The Nurturing of Your Brush

With the right care, a brush can last a lifetime.

First, let’s discuss choosing the correct brush for the work required.  For pasting, you want to select a size that reduces the number of trips to the paste pot.  Too many trips means that the paste coverage will be inconsistent and/or spots will be missed.  Don’t skimp on the size.  You want to load the brush once and finish the complete job.

For more precise adhesive applications, consider a flat brush, still keep in mind the trips to the glue pot.

Now, how to make your brush live forever...ALWAYS PRE-SOAK THE BRUSH in water.  Dry natural bristles absorb the liquids around them.  By pre-soaking the bristles in water, they fill up with water so that when the bristles are dipped in paste, the paste remains on the outside of the bristle.  During a thorough wash, all the paste can be easily removed and the bristles will remain flexible. 

In addition, pre-soaking natural or artificial bristled brushes will draw water up into the ferrule of the brush.  This stops the adhesive from being drawn up into this area, only to descend later into the exposed bristles, causing them to dry stiff.

Allow the brush to dry with bristles pointing down so that the water doesn’t remain sitting in the ferrule area where it can form mildew.  This can be accomplished by adding loop of cord which might require drilling a hole in the handle.