Was in Camden Town the other day with some time to waste. Ended up looking
around a quite well stocked ironmongers that had a lot of good paint brushes
hanging up.

There were a few brushes there in the normal kind of widths, but were quite
thin (about half the thickness of a usual bristle brush).

The assistant said that they were varnish brushes. Looking back on it i
cannot think why varnish brushes would be thinner. Can anyone say why
please?

"john hamilton" wrote in message
...
Was in Camden Town the other day with some time to waste. Ended up looking
around a quite well stocked ironmongers that had a lot of good paint
brushes hanging up.

There were a few brushes there in the normal kind of widths, but were
quite thin (about half the thickness of a usual bristle brush).

The assistant said that they were varnish brushes. Looking back on it i
cannot think why varnish brushes would be thinner. Can anyone say why
please?


I've said before here, I like the fine 'sable' type artists brushes. which
are generally around 0.5cm thick. Varnish is much thinner and runnier than
paint and you get a much better result from several fine coats than from one
thick one. On vertical surfaces with a normal brush you will almost always
get nibs and runs no matter how careful you a normal brushes are
generally for holding on to large amounts of thick stuff (increasingly the
horrendous 'one coat' gels) and are no good for thinner lacquers and
varnishes. Bigger brushes - particularly the PTFE ones I have noticed -
also tend to leave trails of bubbles, which I find irritating.

Get yourself some finer varnish brushes and you will get a better finish and
the - expensive - coating will go much further.

S

john hamilton wrote:
Was in Camden Town the other day with some time to waste. Ended up looking
around a quite well stocked ironmongers that had a lot of good paint brushes
hanging up.

There were a few brushes there in the normal kind of widths, but were quite
thin (about half the thickness of a usual bristle brush).

The assistant said that they were varnish brushes. Looking back on it i
cannot think why varnish brushes would be thinner. Can anyone say why
please?


I always choose a well worn but scrupulously clean brush for varnish. I
don't want to carry lots of varnish in the brush but instead want to
concentrate on fine finish and removing brush marks.
I bought a lot of brushes surplus years ago for the purpose of applying
cutting fluid on to work on the lathe and these were also much thinner
and embossed as varnish brushes. Maybe for similar reasons?

hth

Bob

"john hamilton" wrote in message
...

There were a few brushes there in the normal kind of widths, but were
quite thin (about half the thickness of a usual bristle brush).

The assistant said that they were varnish brushes. Looking back on it i
cannot think why varnish brushes would be thinner. Can anyone say why
please?

In N.American paint stores, vendors tell customers to avoid introducing
air bubbles into varnish because of its viiscosity (i.e. they should not
shake
the can the way paint is mixed by shaking.) Perhaps specially thin brushes
reduce the incidence of bubbles during application.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)