Best Paint Tool Sai Brushes

[Carolina Schmalzried]

Thena few years after I started blogging, I decided to spend a little more on a Purdy brush (true story,) and my mind was BLOWN! I could not believe the difference in how well the paint went on and how much better the finished results were! Those professionals were right after all! haha.

Another brush that I have used on smooth surfaces for several projects is the Purdy Clearcut! This brush (which also comes in different sizes,) is AMAZING for cutting in on trim and using on projects with edges.

I hope this post has been helpful to you! Be sure to save this information for future use on one of your own paint projects. I will be sharing another post soon that will share with you the best paint brushes and roller covers to use on semi-smooth to rough surfaces.

This was very helpful. Like you, I also learned years ago that good quality brushes make a paint project so much easier and more professional looking. How do you clean your brushes? A post on that topic would be helpful.

But when it comes to applying a smooth coat of clear finish, such as polyurethane, a foam brush is not my first choice. Instead of bristles, it has a blade. The blunt sides leave two parallel ridges of finish, like a snowplow on the highway. Also, the foam head contains air, which can leave bubbles in your finish.

And if you use it for very long, the foam head begins to wear out and get floppy. It will even start to dissolve as you are brushing on stains and finishes containing mineral spirits or lacquer thinner.

As I told John, not all brushes are created equal. They can range in price from less than a dollar to more than twenty dollars. You can spot the difference in three areas: the handle, the bristles, and the ferrel, which holds the bristles to the handle.

Just as you have different sizes and types of screwdrivers in your workshop, odds are you will need all three types of brushes: foam, natural bristle, and synthetic bristle. You will also want to have them in different widths to fit the different size of cans of stains and clear finishes. The best time to buy them is before you need them, so pick out a selection of types and sizes, store them in a drawer to keep the dirt and dust off them, and clean them after each use. The reward for your efforts will be a stain and a finish that is as smooth as any professional could have achieved.

Coming from a family of DIYers, I have great memories helping with projects in my dad's basement workshop and refinishing antiques in my grandmother's back yard. It was there I fell in love with the beauty of the grain of the wood, either hidden beneath an old dark finish or highlighted with a new coat of stain. Ever since then I have always had a project going, whether it be restoring an old house, keeping up with a new one, bringing old furniture back to life, or working with new wood. As my wife will attest, I love projects, but just as important I love sharing my experiences with others through my books, articles, columns -- and now this blog! I hope you enjoy it.

- Bruce

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Looking to purchase Purdy paint brushes, rollers and other products for an upcoming project? Head HERE to see what retailers near you carry Purdy products.

I chose to use a water-based stain that dries quickly and is easy to clean up with soap and water. I chose Minwax Wood Finish Water-Based Semi-Transparent Color Stain in Pure White. This stain is one of my favorites. It does a good job of taking away the yellow tones in pine and giving wood just a bit of a whitewashed look.

A natural bristle paint brush is going to have more coarse bristles. The bristles may appear to be a little thicker and they may resemble a straw broom in color, kind of a camel color. A synthetic bristle paint brush will have bristles that are much softer, smoother, and almost have a slick feel to them. The bristles may vary in color, but will often have either white bristles or a white tip on the bristles. The bristles will be very fine compared to the coarseness of natural bristles. Synthetic Bristle Brush This is a synthetic bristle brush. It has been used quite a bit so the bristles are stained, but they were solid white when I purchased the brush.

Within each of the styles of Cling On paint brushes there are different sizes. The larger the number, the larger the paint brush. So for example, I have used both the O40 and O45. Both are oval paint brushes, but one is a tad larger than the other. What I love about the Cling On paint brushes is they cover a large area in short time because of the density of the bristles. I can get a great smooth finish with my Cling On oval paint brush.

Also, the bristles do not shed. I have not once had a bristle come off in my paint job since I started using the oval Cling On paint brush months ago. And I can tell you that my previous paint brush of a similar style would lose multiple bristles in one paint job and I would find myself picking them out of my paint constantly.

I have actually used Zibra paint brushes longer than I have used Cling On brushes. There are many shapes and styles of Zibra brushes available and I use almost every style that is available. And I use at least one Zibra brush for every single furniture painting job I complete.

Not with the triangle brush. You load up your brush one time with paint, position the tip in the top of your corner, and with one swipe you have excellent coverage in your entire corner and are ready to roll or paint the inner areas just like that! This one is seriously such a time saver! Next up in my arsenal of Zibra paint brushes is the round brush.

This is not just your typical round brush. The bristles are nice and long, and they are not super stiff or super soft. They are made for those hard-to-reach areas around pesky spindles!! (Which if you have a large number of spindles I totally recommend just spraying those puppies. Painting spindles is not for the faint of heart.) But if you just have a few in a detailed area of say a china cabinet, this round brush makes it easy to get the paint in the recessed details of those spindles and get ALL the way around them. The other style of Zibra paint brush I use is the square brush.

I am so happy to be an affiliate for Zibra paint brushes because I truly believe in their products. And I would be so honored if you choose to use any of the links in this blog post to purchase them and try them for yourself. Doing so helps to support my blog and I so appreciate all of my readers. Thanks for reading!

And if you decide to try them for the first time I would love to know what you think!Want my guide to choosing Wise Owl Paint products? Sign up here and get it delivered to your inbox!I respect your privacy and will not sell your email address to 3rd parties. You will only receive emails from me about my furniture painting adventures. ?

Hi Michelle, I have never tried that with Zibra brushes. What I know is that Cling On brushes were designed to be stored wet (with the bristles slightly submerged in water.) Other brushes may not be able to withstand being stored wet like that. It may cause the bristles to come loose from the brush over time or damage the part of the brush that holds the bristles together. I do love Zibra brushes as well though and use them often. They clean up nicely with soap and water.

I am trying to do what the lady on this video is doing with the imprinting brush. I cannot do it. What she is doing is using it to 'paint' over an object, and then she releases the mouse and the painted over object is gone.

She talks about how easy it is. When I do it, I get a thin line to 'paint' with. The line I paint with in the size of a the print of a normal pen. The one she uses is large and she can quickly paint over a telephone pole for example. There are no comments after her video is over, so I am left without any help. Could those of you that know how to use the imprinting brush teach me how to do it? Please? The time window for what I am interested below is from the 31:19 min mark to the 40:22 mark. How does she make her brush bigger? What is the deal about the two layers (ie. Current layer and Below, Current layer) Also, how come I do not see a red-eye icon on my screen? Would you please which the short clip above and teach me how to do it? Is her version the same as mine?

click on the little down arrow to the right, and drag the slider that appears to adjust the brush, or you can click where is says 64 px and enter a new size, like 128 to double the size. You don't need to enter the "px"

Toltec, thank you show much for your help. I have some more questions. However, I am ill today and will probably get back with you tomorrow on them. The way you can insert an image, highlight certain parts of it . . . is amazing and helpful. Unfortunately, I do not know how to do that. I'll attach one of the images I was working on with NO SUCCESS. I was making multiple people (cloning I guess - although I never remember using that tool).

I will attach the pic. If any one wants to have a go at it and if you are successful, could you jot down the steps you used for your success. My daughter is a cheerleader. I was trying to single her out. I wanted to remove the orange pylon directly behind her. I wanted to remove the dark line on the turf. I wanted to remove the other two cheerleaders. And finally, I wanted to remove the white lines off of the track the ladies were standing on. When I tried it . . . it was an ugly/blurry mix.

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