How to restore a synthetic brush

Here’s a tip from Rob Howard, the some­times acer­bic mod­er­a­tor at the Cen­nini Forum. If you have a syn­thetic brush that has lost its shape, sus­pend the tip in boil­ing water for sev­eral min­utes. Pull it out and reshape it with your fin­gers, being care­ful not to burn your­self on the hot metal fer­rule. Then let it dry (point up, so that the water is wicked away by cap­il­lary action). The nylon fibers have “mem­ory” and, when heated in boil­ing water, will tend to return to their orig­i­nal shape. Don’t try it with nat­ural hair brushes (sable, mon­goose, hog bris­tle, etc.) as these fibers do not have mem­ory. All you will do is loosen the glue that holds the hairs in the ferrule.

In my expe­ri­ence, this extends the life of about 70% of syn­thetic brushes that I would oth­er­wise throw away.