How Maintain Tips on paint brushes

[LouieN]

Hello All,

How to you maintain a fine tip on your paint brushes? 

I have noticed that one thing, a fine tip, vastly improves the quality of work.  It does not take long for my brushes to start becoming frayed.  Once that starts I do not know any way to save them. 

Any tips (pun intended) for me. 

Thanks

[Deano]

Use Brush Soap after each painting session.

[dwbullock]

Lick them.  Or just me?

[sundayhero]

Brush soap and good brushes, with natural kolinsky sable hair.

[has.been]

A friend advised, after the usual cleaning, a touch of Vic rub. Then twirl a scrap of paper towel
around it & store it vertically in a jam jar or similar.

[Doug ex-em4]

Lick them.  Or just me?

Er - I really need to know you better first 

Doug

[Orctrader]

Use Brush Soap after each painting session.

This.

[snitcythedog]

Use Brush Soap after each painting session.

This and a bit of thinned down hair gel wiped off in a paper towel to train the bristles.  Just rinse before using.

[Mammoth miniatures]

lick em.
or if you don't want to lick them, wet your palm and pull the brush over your palm whilst rolling it gently.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I wonder what type of brushes you are using.
I have never had problems with curling on natural hair or bristle brushes.
I frequently have issues with nylon bristle brushes.

The cheapest brushes are natural pig bristle which is an off white colour and very stiff.
Cheap children's brushes use very soft natural animal hair which is dark brown or black.

Artists brushes for acrylic paint are often nylon or sable.
Sable is dark brown natural hair and reasonably stiff and usually expensive. 
Nylon brushes are often yellow or pure white and very even in thickness as every bristle is the identical diameter.

With Nylon brushes, you can reduce the curling by avoiding painting abrasive surfaces.
If you put sand on bases, drybrushing the sand will quickly destroy the tip of a nylon brush.
I actually use pig bristle brushes for drybrushing sand.

The second curling problem is due to dry paint near to the ferule.
This can be avoided by cleaning the brushes after every painting session with soap.

If you have dead brushes, that are stiff with paint or have splayed bristles it is worth trying to clean them with decorators paint thinners.
You can often resurrect a dead brush with a good clean.
Dip the brush in thinners and roll it over kitchen paper to work the paint out of the ferule area.
Practice this first with a brush that you would throw away.
Then you will learn just how rough you can be without breaking the hairs - it is more than you think.

[has.been]

I don't throw brushes away. When they start to 'fail' I use them for tasks like dry brushing, glue spreading etc.
When they get beyond even that, I cut off the bristles (for scenery bushes) & use the handle for stirring.
When they get too thickly coated in paint they become alien cacti.

[snitcythedog]

Another tip is to use two cleaning tanks (the type I have is below) first with a drop of dish soap in as a cleaning agent and to break up the surface tension.  The first is to clean the paint off the bristles and it will get pretty grubby.  The second is the clean water tank to make sure the dingy water is cleaned completely out of the bristles before use.