Restoring / looking after paint brushes

brushes are never the same even after proper cleaning, look for Brushmate storage. they are basically suspended in chemical fumes, they work BRILLIANTLY if you dont let the chemical dry out.

Theres also a gel storage version which is also good but you have to wipe the gel off with a rag beforehand, its called Go or store and go , sorry im rubbish with links on this forum. Shame about the brushes, i like wooster stuff a lot, there are brush restorer liquids but its a bit hit and miss if they've gone hard.
I always go for quality brushes even for oil paint, theres nothing more irritating than watching the bristles fan out half way through a job

A friend showed me a trick years ago to revitalise paint brushes, once it’s dry brushing it with a clean wire brush gets rid of most of the clogged up paint. Then clean the paint brush as you would normally.
Works for me, have some brushes that are years old and used regularly.

As soon as I finish with one it goes in a jar of either warm soapy water or white spirit. It stays in the jar for several hours before a thorough clean. This pretty much means all the paint has been fully softened before I clean it.

once it’s dry brushing it with a clean wire brush gets rid of most of the clogged up paint.

I use a scrubbing brush as part of the actual clean, as you often get a line of drier paint high up which wasn't continually wetted by the dipping back in the paint.

Generally I find my brushes are good as new after a clean.

If you have periods during the day between painting you can wrap the brushes in cling film to keep the paint fresh. It makes the brushes easier to clean at the end of the day

Brushmates are great.

As is pre wetting the brush with white spirit.

I've brought back solid brushes with paint retorer aswell

As soon as I finish with one it goes in a jar of either warm soapy water or white spirit.

As soon as I finish with one it goes in the bin and I buy another cheap one for the next job. And no, as you observe, I'm not a craftsman 🙂

Leaving them soaking in cleaner too long can dissolve the glue that holds the bristles in leading to loose bristles left in the paint job. Grrr. I small line of thin runny superglue before you use them again can stop this. Also worth doing with cheap brushed as they shed hairs from the get go.

I'll try the wire brush method, I'd been trying the pre wet method with white spirits and it was helping

Definitely get the smaller brush mate.
I'm a decorator and there's not many things that are more useful or time saving than this. The vapour pads last a long time and you could always get a bottle of the vapour solution to re soak it now and then.

Also..just get your knackered brushes and leave them in there for a few days and it should definitely soften them up again.

Many, many years ago, when I used to do a bit of sign-writing and pinstripes, (I was employed as a signwriter and silkscreen printer at Westinghouse Brake & Signals) I used brushes by Wrights of Lymme, and after cleaning them out thoroughly, I was told to always grease the bristles with proper lubricating grease, like you’d use for bearings. I haven’t used them for around forty years, but my brushes are still in the glass-fibre tube I always carried them in, and just like new.
That might be worth trying, I always used paints that had white spirits as a thinner.

For my artistic painting brushes I use cheap hair gel to set the bristles into shape. Not for cleaning but it keeps my sharp brushes sharp and my pointy brushes pointy and you can get rid of it easily by brushing it against your hand before you start painting. Not sure if that helps at all but I thought I would share.