Picking the Right Paint Brush
Picking the right paint brush is a big deal! It may not seem like it, but using the right brush is pivotal to your finish turning out right. If you want to have a great finish then there are three things you need to get right. The right technique, the right paint, and the right brush. These three things make up the holy trinity of painting. You can’t have a truly great paint job without all three.
Today let’s dig into the details on picking the right paint brush. There are a lot of things to consider like size, angled or straight, material, and of course cost. How can you decide? Glad you asked. My grandfather was a master painter and and drilled a lot of the old techniques into me as a kid. He never did take to latex paints being an old timer, but that’s a story for another day.
One important thing he did teach me was how to select the right brush for the task at hand and how to make that brush last for decades. I have never forgotten it to this day. So below I’ll give you Scott’s 2 Laws of Paint Brush Selection based on those important lessons my grandfather taught me all those years ago.
1. Pay For Quality
Expensive paint brushes are better paint brushes. It’s that simple. Just like a Maserati is a better car than a Ford, a quality paint brush will cost several times that of a low-quality one. Don’t be fooled by this though because a high quality brush (if cared for properly) can last decades compared to just a few months or years for a cheaper brush. Buy quality and learn how to clean and care for your brush.
High quality brushes will:
Hold more paint
Release paint more evenly
Hold their shape longer
Not shed bristles
Last much longer
There is a time for a cheap paint brush. These are called chip brushes usually and I use them as disposable brushes for tasks like primer touch up. For example, I have a bunch of siding that has been pre-primed and it is now being cut and installed onsite. Every time I make a cut, I reveal fresh wood that needs to be primed. I keep a chip brush sitting in a cup of oil-based primer to dab on the end cuts. Perfect use for a chip brush since it gets pretty gummed up by the end of the day I can just trash it and move on.
2. Different Brushes For Different Paints
What you plan to paint with will determine what kind of brush you need. Natural bristle brushes were designed to work best with oil-based paints. Synthetic bristle brushes are for water-based paints. It’s a matter of how the bristles are able to hold onto and release the paint.
There are brushes that can do both and they do a decent job of it, but if you plan to use a lot of one type of paint over the other, the best paint brush is the one designed for your type of paint. I keep both types of brushes in my shop and go back and forth between different paints. Even if you use a brush that is designed for multiple paints keep them two of them and dedicate one to water-based and one to oil-based coatings.
For Oil-Based Paints Use:
China Bristle
Ox-Tail
Other Natural Bristle Brushes
For Water-Based Paints Use:
Nylon/Polyester
Other Synthetic Blends