Brush recommendations

[Lee Ludden]

Painting and finishing are my most woefully inadequate woodworking related skills. I have been doing some research on technique, and figure that a good set of brushes would go a ways toward making the whole process easier. I will be doing both latex paint and some stains/varnish/shellac/poly type finishes. I don't really mind spending a reasonable amount of money, but I want good, lasting performance.

TIA.

[Steve Schoene]

You will need several brushes. First, you mentioned latex paint. On furniture, you never want to use "latex paint", you want to use the top of the line acyrlic enamel from to producers like Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams. (The others aren't really made from latex--natural rubber--rather, they are made with ingredients listed as vinyl, vinyl latex, or acrylic-styrene, according to Jeff Jewitts book Finishing.) For any of these waterborne paints you want a synthetic bristle brush. The bristles should be tapered, and have split ends. The best shape is not flatt across, but more chiseled or rounded on the ends.

For varnish (poly is a subset of varnish) you want a a good natural bristle brush. You will often see badger hair brushes recommended, the only problem is that there aren't any, other than, perhaps a few specialty items from artist supply sources. In the 1 1/2" to 2" size brush you would use for most furniture it would cost nicely into three figures. I think ox hair makes a good varnish brush. You can find ox hair either alone or in a mix with china bristle at moderate prices. A good china bristle brush, again with the chisel ends and tapered flagged tips will generally work well. Do expect to pay arnound $15 give or take a little. The cheaper $6 or $8 brushes is where problems can arise from your choice of brush

Stains are the most forgiving of the brush used. You get it on the surface, and then wipe it off. How you get it their isn't critical.

Shellac has a wide variety of opinions about the best brush. I like a synthetic watercolor wash brush with Taklon Gold bristles. Others don't because they don't hold much shellac. The best finisher I know uses a "mop" of very fine bristles. I find that hard to control since with shellac you don't have time to "work" with the material. Lot's of people find that they prefer to use a cloth pad to apply shellac.

[glenn bradley]

I always find this QuickTime vidoe from Granmarcey fascinating to watch: http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=NEXT&StoreCode=toolstore&nextpage=/extra/brushmaking.html#brushmaker

P.s. I almost never use brushes.

[Neal Clayton]

for slow drying varnishes/paints there is a reasoning for better brushes, since the result is directly applicable to how smoothly it was put on.

for shellac i use plain ole cheapo home depot purdy brushes. shellac is more about technique than brush quality, since it'll be dry in a couple of minutes it doesn't really flow, per se.

however, no matter which way you go, spending money on expensive brushes won't make you better at using a brush. suggestion: use the plain jane white china bristle brushes from home depot. when you're proficient enough to brush lacquer/shellac with those and find that they're not good enough for the slower drying varnishes you use, look for better varnish brushes then. if you can't brush shellac with a cheap brush you're not going to brush oil varnishes any better with an expensive brush.

[James Phillips]

Go to homestead finishing website.

The ox hair brush is great for Shellac. It is about $50 but well worth it. Shellac brushes are also easy to care for since you just let them dry and then re-dissolve it next time you want to use it.

Taclon (sp?) is also a good choice for most finishes. The finer the bristle the better the finish.

[Scott Holmes]

A qualit5y brush is a dream to use regardless of the finish being applied.

Most people don't know how to condition a brush before use. For varnish; dip the brush in mineral spirits just BEFORE you start to use the brush. Gentley shake the excess MS out of the brush... NOW the brush is ready for use... The ferrule should be full of MS, this way NO varnish will get up in the ferrule and clean up will be much easier.

Good brushes do make a difference. I don't use a brush for more than one type of finish; just not a good idea.