygienic, a little, effective, definitely. I have brushes I've used for several years.
It will also work with brushes cleaned with thinner, just wash it with water also before "tipping" and maybe keep some Jack Daniels Black Label close at hand to kill the taste.
Remember safety first, do NOT light a cigarette afterwards!

@von Schwartz: Tipping can be toxic, too. Art teachers don't recommend it. Artists have been doing it forever.

@DBDD
>I've taken a look at the Winsor and Newton site and I see that Series 7 are classed as water colour brushes. They have other ranges that are specifically for acrylics. Are these acrylic-specific brushes inferior than Series 7 even when painting with acrylics?

I've not used W&N acrylic brushes but, looking at the website, they're made of synthetic fiber. I've never had ac synthetic brush that didn't curl. Some curl sooner, some curl later, but they all curl. I've never had a W&N 7 curl. They're twice as much money, but they last ten times longer.

Actually, I don't know how long they last, my oldest one is 7-8 years old and still has a serviceable point.

Plus the acrylic brushes only go down to 1, my 7s go down to 000.

Best/cheapest place to buy a WN7 in the US?

I got mine from Jerry's Artarama but I think I had a coupon, but that was a couple years ago.

link

Amazon also has them I believe.

Every nylon or synthetic brush that I've ever had split at the tip after one or two uses. I will never buy them again.

I use Reaper sable brushes and have never had a problem with them.

Roll the brush on a bar of wet bar of soap. Shape the brush into a point with your fingers as it dries. This will help to keep the brush tip trained into a point.

Fact is that the tiny tipped brushes we use to paint our minis are not very durable, and they are going to wear out after just a few hours of painting. Also consider the way we use these brushes. We don't simply draw them across the paper. We use them to push paint into tiny grooves and folds. They are not made for what we use them for.

There's also the Vallejo Brush restorer for removing old paint.

This video could help:

YouTube link

You are buying inferior brushes. My Winsor & Newton Series 7 from Dick Blick keep their points until they are literally worn out. For example a No. 1, after several years of heavy painting will end up a No 0. But it still has a point.

Tom

Thresher01: "Use an X-Acto knife and cut the offending bristles off, very carefully."

LOL. A brush circumcision?

Dan

LOL Cacique.

More an advice to the rest of the bristles: "Now You know what to expect if you deviate and not form a perfect point"

Lol!

+1 to CC and Goblin

If you paint for a long enough time for the paint to dry on the miniature you will see a line of dried paint on your brush above the wet paint on the tip. This is easier to see if you are painting a house (a real house, the kind that people live in). On a flat 3 or 4 inch brush used for cutting-in before you roll it's a 1/4 inch wide. This dried paint is hard to clean out of the brush and if left in, it will spread the bristles.

Before you start to paint, dip your brush in water or thinner, as appropriate, and hold the tip up so that the water/thinner runs into the ferrule. This will protect the brush and make it easier to clean. The first strokes, the paint may be a little thin, but just go back over that area later if it needs a second coat.

Oberlindes Sol LIC yes true it may be toxic but I figure if you use enough of the Jack Daniels it will negate the toxicity and if you use too much Jack Daniels you won't care anyway, win win right?

Tamiya X-20A thinners works well on cleaning dried acrylic paint from brushes.
My initial way of cleaning brushes is 1 jar of water with a couple of squirts of liquid dish soap and a 2nd jar of just water.
At the end of a session I take a little X-20A in a dish, roll the brush around in it, re-wash to remove the thinners and shape.

I have never found any of the " Hobby" ranges of brushes to be of any use other than for broad brush jobs such as priming, scenic work etc. I now use Winsor and Newton no 7 brushes for all detailed painting.

"It will also work with brushes cleaned with thinner, just wash it with water also before "tipping" and maybe keep some Jack Daniels Black Label close at hand to kill the taste."

Just clean the brush with the JDBL and save a step… ;-)