Making a Brush Video

On the discovery channel they have a show called Hows its Made. Its a cool show because in ½ hour they might show 3 separate products and how they are made. They don't go into huge details, but just show the general tooling, the methods and the steps involved. Its everything from apple juice to making end mills,and as a machinist I find the show very interesting. The wife however does not...

Then again this is the same woman that absolutely hates Married with Children and Dukes of Hazzard,obviously very fine 80's shows!! :rofl::thumb:
 
The older I get, the more I realize my life is just like Al Bundy's.:eek:

I'm more of a Tiffany Amber Thiessen fan, but for some reason I like Christina Applegate's acting on that show. :)
 
Interesting process. I'm guessing these are high-end brushes. If it takes that long to make each brush head, they must be selling for a relatively high price. I always wondered why some brushes were so much more expensive than others. I'm guessing this is part of the reason why.
 
My local hardware store has to special order me my brushes because while they used to sell Purdy, they said no one but me bought any. They are just too expensive for most people I guess.

Myself I consider them cheap. Like I noticed they still make their furrels out of copper and they use a boars hair for the bristles. I used to use foam brushes for poly but had the sharp edges cut and rip the foam brushes, especially on my first coats. Now I use Purdy brushes to apply the first 2-3 coats. Since these brushes last forever, I can deduct their 20 dollar cost over many projects and many years making them cheaper in the long run then buying 69 cent foam brushes for each successive coat. I do howver use a foam brush on thelast couple of coats just to get a nice smooth finish. By then though the surface is so smooth and slippery the foam brushes do not tear.

As for the cheap bristled brushes, I gave up on those long ago. Not having a bristle in my final finish is priceless. I still think I have the first Purdy brush I ever bought and that was 15 years ago. I buy more, not because they wear out but because of the different sizes, the bristle type and the different finishes I use.
 
Interesting process. I'm guessing these are high-end brushes. If it takes that long to make each brush head, they must be selling for a relatively high price. I always wondered why some brushes were so much more expensive than others. I'm guessing this is part of the reason why.

The Gramercy 2" is just under $40 so definitely not for the occasional user but not completely out of site for the serious hobbyist. I forget if it was a Jewitt or a Dresdner (or one of the other half a dozen finishing gurus) article that put me on to them. Haven't tried one yet but, I also have never found a brush to be satisfactory (haven't tried a Purdy either so probably my fault).
 
Fine Woodworking had a little paragraph in their last issue dedicated to Gramercy Brushes touting them up. They use Ox hair for the bristles which I find interesting...though probably the Ox of this world don't. I'm not sure what Purdy uses, but I think it depends on the type of brush. Poly is different then latex paint, and latex paint has different bristles then what is used for Spar varnish...etc, etc, etc

I'm a Purdy fan though,won't use anything else.
 
I had a good lesson when I was a kid in the value of quality brushes. We were doing a fair amount of interior house painting in the process of moving out of
one house and into another (and fixing up a third house somewhere in the middle). I remember we started out with budget brushes and rollers, but my dad quickly got frustrated with the quality so he bought better stuff. The 4" brushes were about $25 as I recall, and in the late 60's that was a lot of cash for a paintbrush. After using them though, and seeing how they lasted as long as they were cleaned well after use, I recognized the value. A good brush will hold more paint, lay a much better line, leave a better finish with less work, and last longer. Give me a good 4" brush and there's not much on a house I can't paint cleanly. (Had a lot of practice on steel casement windows over the years.)
 
Holy moly...a 4 inch brush. You should see the carnage I get with a 2 inch sash brush. I would paint everything but the wall with a 4 inch brush!!

You are right though. A quality brush holds the material a lot better, and lets it flow out better too. I had problems cutting in around trim and stuff until I used a Purdy. Now I lay down some paint, wipe up any drips and move on. No fancy and time consuming blue painters tape to apply, and no second cut-in coats either. It's all in the brush.
 
