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.
Recent comments