I needed to buy some new paint brushes, and headed off to Home Depot. More specifically, I wanted to buy Wooster Pro brushes, a 1″ angled brush, and a 2″ flat.
Nearby, I found a promo 3-piece set that was around the same price. Good deal. While I hadn’t planned on buying a 1-1/2″ angled brush, I’m sure it’ll come in handy in time.
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I have not used Wooster Pro nylon/polyester brushes before, but they seem pretty low-risk to try out.
This seems like a great deal.
While tempted to cheap out and get some of the lower-priced brushes on the shelf, I have heard many times about how good brushes can last quite a while if properly cared for. This proved to be true with the Wooster Shortcut brush I had used for a few woodworking finishing projects.
Price: $19
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See Also(Purdy via Amazon)
While I Have You…
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So, some of my upcoming projects will require more than a paint brush, but less than a full size roller.
I picked up a small roller frame, and 4-1/2″ x 3/8″ Wooster Pro all-paints roller covers.
$6.06 for 2? That seemed a little high, but not unexpectedly so.
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And then I found what looks to be a 12-pack of the same exact rollers, priced at $14.88.
So, $15 for 12, or $6 for 2?
I went with the 12-pack.
Is this a great deal, or is there something different about the roller covers that I’m not seeing? The rollers in both packages are 4-1/2″ with 3/8 nap, 3/4″ cores, and are made with shed-resistant woven material.
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Jim Felt
No painter I’ve ever thought was much good has ever used less then the best brushes they could buy.
Purdy in particular.
And they all seem to carry and use well worn and very well cared for favorites.
No idea about rollers though.
Stuart
There’s a similar Purdy set, for $20 at Amazon. I added a link to the post, for comparison purposes.
Kaman
Purdy was the gold standard of paint brushes for a long time but their quality has gone down significantly since they were purchased by Sherwin Williams. Once you buy a Corona chinex brush you will never buy anything else. Particularly the Excalibur series. Holds enough paint for professional production while still cutting razor sharp lines.
Tug
I have done a fair amount of painting both diy and professionally. I prefer Corona brushes. Purdy
Mini rollers are very good bit only work with their roller cages, which is fine as long as you have them. I like the poles they make as well and find that the sherlock non screw in ends work better than the standard ones.
A W
I’ve found Wooster pro to be a very good brush. Cheap brushes leave bristles behind and end up taking a lot more time to get a poorer result.
fred
In the cabinet shop – we did our finishing in a spray booth – usually a catalyzed lacquer or varnish – sometimes paint – depending on the customer. Good equipment was also a must. I think that the painters like Sata guns.
We had a painting subcontractor that always got high praise from our clients. To be honest I don’t recall what brand of brushes his painters used – but I might look the next time I have them over to paint at my place.
For me – finishing furniture that I’ve made – I’ve tried Purdy natural bristle brushes – but am partial to some old oval varnish brushes branded Luco (Leo Uhlfelder Co.) and some branded Whistler (Pennellificio Omega Spa.). These are for traditional varnish and are made of hog’s bristles. For some other finishes – I pick a badger hair brush with so called flowing ferrule, or perhaps an ox-hair brush.
For waterborne finishes – I’m back to a Purdy nylon brush.
BTW – Whistler makes lots of brushes for faux finishing:
http://www.profaux.com/store/Brushes_and_Tools.html
fred
The Purdy nylon brush style that I use for waterborne urethane:
https://www.amazon.com/Purdy-144228230-Nylox-Paint-Brush/dp/B005E5TIOK
Kman
Brushes and rollers are like most things in that the major manufacturers make good, better and best. Stay away from the cheaper selections. Wooster is among the top manufacturers and I believe mostly if not all made in USA. As a professional painter I have found Corona, Wooster and Purdy to all produce the best products. I do not feel that one brand is better than another. They are all good if you buy their top end products. Usually box stores do not carry their best offerings. Sherwin williams offers the top end purdy products and local independent paint stores sell wooster or corona. I think the ones you selected will suit your needs as you are not using them daily. They are at least mid grade.