I've used both Purdy's and Linzer's with good results. I tend to prefer natural bristle brushes, but its getting so hard to find actual oil based enamel for trim work that its hardly worth it anymore. I've found the cheaper synthetics to be about as good as the pricey ones, seems they're easier to make without shedding.

I've got a nice 4" brush that I fished out of the trash at work a few years ago. The guy who was using it left it too late to clean up with water and then just figured it wasn't his $30 he was wasting. Soak for an hour in laquer thinner, then wash and comb with lots of soap and hot, hot water, and it was as good as new. Worked so well I did the same thing with their other brushes that had been inadequately cleaned with water over the course of the summer. A lot of people seem to neglect to use soap when cleaning up latex paint, works great, takes about half the time and water.

I think if I did more painting or varnishing I'd have to get some of the Gramercy's. For most regular finishing I use Waterlox and a rag, so I only get into paint when doing a lot of interior trim work any more.
 
Just watched that fascinating brush-making video. Holy moly, it's a wonder that brush doesn't cost $100. Now I'm going to have to get one...maybe on the next Visa billing cycle.
 
I was waiting for her to hand-split the ends of the bristles :).

Does anyone have any experience with Corona paint brushes? On a painting forum, they were rated by most of the professionals there as better than Purdy or Wooster. Never heard of the Grammercy brushes, but they sound a bit dear for my pocket book.

Jim
 
Hey guys,

No matter what I have tried, I can't get the video to work. Any secrets? I have "quick time player", but it tells me there is some "compressor" that could not be found. I have no idea what's wrong here, as it must be on my end alone.

Aloha, Tony
 
Not sure, Tony. I just tried opening the video, and it completely crashed Firefox on my system. I don't know if it's a problem with my QuickTime viewer, or something wrong with that site.

[edited to add...]

Checked it again from another machine, and QuickTime wanted to be updated. Once I did that, it worked on that machine. So I came back to this computer, tried again, and QuickTime crashed again. So I went directly to the Apple QuickTime download site, re-downloaded and re-installed QuickTime, and everything is working again. You might try just re-installing QuickTime to see if that fixes things for you.
 
Hi Vaughn,

Thanks, but I have also tried the QuickTime update, as was instructed in the process of opening the video, but all I got was an error message telling me that "a connection with the server could not be found". Now that has happened more than one time, and QT works otherwise.

When the little window pops up telling me there is a problem with loading the video and would I like to quit or continue, if I continue, the video window starts and the time indicator moves but the screen remains all white.

I would like to be able to see it, because, being an old sign painter (knickname: "oldebrush") I've use a FEW brushes in my day.

Thanks again for the help. I'll keep trying.

Aloha, Tony
 
Ah Glenn,

That worked. Many thanks. Looks like the lady might know what she is doing, huh? I'm gonna have to search for one of those videos on making lettering and striping brushes too. Very interesting, I am sure.

Glad to have all you nice folks around. It's been a wealth of information I have found here and a great bunch of people.

Aloha, Tony
 
Glenn...

Sorry to dredge up this old post, but I just received two Gramercy brushes from "Tools for Working Wood". Very impressive at first look. Very soft, and I kept seeing the word quality although it's not written there anywhere. It was Dresdner who was giving them good press. I bought 1" since that's the appropriate size for the cherry chair-side table I'm building for my kids (son and dil). I'm planning to use Sutherland Welles polymerized tung oil. I'll let you know how it works out after using and then cleaning them (to me how they bounce back from cleaning can be a deal breaker). I've been a Purdy user up to now, but that may change. The 1" Purdy's are what...$17?...these were $20. Not enough difference to matter if the performance is better.

Cheers.
 
Hi Ed,

I'm glad you dug it up. I, for one, will be very interested to see how you like them compared to the Purdys. Michael D giving them the nod sure doesn't hurt. Thanks for posting.
 
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