However, I like Philippe's idea of a no-more-hair system, and I certainly
like idea of holding a brush by the hair (remember Alley Oop?). But my
feeling is you don't really solve the problem unless you do something to
work the varnish through the layers. Dip only, as I see it, would only
fasten the outer rows of hair in place, not the 17 interior rows.
And BTW, Philippe, what container as deep as a paintbrush do you use for
this dip? It would take a lot of 2-part varnish to fill a wide-mouth
container that high, wouldn't it? Or perhaps you lay it in a shallow
trough, holding the hairs up out of the waves?
On Sun, 12 May 1996, Philippe MOROUX wrote:
> it, I have found a solution that works for me since a couple of years:
> Holding the brushes by the hair, I plunge the wooden part, the metallic part
> and 3 millimeters of the hair part in a 2 components epoxy varnish.
> If I accidentally forget the gum-dichromate hardened brush in water for a
> week, then it is still usable.
> Even my set very expensive soft nylon 2 inches brushes have been receiving
> this protection coating and don't blame me anymore for dropping them in my
> kalliargyrotype mixture.
Another treatment I think helps (or maybe it's just a ritual) is before
using a new hake brush, I soak it in a tub of warm water then gently pull
on the hairs, presumably loosening the ones ready to come out. A lot
always come out -- but obviously not all. There's also the fact that as
the brush ages the hairs tend to get brittle, and pieces of them break
off and into the emulsion -- and those little pieces are very hard to spot.
I have one hake brush seems to have softer hairs, which don't break as
much. So that's one criterion perhaps -- as much as you can tell in the
store, where everything is full of size and blue smoke anyway.
Judy