Whether you’re a beginner painter or an experienced artist who just needs a refresher, let’s brush up on the most important tool in your painting arsenal: your oil paint brushes.

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Resplendent Grapes via Dorothy Lorenze, using medium and small round sable brushes.

A little trial and error may be required when working with a new oil painting brush, but this blog post should point you in the right direction. I’ll explain distinct types and shapes of oil paint brushes.

Buying oil paint brushes

While it’s not all about price, it’s a good idea to get the best quality you can afford. Professional materials do not a “professional” make, but supplies that perform well will reduce your level of frustration.

Some excellent oil paint brush brands include:

Two qualities to look for in every oil painting brush are “spring” and “shape” resiliency. A brush should have enough spring to respond well to your hand when you make a stroke. It should give a little — but not too much — so you get the stroke weight you desire. A higher quality brush holds its shape, meaning the hairs don’t spread too much when loaded or stay spread after use.

Parts of a oil paint brush

Starting with the basics, there are three parts of a paintbrush: bristles, ferrule and handle.

Bristles

These are the “hairs” that carry the paint. Bristles can be stiff hog’s hair or softer sable (or other soft natural hair) or synthetic. In a quality brush, the ends will taper to a fine edge, allowing more control.

Ferrule

The ferrule is the metal band that secures the bristles and connects them to the handle. Avoid filling your brush with paint up to the ferrule. If paint dries at the ferrule juncture, it’s harder to clean and will spread the bristles, making the brush lose its point.

Handle

Handles are long or short, wood or plastic. Long-handled brushes are classic and allow you to take a farther view to keep your composition in perspective. When you hold your brush toward the end of a long handle, it touches the canvas in a more sensitive way, creating a more lyrical painting. Think of your brush as an extension of your arm and fingertips rather than a writing utensil.

Types of paint brushes

The two distinctly different types of brushes for oil painting are bristle and sable.

Bristle brushes

While all brushes have bristles, it’s the stiffer hog’s hair brushes that are referred to as bristle brushes. The stiff hog’s hair grabs more paint so bristle brushes are great if you work thickly or like to accentuate brushstrokes.

Sable brushes

Sable brushes are soft and can be made from actual weasel hair (yep, sables are a kind of weasel), squirrel, rabbit or synthetic fibers. These soft brushes are perfect for finer details and smoother blending. Do not fear the synthetic brush — many newer ones are excellent.

We usually think of bristle brushes for oil and sable for watercolor. But sable-type brushes are wonderful for oil painting. Just remember, if you work in both media, do not go back and forth between oil and watercolor with the same brush. Chaos will ensue!

Oil paint brush shapes

Fan

This is literally a fan-shaped arrangement of bristles. It’s a sweet-looking little brush, meant to be used for blending and subtle texture. Truthfully, the spread of hairs is generally so fine that I don’t find it especially useful for oils unless the paint is thin. But a fan brush does look cool in your paint box!

Round

Round brushes are said to be less versatile because the stroke doesn’t vary, but that’s exactly the attribute needed when painting details! That’s why smaller rounds are great for detail. Large round bristles work OK for oils, but save the soft rounds for watercolor. A heavily loaded, round sable brush can be unwieldy for oil painting.

Filberts

This is like a flat but with rounded sides, so it creates a softer edge and blends better than a flat. My first favorite brushes were Robert Simmons Titanium filberts because they had the coverage, control and blend-ability I was looking for.

Flats

Paint Brush Sizes

Long, flat, rectangular brushes. Longer brush hairs carry more paint, so flats can cover more area per load. Held flat against the canvas, it creates smooth edges and sweeping strokes. Used on edge, relatively thin lines are possible. Sometimes flats are described by measurement, such as ¼” or ½” rather than brush sizes (more on brush sizes below).

Brights

These are similar to a flat brush, but the hairs on brights are shorter. This allows a bit more control than the longer flat brush. Smaller bright bristle brushes are my go-to for texture, whether painting trees or fabric.

Lemon Light painting via Dorothy Lorenze using large and medium synthetic filberts

Understanding oil paint brush sizes

Brushes sizes range from super fine to an inch or more. They are numbered low to high, 0000 (or 4/0) being less than 0, and up to 24. Different brands will vary somewhat, so a No. 6 from one might be slightly larger than a No. 6 from another.

In oil painting, large bristle brushes are best for washes and the broad areas of backgrounds. Mid-size bristle brushes with sharp edges can also be used for some detail. Finer details are best accomplished with small, round, sable brushes.

Confused yet? Don’t fret. Start by investing in a few high-quality mid-to-large bristle brushes, and a couple of small-to-midsize sable brushes. See how they feel and which perform best for your style of painting. Six brushes should be enough to start. Spend some time with them. Because art supplies are like workout gear — no matter how much gear you buy, nothing improves until you use it!

