Oddly enough, the way to make cleaning your brushes an easy task starts before you use the brush.
Take a clean brush and soak it for about a minute or two up to the ferrule — that’s the metal part just between the handle and the bristles — in whatever the solvent for your coating happens to be. For varnish, it will be mineral spirits; for shellac, it’s alcohol; for lacquer use lacquer thinner; for waterborne coatings, simply water.
Squeeze out the excess solvent, leaving the bristles wet but not dripping, then dip the brush one third to half way into the coating. The solvent that remains in the “reservoir” — the area inside the bristles just below the ferrule — will help the coating flow and will prevent the upper portion of the brush from acquiring a dried crust of coating as you work.
As you brush, you will notice that the finish tends to start creeping up the brush toward the ferrule, and starts to get drier up there too. When that happens, stop for about 20 seconds, quickly rinse the brush in a pan of the appropriate solvent, squeeze out the excess, and go back to work. That short break will guarantee that the brush keeps flowing finish as well as it did when you started, and the cleanup will be quick and easy when the time comes.
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