Brush Care Guide - how to care for your brushes

A well made brush is an incredibly valuable tool and will last many years if cared for correctly. 

This is especially true for fine natural hair brushes, such as those made from sable, as the properties that make these hairs wonderful for brushes can also mean they are more susceptible to damage if incorrectly cared for.

The key element of brush care is the removal of paint and the prevention of paint drying on the brush. This is most important at the ‘heel’ of the brush where the hair meets the ferrule, and inside the ferrule itself as dry paint here is likely to cause the hairs to break resulting in the brush shedding hairs, and a loss of density and shape to the remaining brush (as well as a lot of frustration for the user!)

This brush care guide aims to explain how best to care for your brushes through a variety of mediums and hair types.

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Why You Should Keep Dedicated Brushes for Each Medium

Using the same brush across multiple mediums, such as switching between oil, acrylic, enamel, etc can cause serious issues that affect both the brush and your work.

Each medium contains different binders, solvents, and drying agents – residue from one medium (even small traces) can contaminate another, leading to:

• Improper drying or adhesion – e.g., oil residue in a brush used for acrylic can cause lifting, streaking, or poor surface bonding.
• Surface defects – particularly problematic in gilding, where even trace oils or soap can interfere with gold leaf adhesion or cloud a gild.
• Colour or textural  issues – if old enamel or oil pigment remains deep in the ferrule, it can muddy colours and affect the smoothness of future applications.

Different mediums require specific cleaning approaches:

• Acrylics clean with water.
• Enamels and oils need solvents.
• Water-gilding brushes must never touch solvents.

It could be useful to label or store your brushes by medium – a piece of coloured tape on the handle or storage in clearly marked containers helps keep your brushes sorted and avoids accidental mixing.

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Medium-Specific Cleaning & Handling

Oil Paint

Use mineral spirits or turpentine to dissolve paint and remove as much as possible.

Follow with a brush soap taking extra care to remove paint from the heel of the brush. As well as cleaning, brush soaps also condition the brush helping maintain softness and flexibility to the hair. Washing up liquid can also be used to clean oil paint brushes but will not have the same conditioning benefits as a brush soap.

Dry thoroughly and store flat or suspended pointed downwards in a drying rack  – avoid storing upright when wet if possible 

Acrylic Paint

Wash with cold water as soon as possible; acrylic dries quickly and irreversibly. Use a brush soap to remove any paint near the ferrule, then reshape after washing and dry flat.

Gilding – Water & Oil Sizes

Water-Gilding

Brushes should only be cleaned with warm water. A brush used for water gilding should only ever be used with gelatine size and no other mediums.

Oil based gold size

Clean with white spirit, turpentine or oil-based brush cleaner, followed by a mild soap.

Always keep gilding brushes separate from those used with paint.

Enamel Paint (Solvent-Based)

Requires strong solvents like white spirit or a specialist enamel thinner to clean, store flat in neatsfoot or engine oil.

Step by step guide – this guide is for chisel edged brushes used in solvent/oil based enamel, but you can adapt it for other mediums:

1. For new brushes, before use, saturate the hair in neatsfoot oil. Work the brush into shape (e.g. a chisel edge for lettering brushes) using your fingers and stand on end (hairs up) for an hour or more to allow the neatsfoot oil to sink into the ferrule. This greatly reduces the likelihood of paint drying in the ferrule later on.
2. Before use, wipe the excess oil off the brush with a rag and give it a rinse in some clean white spirit.
3. While using the brush the paint may start drying, affecting the sharpness of the chisel edge. If this happens, wipe the excess paint off and give it a quick rinse in some white spirit before continuing to paint.
4. After painting, give your brush a thorough clean. First wipe as much excess paint off the hairs as possible with a rag. Rinse it in stages using three separate vessels of white spirit, from dirty to clean (1,2,3), wiping off the spirits and paint each time. When pressing the ferrule down in the clean spirits there should be (ideally) no paint coming out. If paint is still visible then continue rinsing and wiping.wipe off remaining spirits, or spin brushes between your hands.
5. Once the brush is clean, use neatsfoot oil, engine oil or (in a pinch as it can be quite drying) vaseline to cover the hairs, massaging it in to get the brush back to a chisel edge. These products help replace the natural oils that have been removed by the strong solvents in signwriting enamel and by the subsequent cleaning.  Please note, neatsfoot oil is recommended for its incredibly slow drying properties but it will dry and be very difficult to remove after an extended period of time. Brushes that are unlikely to be used for periods of 6 months or more should be stored dry and in a sealed case or container.
6. Store flat in a box or upright so that the chisel edge is preserved.
7. When you are ready to paint again, return to step 2.

Storage: Long-haired brushes (e.g., swordliners, stripers, writers) should be laid flat or stored in a box that suspends the tip to prevent damage.

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General Storage & Maintenance Advice

• Do not stand brushes on their heads – this ruins the shape.
• Do not soak brushes in solvent or water for extended periods of time.
• Dry brushes with bristles pointing downward (hanging by handle) or laid flat, especially after cleaning.
• Dedicated brushes per medium prevent cross-contamination and damage.
• Use protective cases or brush boxes for transport and long-term storage.
• Periodically take out and wash or oil your brushes as per the advice above if you are not using them

If you look after your brushes, whatever the medium you are using or the hair they are made from, they can last you a lifetime. Happy painting!

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