$20 for a brush?

It was from "American Painters" and it is a 1 and 1/2 flat that I have named Stanley.

With my %40 coupon from Micheal's Stanley was a bit over $10.
Jeez.
SO EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!! (not being sarcastic, over $10 for 1 brush seems crazy to me)


My plan is to get rid of my cheapo brushes and get nice onces. I am going to do this slowly and with coupons in hand. Here is my question... Will it be worth it?? I mean, this is going to turn into a few hundred dollars easy.
Also, what brand should i go for?
Last but not least, how long will they last? I take care of them pretty well. Do they last longer than cheapo brushes, or just the same.

My cheapo brushes are Leow Cornell Golden Talkcon and a few Royal Majestic

Well... I have paid $38 for my #6 round Winsor & Newton Cirrus Kolinsky Sables... each.... and I go through them. They last about 6 months of hard use - and I have to clean them between each person and saturate in alcohol so they are worked pretty hard.

Personally, I'm not married to any particular brand - I like the ones named above, but, I haven't been able to locate them locally at any of the stores in town for the last year so I have been using other brushes. I just go through the brush display and grab what looks good... if I really like it I will try to get more.

And IMO... cheap doesn't necessarily mean it is not going to be a good brush, just more likely not to be. I've bought some sale brushes at the college bookstore that worked great.

I paid $17 for a Winsor & Newton pointed round sable and thought I'd possibly lost my mind for spending so much on one brush, but it was recommended by someone so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Unfortunately while I love it immensely in practice - I can make the most beautiful and perfect swirls and curls of my life with it - but I find that I have a heavier hand when I'm actually working and it doesn't work for me at all. I'm sure I could learn to use it properly all the time, but then I'd be stuck with an addiction to an expensive brush! So I decided it's better for me to learn how to use cheaper brushes effectively.

So now I'm sticking to mid-range brushes - I like the Mark Reid #4 round I bought from Metina and it was $6.50. My favourites right now are some Princeton #4950 synthetics that I bought on sale for $4 or under, each. And I recently tried out the Snazaroo large round (red handle) which is about $5-6, and I was surprised how much I really liked it!!

I think that specialty brushes like a large flat such as you bought are worth spending a little more, because they seem to last longer than the rounds.

So is it worth it?
I am drooling over all the rounds from W&N....
I guess it boils down to the bad/good experience I had with my Wolfe set.
They weren't HORRIBLY expensive but, you know, still a few bucks each more than I paid for the rest of my brushes.
I bought a bunch of rounds and a liner from Wolfe.... a few USES later the paint on the handle started chipping of ALL of them. Eventually, my liner even broke across the wood part. Even still, my cheapest looking brushes (the cracked Wolfe set) are my *go to*s because I feel a noticeable difference between the others.
For example, lets say i am painting in a rush and not paying attention to which brand brushes i am grabbing time and happen to think to myself "Oh! This is a nice brush!" I look down and the brushes making the awesome swirls is one of the Wolfe ones.
So I appreciate nice brushes, I just don't appreciate how quick they seem to be going kaput.

I've gone through tons of brushes & have found the mark Reids from metina's shop are great & well priced. I do like my paradise 1" flat & for large body work love the 2" flats from of all places Walmart. So, it just depends the brush & the person. I've been eyeing & drooling over the Vargas brushes, but am not in a position to drop that type of money... yet....

That's one thing I like about the Princetons, they have an acrylic handle so there is no paint to chip. I think it was Clayton from Marvelous Masks who recommended those in a thread one time and I do really like them. The Mark Reid ones don't seem like the paint will chip either, it's like it is baked on or something, has a nice matte finish that feels good in your hand. I plan to buy more MR brushes in the 4 and up sizes - I'm not so fussy on the #2 that I bought.

Cover the chipped paint with nail polish! Pick off all the loose paint, then paint a couple coats of nail polish on the handle (fast dry is best BTW). Seal the wood, is completely waterproof when dry. And I've not had any of mine chip or crack since.

If I am going to pay big bucks for a brush I don't want to have to "rig" it.
lol... That being said, my wolfe brushes are going to get painted lol

Good tip Shannon !