How to Clean Oil Paint Brushes 

Hi Marko. The videos will begin again soon!

...But I can't access the utility sink because my wife has used it for storage..:>) .yes!

Olga Lydia Vidal thanks, Olga!

Tim Doyle keep it out of your paint!!

@@jacob9208 🤣🤣

Appreciate it. Thanks.

White Spirit is a solvent, just as water is,using the correct solvent to dilute or dissolve paint is essentially deciding on whether the paint is water, or oil based. Nowadays traditional oil-based paint is rarely used compared to years ago, emulsion is usually water-based, vinyl or acryllic, any of which can be diluted before application or cleaning of brushes, the latter two are commonly used for woodwork as well, use water to clean brushes for the above types of paint. Other paints are usually oil-based, for which White Spirit can be used to doctor(thin) the paint, whilst other paints require Cellulose Thinners to doctor, or to clean brushes after use. How much solvent you use depends on the situation, it can be overdone, so use a little at a time, stirring well in a figure of 8 bring the pigment up from the bottom of the can. It's easy to tell when the right balance is made, dip your brush or stirbut into the material(paint or emulsion) lift it out just about an inch above the surface, the paint will form a wormcast on the surface, if it disappears in abt 3 seconds, that is just right, if it remains, continue adding a little & stirring as before until the right consistency is met. The benefits of doctoring paint is that it becomes easier to apply, a perfect paint finish does not show brushmarks, which is a downfall of many modern paints',doctoring helps to that end,but choice of brushes contributes to that as well,the size of brush is determined by the area of surface to be applied. Lastly, when the job is finished, keep the remaining paint for touch-ups later, or where some alteration to the surface has taken place & making-good is required. Then secure the lid, find a suitable cool spot to store the spare paint & importantly store the tin upside down. That stops air entering the tin, thus causing a skin to form,if a skin does form, when you open the tin again, the skin will be below the paint & not on the top.

Mineral spirits 👍

this is 100% redundant advice... you essentially end up doing more work at the end of the day since you will still need to go through the cleaning process before you use it again anyway. So literally all the stuff you have to do to store it can just be omitted by cleaning the brush as you are done with it and storing it in a clean state... Sometimes I worry about the lack of logical thinking in some people...

I’ll put it on my list.

@@buildingsheriff thank you! Looking forward to it. You explain everything so well 😍

John Stanton Fantasic tip! I may do an add on video 🤣🤣🤣

For really bunged-up brush stocks, use a paint solvent such as Nitromors, place the brush in a jam jar, fill to the brush stock so that all the bristles are covered,leave for a few hours then place the brush on a surface that is suitable,hold the brush handle, bristles pointing away,then, using a wire brush lightly, or moderately clean the paint from the bristles, you may need to repeat the treatment. Once that is finished, use white spirit or other brush cleaner to remove most the remaining paint,use an opld towel to dry the bristles, also to clean the brush, then part the bristles to guage if it is sufficiently cleaned, if it is, proceed to the next stage. Use fairly warm water with some washing liquid to remove any solvent or paint particles,again,part the bristles to observe the state of the bristles,,if necessay repeat. Once cleaned, draw the brush through your other hand between the thumb-adjacent finger to flatten the stock, some old brown wrapping or wax paper can be used to wrap & store the brush's over any time period. Using any A4 size paper above, lay the brush on the paper, making sure that all the bristles are together with none sticking out, then neatly wrap the stock end by rolling the brush over so that it is tight, but not compressing the bristles, use a strip of adhesive tape to the edge of the paper in order to stop it unravelling & store the brush in a drawer or on a shelf somewhere safe.

So it can go insane from being held captive for its entire life. Nice!

It’s cruel to keep cats as inside animals, they can walk 5 miles a day! Please don’t judge according to your own circumstances, lots of us with cats don’t even have neighbours so they can live the life that is natural to them. Cats are very good at defending themselves against wild predators… and we only have foxes in England that could ever be a threat to them and only very rarely (cubbing season … if ever) Perhaps instead people who can’t facilitate a natural life for a cat should think twice about getting one. God bless you.

Thanks for the comment, Andrew! Turps is great - stronger than white spirit, so I recommend the latter purely as it's easier to work with in my opinion.

@The Building Sheriff thanks for the reply.

Where can I get mineral turpentine, I can only find the pine pure turps. Is the Barrow Teen mineral?

Washing up liquid?

@@buildingsheriff Yea

I’m not that brave - she was abroad 🤣