Joe G
I can’t take anything sold at SW stores seriously. They sell plain old 3M protective equipment for at least four times what it costs everywhere else. A pack of respirator filters that cost ~$8 everywhere else (or $5 on Amazon) is like $25.
kman
They inflate their prices. You have to ask for a discount. Either commercially if you have an account or even as a consumer they will usually give you a discount especially if you tell them what it costs elsewhere. Ask them to match or beat the price. I agree their pricing system sucks but they will negotiate. Some items are actually cheaper than elsewhere. Example their plastic 400′ rolls of painter’s plastic is usually competitive at their shelf price. They often have sales for consumers. Pros usually get 20-50% off without a sale. I am not defending them just pointing out how they operate. Kind of like clothing department stores – sales and gimmicks!
Saman Perera
Curious as to how you clean these after use?
Nathan
depends on what I used it with. I have natural brushes that are for oil based somethings like spar varnish – they start off cleaning with mineral spirits. then clean with purple power and water then dry and store in the box it came in – back into the drawer.
I have synthetic brushes for latex and water bases stuffs – they get cleaned with purple power and water or dish soap and water – rinsed more than once – dried – put back in cardboard box – back in the drawer.
ktash
Has anyone used “Golden Taklon” brushes. I got some recently to use with shellac. Normally you are supposed to use natural bristles with shellac, but these worked fine. I usually don’t use brushes with shellac, instead using a folded linen cloth, sometimes with wool inside. These did not shed any bristles. The shellac was an undercoat (dewaxed), so I didn’t mind experimenting.
I was curious about these brushes and they were super cheap on Amazon. I think they’d be great for artist’s brushes.
fred
Taklon artist brushes are also nice for flowing out waterborne finishes in tight spaces. Some come with “paddle” stubby handles. The brands I recall are Princeton and Winsor & Newton – sold at artist supply stores for watercolor wash. I’ve used some that are rather thin in profile and they leave a smooth finish – not unlike what you get with badger hair or ox hair with petroleum-based finishes. The only issue is that you can’t load them up as much as you would a thicker nylon brush.
kman
Clean any brushes with soap and warm water. A nylon brush or in some cases wire brush helps loosen paint. I actually soak my brushes in a water based brush cleaner before cleaning then use warm water and dawn along with a wire brush. The soaking really helps. A good easily available presoak is simple green if you don’t have or need brush cleaner. The presoak is only needed if you are using the brush over several hours or longer. If it is freshly used for an hour or two it will be much easier to clean. Roller covers can presoak if needed and use a garden hose to spin the paint out. I do this in a rinse tube but you can use a 5 gallon bucket or just do it outside and let it fly. There are several roller cleaners available as well but these would only be needed by the professional. Nothing is better or faster than a garden hose nozzle to spin the roller but some are less messy.
fred
Kman’s soap and warm water treatment can be a good final step even for shellac, lacquer or oil-based paint and varnish brushes. Be sure in all cases to get a good soap lather up at the final step, use a brush comb if necessary to get all the finish out up to the ferrule and then rise and dry thoroughly. Shaking, spinning or beating the brush (as artists sometimes do against the easel) can help get the residual water out. The dried brush should be stored in the sleeve that it came in when new – or if not available – then use some heavy brown paper tied with string to create a sleeve. This will help the brush maintain shape.
Some folks never clean shellac brushes – because the next immersion in fresh shellac will soften the dried brush. Denatured alcohol is the solvent – and can be followed by sudsy ammonia and/or the soap and water treatment.
For lacquer brushes – there are modern lacquer thinners that are less dangerous than things like MEK, acetone, toluene or xylene that were used in the past – but I still use them outside the house in a well ventilated area. Clean in lacquer thinner – then the soap and water treatment.
I also like to use lacquer thinner after mineral spirits for cleaning brushes used for oil-based varnishes and paints. The mineral spirits get the varnish off – then the lacquer thinner gets the oily mineral spirits off – then its soap and water again.
For roller covers – I have to admit that I’m not very green. I tend to just pull used ones off and trash them – but I seldom do any house painting – other than touch up – any more – preferring leaving big jobs to the pros.
