The Masters Brush and Hand Soap
I used to use dish soap to clean oil paint from my brushes and my hands, but it didn’t do a great job. My brushes didn’t get perfectly clean and didn’t last long. My hands were raw because I had to use a wire scrub brush with the dish soap, removing not only the paint but the top layer of my skin, too. A friend told me about The Masters brush cleaner and hand soap, both of which work better than anything else I’ve seen.
This soap’s not cheap. I paint a lot, and therefore go through tubs quickly. Still, the brush soap’s a great product, and it has allowed me to continue to use the same $.99 brush for the past year, if not longer.
The pumice-like brush soap has a little grit to it, and I’ve found it leaves a bit of residue on the towel I use to dry my brush. I can wipe my hands on the towel afterwards, and get them mostly clean. I keep The Masters hand soap bar around for the finishing touches.
The Masters Brush Cleaner 24oz Tub
$29
Available from Amazon
The Masters Hand Soap
$5 (5oz. bar)
Available from Amazon
Favorite (15)
james
would this work better than lava soap?
rob
hmm anyone else's iGoogle feed stuck on cuban mop?
Kevin Kelly
@rob: There are two Cool Tool widgets. The direct one from us does seem to be broken; the one via Feedburner is working. You might want to replace yours with the Feedburner one (search on Google Widgets in iGoogle) until we can fix ours.
Big Dave
OK, so you're paying over $6 for soap to wash out a 99 cent brush? Am I the only one who thinks this is bass ackwards?
KRS
A bar of Lava Soap costs $1.49. http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1265739&CAWELAID=319012226
rcjordan
heh! I see that a couple have already beaten me to post about Lava soap. A bar has more than plenty of pumice and lasts a long, long time even with daily use. I recently needed to buy a new bar. Ace was out. Wal-mart had it.
Fabula
This stuff is the business.
In my younger days, I painted metal miniatures using acrylics. Games workshop type stuff.
This stuff was the only thing that could keep my very fine sable brushes from getting clogged. Quality brushes are not cheap, and this stuff helps maintain them much better than water or similar.
Well worth the investment. I think I paid around £4 for a 1oz tub of the brush cleaner well over ten years ago. Lasted 5 years of dedicated painting with small brushes.
SammyBoy
Gojo Natural Orange Pumice Hand Cleaner
http://makezine.com/pub/tool/Gojo_Natural_Orange_Pumice_Hand_Cleaner
Cheap. Contains plenty of pumice. Scours your hands clean (not too rough though) and removes all kinds of greases and oils very effectively. The pump bottle is also much neater than a bar.
dale c snyder
I would have bought this stuff in a second when I was working. Paint, ink, caulk, wood finishes, oil, grease, stripper, (not the fun kind) was only cut by serious solvents. Wear gloves.
Dave
Over a decade back, during my time in art school, we were taught a trick to maintaining our brushes after oil painting. We kept a small jar of inexpensive vegetable oil to break up and loosen the paint on the brush.
A quick 30 second dip and a swirling/twisting action was adequate to remove 90% of the paint from the brush. The remaining paint and vegetable oil could then be removed by working the bristles across a wet bar of lava soap.
An added advantage was that this kept a lot of pigments and the linseed oil binder out of the water supply.
christopher
@Big Dave: a good oils brush could run you $20 easily. Some $40. Professional tools of high quality are always expensive, and always worth it.
Having said that, I've cleaned brushes for years with Lava soap. The vegetable oil trick is not one I knew, which is too bad, might've saved me some effort and our water suppy.
-C
Julian
Anyone putting pumice on a good brush is a fool...
ET
must everything come from amazon?
Richard Savary
I too think it odd that anyone would spend $29, to save a 0.99 brush (or even a bunch of 'em)! THAT is bogus, but the soap itself is not, referring to the hand soap. Better, I bet this brush cleaner will not only keep that $0.99 tool going, but will also help your $20, $35 and $50 brushes to last, too.
Many hand soaps cost $5/bar, but not all are as good as this one, if you need strong cleaning, i.e. if you are an artist. This one DOES seem to really work, I like its scent, and I like the fact that it is black, which is not only more interesting than white or pastel, but it doesn't muck up the sink area by displaying all the dirt it has removed during the last week! Between this and "Lava," just about anything should come off.
Not being a painter, the brush soap seems a bit pricey, but I will keep buying the hand soap as long as it's available.