best way to restore brushes

[mickey mouse]

Does any of you knows the best and cheap way to restore brushes?

[Mário]

Hello.
You cannot restore a brush that has dry paint (at least I never succeded).
What I do to keep the brushes in good shape is:
If I use acrylics. I rinse abundantly the brush in water. If there is some paint left at the base of bristles I use alcohol to cleanse the brush. If it persists sometimes it works to rinse the brush in an hydro carbonate thinner (Tamiya for instance, but I use an industrial paint type in ¼ litter cans, it is cheaper). In the end I rinse the brush in water and use soap abundantly to clean and soften the bristles.
If I use enamels. I rinse the brush in an hydro carbonate thinner (as indicated above). As for the acrylics, in the end I rinse the brush in water and use soap abundantly to clean and soften the bristles.
Mário

[mickey mouse]

Thank you Mário.

[Jesse]

My favourite way to deep clean my brushes (I almost only paint with acrylics) after a while when water is not enough to get away old dryed paint is to use my fiancees cheap and very strong nail polish remover. It always amazes me how effective it is! Try it!

[mickey mouse]

Thank you verry much Jesse. I'll get it this week.

[Ben Bob]

Something I only recently learned is to NOT dip the brush too deep in the paint. Just some on the tip works. It is slower but I think that it helps preserve the brush longer.

[Phersu]

Something I only recently learned is to NOT dip the brush too deep in the paint. Just some on the tip works. It is slower but I think that it helps preserve the brush longer.

That's a very useful and important tip!
But sometimes, for accident or due some particular uses, is impossible to avoid that the paint "climb up" from the bristles top to the join with the brush body...

I noticed that a good habit to keep brushes in good conditions and prevent wearing damages, is to rinse them often while using them.
I avoid to use a brush to paint the same color for a long time and wash it only when the job is finished,
for example, while painting several figures I rinse the brush often and several times meanwhile... once finished one or two figures, I quickly rinse the bristles gently before starting with further figures.

This prevent eventual paint to accumulate and dry on the bristles, and allow to clean it well when the job is finished.
It means a little waste of time, but this way is very unlikely that paint remains inside the bristles.
So there's no need of final "intensive and hard cleaning" or strong thinners to wash the brushes properly.
And the brushes then don't need to be restored at all, lasting much longer in good conditions.

[Ben Bob]

I agree, the paint does creep up the bristles a bit, especially if the bristles are wet from the last cleaning.
I have recently been keeping a bottle cap of alcohol for "emergency" brush cleaning. It works much better than water when the paint climbs

[mickey mouse]

Thanks guys!

@ Ben Bob: What kind of alcohol do you use?

[Ben Bob]

Just an inexpensive, isopropyl rubbing alcohol.

[mickey mouse]

Thanks Ben,

I might give it a try, if I can get my hands on it.