Raoul
Try to stay away from the Wooster brushes with the brass colored ferrules and the Purdy with the copper colored ferrules. The ferrules are junk plated non stainless steel. They both rust, the Woosters worse than Purdy.
Wooster and Purdy do make great brushes, just stick to the stainless ferrules. HD just started carrying the better Woosters which I like. Here is an example of the packaging to look for:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Wooster-2-1-2-in-Nylon-Polyester-Ultra-Pro-Firm-Angle-Sash-Brush-0041740024/304094927
Also, you can’t go wrong getting your brushes from a paint store. They are usually the same price as HD for the good brushes and if you ask them they will probably hook you up with contractor pricing which can be a significant discount.
Stuart
Thanks! I’m now curious to see if I’ll experience the same.
For my current needs, I should be fine, and I’d still argue that the 3-piece set is a great price. But for other sizes or styles, I’ll definitely keep your advice in mind.
Raoul
Aside from the rusting issue, another bad thing about these colored ferrule brushes by Wooster and Purdy is they are very soft. I am not aware that they were ever changed but they were originally designed for the old paint standards that were thinner, easier to work with, and had higher voc’s. When the new paint standards came into effect a few years ago it made soft brushes obsolete. This is more of a problem on bigger brushes so you might not notice so much with the 1″ brush. I paint almost everything with a 3″ or 2 1/2″ and stiff brushes are a must for modern paint. I used the use the pro firm lindbeck that I referenced in the above post but have switched to the extra firm.
I think you’ll find the level of rust on my brass colored Woosters interesting. I will try to send you pictures tomorrow so keep a look out for them if you’re interested. I think I have your email address saved somewhere but you can send me yours again if you want and I’ll be sure to send them. I can also show you some corroded purdys though they are no where near as bad as the Woosters.
fred
Thanks for the advice.
In the dark ages of my youth, before SS became widely available – high quality brushes sometimes came with actual copper ferrules. They got a patina with use – sometimes left some greenish streaks – but obviously were not ferrous metal – so did not rust. Now decades later – SS is much cheaper than copper – but more expensive than copper-toned steel – which does rust – so your advice to stay away is good.
I hadn’t thought about the stiff brush thing but it makes sense. For my furniture finishing – I still like shellac and lay down many coats with a finishing technique called French Polishing. I generally make up my own shellac and flow it on actually preferring soft brushes – but that’s because I control the viscosity of the shellac.
Raoul
Yes, soft brushes are still preferred in these special applications where you need a glass finish. I still use them on clears and some inside trim when the best finish is desired. I add floetrol to most modern latex paints in order to to get the smooth finish and apply with a soft specialty brush.
fred
I also sometimes use varnish that I thin and then brush on as a first heavy coat – wipe it off and when wipe on subsequent coats – wet sanding (>=400grit) between coats. As with shellac – my final finishing is with steel wool and wax.
Dennis Bauser
Wooster brushes are excellent, they have longer bristles than Purdy brushes. I’ve been using them professionally with Ben Moore paints for years and highly recommend them.
farid
Once you paint with a high quality brush, you kick yourself for not trying earlier. I learned that long time ago while painting the trim on my house. You end spending much more than the cost of the brush in wasted paint and time, not to mention the aggravation and all the drips and splatters you get with cheap brushes).
Also, if you don’t have a brush comb, get one. It really speeds up the cleaning as it allows better water (or solvent) flow through the bristles. For stubborn paint stuck on bristles near the ferule, or on the handle, I use a small, stiff nylon brush or sometimes stainless brush. These are the toothbrush sized ones. I just make sure to brush in one direction to avoid damaging the bristles.
In response to Raoul’s post above, I have some Purdy brushes with copper ferules (1″ and 2.5″). I’ve had those for 15-20 years and they are my favorite nylon bristle brushes. They have not rusted at all. I wonder when this change was made? Maybe I’ll take a magnet with me next time I go brush shopping.
FYI, All my brass colored ones have rust spots.
Addison
Thanks, I love the Wooster! I got the deal last weekend.