How to use and care brush in the wood furniture finishing.

Brush is one tool that has been used in the finishing industry since long time ago. Although there are many modern finishing equipment available, the brush is still very important tool in the finishing industry. Brush is a tool that still can be used when the finishing process must be done at a place or room that does not allow the uses of spray equipment. Brush is the best option to do finishing oat the condition where there is no facility for spray application or in a room or house that is still occupied.

Brush is also widely used for application some material with the purpose of making special effects such as application of glaze, stain, or texture paint or even crackle paint to create some special effects.
The uses of brush in the furniture finishing is also needed to be done properly to be able to produce an optimal result. 


Here are some tips in the uses of brushes.

• Use the proper brush according to the need

Currently there are available variety of brushes in many types and models, each having its own function and will produce different results. The type of brush used in a finishing process must match with the finishing materials used and the desired effect. For example, the applications  of glaze that need an even layer requires flexible brush type with a thick tip. The thick brush is also ideal for clear coat application which needs to coat material evenly and smoothly. Meanwhile for texture application a stiff and stronger brush is required.
The size of brushes that are used must also according to the board size of the surface  being coated. The wide brush is inefficient for coating to the small surface and too small brushes will need too much repetition of strokes that result in waste of material, time and energy.

•   Caring of the brush.

As well with other tools, brushes also need a good maintenance to remain them always in good condition. We need to make sure that the brushes are ready every time they are needed. The bad condition brush will not be able to give optimal results. A dirty brush should be washed and cleaned before it used, while the damaged brushed should not be used again. The uses of bad brush will only result in wasting time, energy and finishing material.
Brush is maintained by always be cleaned immediately after it used.  The finishing material that has been dry, harden and stick to the brush will be difficult to be cleaned without damaging the brush. Soon after the work is completed dip the brush into the thinner and clean the dirt by hand or cloth. Then dry  the brush with clean cloth or blow the brush with compressed air until it dry. Store the dry and clean brush in its place. Brush can also be dried and stored by hanging to let its liquid inside drip and dry.
Use the appropriate thinner according to the finishing materials used. Brush for water based paint application can be immersed and washed with water; warm water will help to speed up dissolution and cleaning process. Brush to apply the  glaze oil or wax can be cleaned using mineral spirits or turpentine. While the brush for lacquer or varnish applications requires lacquer thinner or acetone to dissolve and clean its finishing material.
Brush should not be immersed in a fluid or paint thinner in a long time. The wet brush should be immediately cleaned, hung or dried and stored in a dry state.

  brush can be hung to let it dry

•  Exercise to use the brush.

Although the brush can be considered as a simple tool, but  it really need a skillful person to produce the desired effects and results. The result of coating with a brush is highly dependent on the skills of the people who do the job.  The people who use the brush also need to get use and familiar with this tool. Therefore, before doing application on a big product, an exercise is needed to be done on a small panel or small thing to learn and see the results obtained. There are many techniques using brushes that each will produce different effects. Enough practicing for each techniques is required to produce the desired results.

• Choose the appropriate finishing materials.

Not all finishing materials suitable for application by brush. Modern finishing materials have many types, each of which requires the right tools for its application. Several types of finishing materials are able to be applied with a brush with good results, while others are not. The finishing material such as; oil finish, wax, glaze or varnish are some of the traditional material that can be applied with a brush. The industry manufacturer of finishing materials has also provided some kind of special lacquer which is designed to be applied with a brush. In general, the material that is applied with brush are more dilute with longer drying time to let the paint flow to produce smooth and even surface. Therefore, when we decide to use brush for finishing materials application, we has to make sure that the material used is fit and  work well with the brush application.