Harsh Lessons of Paint: Bad Bristles

Acrylic paint is a great, cheap paint for modifying your hardware. For a few dollars you can get a couple bottles of paint and a handful of paintbrushes, and you’re on your way. Things will usually go swimmingly, until a certain brush sheds its bristles into your hard work!

Loose bristles in your paint job are a real pain to fix. If you don’t catch them right away, you have to dig them out with a razor, sand down the surface, and start over.

So where do these bad bristles come from, and how can you avoid them? At your average craft store, there will be a few basic types of brushes, shown below:

I’m not an expert in brushes, but this is what I have determined. The two on the left are made using some kind of synthetic bristles, and are very stable. The one on the right is made of some kind of evil natural fiber, and will fall apart during use and basically ruin your life.

To avoid such devil brushes, I recommend two things: First, outright avoid the natural fiber brushes, because in my experience they are always trouble. Two, pull on the bristles of any brush you intend to use. If it sheds even a single fiber, throw the thing away.