Thread: How to store brushes

Storage in spirit or turps is the lazy short term method and they will harden up with time so it is best to clean the brush and store it dry.
Regards
John

And a "handyman" mate of mine told me to wash them in some cheap hair conditioner after cleaning before storing. Cheers, Crowie

I just buy the middle range brands and as time is money, I just chuck em out or really you can save them for a bit if you wrap them in clingy stuff, but then chuck em out.

Get a pile of new ones cheap.

no worries,

Oddjob1

I've always wrapped my brushes in aluminium foil after a thorough clean and dry. They retain their shape pretty well this way.

Mick

p.s. I'm not too sure about using hair conditioner especially if you plan to use solvent based finishes.

It's all got to do with moisture, if you can retain the same level of moisture your brushes wont dry out. Al foil is excellent, the same reason they put the lid back on the tin in the first place.

Oddjob1

With nitrocellulose sanding sealer and with shellac for crude purposes, I'll leave a cheap brush in the jar.

For house paints, after use I clean them with whatever the solvent is, then clean them again with Brush Cleaner from the paint shop, and then wrap them in brown paper.

Re glue, with PVA I just wash them out with water. Those are just spreading tools.

My glue brush lives in the glue pot and only gets washed when the pot gets a bit disgusting and needs cleaning.

I squeeze the residue out of my oil-base finish and shellac brushes with news paper and then support the brushes in jars of their respective solvents with short pieces of bamboo skewers inserted through holes drilled through the handles above the ferrules. I have a couple of squirrel hair mops ($120 and $160 each) that have spent the past twenty years suspended in meths. So far, so good.

I have disposable brushes for the gluing part.

The brush that I use for Shellac I started using a sealed container with a hole cut to suspend the brush in the container not actually in the solvent but there is a little in the bottom of the cantainer.

The oil or water based I clean the brushes in the solvent or water and give them a good wash with mild soapy water. Let them dry flat and place them in seperate containers.

With Hide glue I have gone to mainly using a sauce bottle sitting in a pot next to the glue pot, no brushes, or a knife or stick for restoration work, the sauce bottle has had the tip melted shut then a hot pin is passed through, if I was veneering I would use the brush then wash it out if I remembered, but I usually did not remember to do this and it lived in the pot. Since taking an interest in guitars,the way I use hide glue for construction and restoration has changed even more,I first grind in a coffee grinder [ got that idea off you Woodwould with prepping shellac ]
then it goes in to a jar with hot water, sits in a larger jar with hot water and is ready in 15 minutes this is about 100 ml of thick glue,
from there to bottle, the new bit is, when done , back in the jar and in the fridge ,from there it can go to the freezer if next use may be months off, but from the fridge if I need some , into the micro wave for three ten second bursts and its ready to use straight away, then back to the fridge.

sorry getting off the point here, back to brushes.

With estapol I cut enough handle off the brush so it will just fit in the tin ,so it lives in the 4 lt tin with the thinned sanding sealer mix, I use the large size brushes,and as long as the tin is sealed well after use they last well, the tin is only ever filled 30%

For shellac I have on my shelf a jar inside diameter 60mm x 180 long ,I made a cradle for it so it lies on a 40deg angle, this is filled with metho and the brushes stay there, the metho does dry out,but the brushes dont get all bent up, so a check before I need to use, then some metho and they are good for the week. I use to try and wash in a jar and hang on a nail but once again I found I would leave them there and they would be dry and bent up when I wanted them

Regards Rob