Show Card Brushes

[Doug Bernhardt]

I'm in need of some tradition red sable show-card brushes....where should I look? A number of years ago I had just parked all mine in some jars and grabbed the ones I needed whenever that was. Well, the last time I needed them turned out to be quite a few years ago and I found them to all be ruined. Basically they were parked on a window ledge and the hairs have bloomed out like a fan and are quite brittle. Any help at re-conditioning these would also be a huge help. Some of them are about 30 plus years old.

[Brian the Brush UK]

Hi Dough,
What a shame about the showcard brushes !! I would try a couple of companies here in the UK :
Habberley Meadows, details at: www.habberleymeadows.co.uk
Wrights of Lymm, details at: www.stonehouses,co,uk

Both these companies stock lettering brushes for signwriting and poster/showcard writing and I'm sure will help if they can. I purchased a couple of stainless steel trays with lids from a company here in the Uk to keep my brushes in, works a treat and cheaper than having to buy new ones !

regards,
Brian.
www.brianthebrushuk.com

[Kelly Thorson]

Hi Doug,
This info is from my artists side, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't apply here. You might be able to return them to shape by soaking them for a short while in hot water and then and using gum arabic to reshape them. Allow them to sit bristle side up for a couple of weeks before using. Get them out of that window though. There are a number of brush reconditioners available from art stores. An intensive hair conditioner treatment may help, but read the ingredients list to make sure it doesn't have any silicones or other stuff that will contaminate them. I'd maybe try it on one and see if it worked. Perhaps work the conditioner in and wrap it in plastic and heat it, then let it sit for a few hours. It works for hair. If they have been sitting in a window for a long period of time they may be too UV damaged to reclaim though.
Good luck, let us know what works or not.

[Ray Smith]

Don't know if this will apply to sable brushes,but there is a bit on the Mack Brush site for re-shaping dagger brushes.Essentially they recommend wetting them lightly and putting a couple of drops of liquid dish detergent in the hair and then forming it to shape while allowing it to dry.Then letting it set for a week or so and removing the detergent with warm water and re-oiling with a good brush preservative.Check the site for complete details www.mackbrush.com

[Kent Smith]

While one would not oil a sable shocard brush, the detergent works well. I prefer the plain detergents that have no lemon etc. in them. I have heard that a conditioning shampoo will work too which makes some sense, but I have not tried it. Dad used to use a bar of Ivory soap, work a lather well into the hairs, rinse with verticle action to force the soap into the ferrule, re-lather and let it stand upright for a few weeks. Rinse with warm water to remove the soap.

[Tony Segale]

Percy,

I've been cleaning my sables with Ivory bar soap.
Work the soap and water into the heel of the brush, and rinse.
Continue until no more color comes out. Then, work soap and water
into the brush again and leave in, shape the brush with your fingers,
and stand upright overnight. The soap paste will dry the hairs into the
desired shape.
This has worked good for me with old brushes as well,
but I always shape a brand new brush like this before using.

I learned this trick at a calligraphy workshop a few years ago,
taught by John Stevens.

Take it easy, ol' timer.

[Doug Bernhardt]

A pile of good sounding advice here. Will go with the popular sounding soap (Ivory) and reshape, let sit for a week or so. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Doug Bernhardt]

On the weekend my wife showed up at the shop with a few bars of Ivory soap so I wet the worn out old devils and worked a lather into them straightening all the hairs. Got in this morning and rinsed the dried soap from one of the most abused (and cherished if you can believe that) and "voila" almost back in shape and soft as a kittens whiskers. Can't wait to see what happens after another week. It goes without saying I re-soaped the "test" brush. You can't imagine all the showcard colour that came out of a few of them.

[Tony Segale]

you see, I ain't the mean jerk people make out...

course if someone was to clean their brushes all the time,
get the color out of all those heels,
you might like it some!