My Favorite Furniture Painting Brushes
How Long Do Brushes Hold Up?
Look at the photo comparisons after a year of near weekly use. Here’s what happens to brushes – bristles bulk out and wild one stick out on the edges. If your brushes wear out fast, click here to see how care for them to last longer.
ChalkPro 2″ Plush Brush – Natural Bristles
A good brush will keep more of it’s shape after repeated uses and cleanings. The left photo is the best image to show you brush ‘wear flare’. Bristles become less compact and bushy at the bottom. A worn brush drags more and is more likely to leave stroke marks. They start loading and holding more paint during use becoming heavy and wasteful. Worn brushes start taking a lot longer to clean too! It is time to let this one go to brush pasture or use it for primer one last for a last horrah. Good bye, friend!
Why Using a Good Brush Is Good for the Soul
Using good brushes is a lot like wearing good walking shoes. I want to enjoy my 2 mile daily walks. I’ve learned to curb aches and pains by replacing them twice a year. Yeah, sometimes I feel guilty because they are not in tatters yet I’m tossing them aside, but joint pain sucks.
Brushes are the same for me. I want to really enjoy painting. Fighting with a worn out or cheap brush is just not worth the frustration. I mean, I really like to paint so anything that makes it less enjoyable, (like not having a good space to do it) needs to go. Good tools are key to an enjoyable project, just ask a carpenter.
The Worse Brush on the Planet – Wooster Shorty
There I said it. I may be the lone ranger in the furniture painting world but I hate these cheap brushes.
These things are too thick for one thing – but it’s not the reason for my angst with them . . . take a look after one use. The outside bristles flare out like bell bottom pants from the 70’s. Those outliers cake up in a minutes and leave flecks in my project. Lord knows I have a hard enough time with little specks that float into my paint — from nowhere! Naw, I’m not doing these.
Coming Soon – Synthetic Brush Wear
A new versus old synthetic brush comparison is on the way but it may take a few months. I just opened my new Zibra synthetic shorty and have used it only a few times. So far it cleans super fast and shows no signs of wear flare. If it’s anything like, and should be better than, the Wooster Silver Tip, I will get long pleasurable use out of it.
