The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
House Painting
Oval brushes are generally finished with a chisel end, especially oval varnish brushes; round and flat brushes not often, but flat varnish brushes have sometimes chisel ends. Some of these oval and flat bristle brushes are very useful in painting, especially about moldings and the like; from one to two and a half inches in width. In fact, a two-inch oval varnish brush is an exceedingly useful implement for a great variety of work. For flowing on varnish some use a soft, flat brush, made of camel's hair; it is convenient to have one narrow, say one inch, one medium, two inches, one wide, four inches. Paint is not easily handled with these soft brushes. Besides these, painters use dusting brushes, of stiff bristles, loosely built, spreading like a broom; and for cleaning old paint they use ordinary scrubbing brushes, and sometimes steel wire brushes, which are scrubbing brushes with stiff steel wire instead of bristles; a good style is about three inches wide and six or eight inches long, with wires three inches long.
Care of Paint Brushes
Brushes used in oil paints and in oleoresinous varnishes may be kept fresh and clean over-night, or while carrying them from place to place, by wrapping them closely in several thicknesses of paper; but brushes used in spirit varnishes, like shellac, should be washed out at once in alcohol, as they dry very quickly, and are then difficult to soften.
The proper way to keep brushes, during short intervals when not in use, is in a brush- A simple form, if several are to be kept, is a deep pail with a fairly tight cover; on the inside of the pail, at convenient distances from the top, are nails, on which the brushes may be hung by corresponding holes bored in their handles, or by loops of twine at such a height that the bristles of the brushes are immersed, nearly up to the binding, in oil or turpentine which fills the pail several inches from the bottom. In this way the brush is prevented from drying, and yet it does not rest its weight on the bristles, which would cause it to get out of shape. If it is a shellac brush it must be hung in alcohol (or shellac varnish). It is always proper to hang a varnish brush in the kind of varnish in which it is used. A single small brush may be hung in a deep fruit jar, or a wide-mouthed bottle, by a string attached to the cover or cork. All large paint-stores sell brush-safes, made of tin, with hinged covers, and with convenient hangers for brushes; but the principle is the same in all, and any one can contrive one for his own needs.
