Rosemary's series 33 Pure Kolinsky Sable Brushes

[Bugsda]

Two 00 series 7, £15.43 inc postage from Ken Bromley, but it saved me a walk up the Dulwich art shop

[WillieB]

Totally agree with Redzed but I still buy Rosemary brushes.
W&N'S will always remain my favourites and I'll probably keep on using them till I can't hold a brush anymore. Should be any day now.

Still, the Rosemary's are good value for money and well suited for anything but the most precise work. You have to get used to the softer 'snap' though. Also keep in mind that the brush sizes between W&N and Rosemary aren't  corresponding exactly
Has anyone tried the series 22 yet? Very handy for those hard to reach spots.

The Shiraz brushes are a godsend for drybrushing BTW.

I have been able to keep most 1s,  Os and some  2/0 W&Ns for well over 5 years, but I clean all my brushes thoroughly after each session. Still remarkable if you know that I use oil paint almost exclusively and that Kolinsky bristles aren't exactly suited for oil paint.
Clean with purified linseed oil until no more paint comes off, then brush soap, shape them back and they (almost) last forever.
Odd thing: My wife uses W&N series 7 Miniature and these wear out much faster.

[Calimero]

... W&N'S will always remain my favourites and I'll probably keep on using them till I can't hold a brush anymore. Should be any day now...

Nah, you’re still young… oh, just saw your age… maybe not so young

[Orctrader]

They don't hold a point as long as series 7s...

I'm intrigued by this.  What exactly do you mean?  I thought from Red's comments the brush wore out more quickly and lost the ability to form a point after use.  But as you have only just got them you mean..?

When I tried a W&N the point "split" more easily than the Rosemary.  But I probably paint with "thinner" paint than many others.  The Rosemary seemed to draw off excess paint more effectively than the W&N.  So the W&N was excellent, but I have to slightly adjust the way I paint to use it. 

And I also use Rosemary series "92" & "93" for small details.

[Hammers]

When I tried a W&N the point "split" more easily than the Rosemary. 

Never happened to me.

[ARKOUDAKI]

Okay, I am sold...I just bought a bunch of the 33s, 92s, 93, 99s, and something with mongoose hair to try...I will report back when I have had time to paint something...which hopefully will be soon

[Bugsda]

I'm intrigued by this.  What exactly do you mean? 

Sorry Orc, only just spotted this. 
I mean repointing the brush while painting, the W&S seems to hold a point little longer than the Rosemary.

Time washing the brush out and repointing is time lost. 

And yeah, thin paint splits the hairs quicker than thicker, I tend to use it thick.

 

[dbsubashi]

The thing I take away from all this is the small brush sizes everyone is using. The smaller the brush the shorter their life. I rarely use anything smaller than a #4. If a brush has a good point the size does not matter, but a bigger brush holds more paint, and thus takes longer to dry out.

[si2]

I abuse my brushes terribly. I do all the things you're not supposed to: like using them to stir paint, digging them through the crust of half dried blobs of paint on the palette, and so on. I never do more than sloosh them in my dirty pot of water at the end of a session.
Believe me, under this regime, they ALL shed hairs and go bald within a fairly short space of time.

I operate the same - completely wreck my brushes. I even use WN series 7. They don't last that long. I even use WN 7s for drybrushing...
The way I figure it is that if they last three months as first quality then that's a reasonable cost of a couple of quid a month. I put £40 in the car each month and I only drive a cinquecento!
I use them hard until they start to lose the point then get another. I always buy size 1.

Like odyssey said - "use it up, wear it out"


Si