Paint brush recommendations?

[Phil Pascoe]

for spirit based paints u need pure bristle brushes, Hamiltons were good enough when I did it for part time work with a dec crew.....

Bristle Hamiltons were/are excellent, but new synthetics are equally as good if not better for oil based paints..

 

[johnny]

All this talk of painting and brushes reminds me of the shortest employment I ever had .........about 5x hours .
Back in the early 70's I was stuck for work and in desperation took a temporary painting job on new builds with a local painting contractor, a huge 6'6" bear of a man.

First day on the job he handed me a large kettle of emulsion and a huge 6" brush and told me to go paint a sitting room in emulsion. By lunchtime my arm felt like it had been run over by a train.

My next job was to paint the stair treads and of course being a complete noob I started to paint right across the first few treads and risers ....When he saw what I had done he flew into an almighty rage and that was the end of my shortest job. last I saw was him trying to remove all the paint with turps before it dried

I've always used pure bristle Hamiltons myself and some of my brushes are older than some of you lot but brushes ain't what they used to be ..nothing is anymore

 

[johnnyb]

using proper oil based paint I reckon broken in bristle brushes are awesome. the paint just seems to flow offa them. owatrol is also a great call but does require some control and skill.
I like fat hog pure bristle. kana are a cheaper brand. bin brush cleaner removes all the remnants of dry paint up by the ferrule.
I brought a load of load of old brushes all said they were vulcanised but every brush was superb and some only had a bit of bristle left.all made in England to. cost me £3 for about 15