how to select brushes for waterborne finishes?

[Chris Friesen]

Last night I was brushing some Target EM2000, didn't like the performance of a pretty decent synthetic bristle paint brush, and decided to try my Grammercy finishing brush.

The Grammercy brush behaved much better, but I've always read that you're supposed to use natural bristle brushes with solvent-based finishes, and synthetic brushes for waterborne stuff.

Is this actually the case? Does anyone have any experience with good brushes for waterborne finishes? There's a local place that sells DaVinci brushes...anyone have any experience with them?

Thanks for any advice you can give....

[Jim McFarland]

For small projects, I've had good luck brushing Minwax Polycrylic with the Golden Taklon brushes from Homestead Finishing (near the bottom of this page):

http://www.homesteadfinishingproducts.com/htdocs/Brushes.htm

Project where brushing worked for me was a small end table. I tried same on a larger project (~18" X 11 feet mantle surface) and couldn't avoid brush marks. Finally caved and used an HVLP sprayer on the larger area. YMMV!

[Ed Peters]

I always select a brush with an air hose attached.

Ed