SSPC-SP 6 Commercial Blast Cleaning (NACE No. 3) is a standard used for blast cleaning put forth by the Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) and NACE International Standard. Commercial blast cleaning is to be used for a defined degree of cleaning unpainted and painted steel surfaces prior to protective coating or lining systems. SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3 commercial blast cleaning allows for stains or shadows up to 33 percent of each unit area of surface to remain. SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3 removes all visible oil, grease, dust, dirt, mill scale, rust, coating, oxides, corrosion products, and any other foreign matter on the surface.

Why SSPC-SP 6 Commercial Blast Cleaning (NACE No. 3)?

In reference to the degree of cleanliness for SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3 commercial blast cleaning has a higher level of cleaning surfaces than does SSPC-SP 14/NACE No. 8 industrial blast cleaning. However, the degree of cleaning is less than that of SSPC-SP 10/NACE No. 2 near-white blast cleaning or SSPC-SP 5/NACE No. 1 white blast cleaning. Commercial blast cleaning has a lower cost for providing a degree of surface preparation when blast cleaning is necessary.

What Should You Consider?

The degree of cleaning for commercial blast cleaning entails the allowed percent of each unit area of the surface to show stains or shadows.

The limit of surface cleaning for SSPC-SP 6 commercial blast cleaning is no more than 33 percent of each unit area of the surface. With commercial blast cleaning, light shadows, slight streaks, or minor discolorations from rust, mill scale, or other types of stains are permitted.

Special note should be taken on the coating specified with the degree of surface roughness that is suitable for the coating system of interest.

The unit area that is evaluated should always remain approximately 5776 SQ mm or 9 SQ in to best meet the allowed percent of cleanliness per each unit area of the surface.

What is needed to be done before SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3 Commercial Blast Cleaning done?

There are prerequisites that need to be in place prior to applying SSPC-SP 6 commercial blast cleaning. In order to be able to apply commercial blast cleaning be sure that all visible oil, grease, and other contaminant residues are removed. This can be achieved by using standard SSPC-SP 1 Solvent cleaning or other possible methods. Some coating specification requires a chloride test being performed before power blasting even before solvent cleaning to identify the amount of deposited soluble salts.

Environmental Conditions needed for SSPC-SP 6 Commercial Blast Cleaning

Substrate temperature should not be colder surrounding air temperature; otherwise, the moisture can condensate on the cleaned-blast surface and cause flash rust. Relative humidity should be less than 85% since the higher value can cause moisture condensation on the surface. The sandblasting process should not be done if the surface temperature is less than 5-degree Fahrenheit(or 3-degree Celsius) above the dew point. The dew point is the temperature that condensation starts.

Besides, all conditions mentioned in the coating specification document must be met. The coating specification is part of the contract and have established requirements that must be met per project. Therefore, the surface must be free of sharp fins, edges, weld spatter, or burning slag as indicated by the specification prior to performing SSPC-SP 6 commercial blast cleaning.

What Methods can be used for SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3?

Commercial blast cleaning can be done by dry abrasive blasting in the following ways:

Long Paint Brush

• Using compressed air, blast nozzles, or an abrasive
• Using a closed-cycle, recirculating system with compressed air, blast nozzle, and an abrasive, with or without vacuum for recovery of abrasives and dust.
• Using a closed-cycle, recirculating system with centrifugal wheels and an abrasive.
• Additional methods can be discussed between the contractor and those who established the requirements.

What Abrasives can be used for SSPC-SP 6 Commercial Blast Cleaning?

Abrasives are used for grinding, polishing, or cleaning hard surfaces. SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3 calls for the use of abrasives in the methods listed. The abrasives selected for this method depend on a variety of factors.

In order to select an appropriate abrasive, the type, grade, and surface condition of the steel need to be considered. The size and type of abrasive should be selected based on the blast cleaning system to be used, the surface that requires SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3, the finished requirements of the surface, and if recycling of the abrasive is necessary.

The abrasive used for commercial blast cleaning should be dry and free of any contaminants, such as oil, grease, etc. The air compressor should be checked for oil and water contamination by blotter test.

Post SSPC-SP 6/NACE No. 3 Commercial Blast Cleaning?

Once the methods above have been applied, be sure to remove all visible residues from the surface. This can be achieved with the use of brushing, blowing off residue with clean, dry air, and vacuum cleaning. A surface dust test can be performed to ensure all dust and residue being removed.

As mentioned prior, after commercial cleaning, be sure to meet all surface standards as presented in the coating specification. Unperfected surfaces may lead to premature paint failure.

Most coating specification requires a surface profile measurement by press-o-film (replica film test) or commercial name as testex tape test. The referenced standard for performing this test is ASTM-4417, method C or ISO-8503-1.

The amount of surface profile depends on coating specification, but most of the specifications require 2 thru 3 mils.

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In addition, prior to continuing with the coating, be sure to remove any visible rust that forms on the steel surface after blast cleaning. If the recently blasted surface is exposed to salts, moisture, contamination or a corrosive environment, rust can occur quickly. Therefore, always be certain to remove visible rust prior to continuing with the new coating system.

As with all standards, it is very important to take the necessary precautions when working with blast cleaning.

Return to coating inspection

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