I could not resist the lot for the price. These brushes are all new or nearly new. I assume the lot came from an instructor. Brings my total up to 107 Bob Ross brushes. I have a feeling I'll be selling some off. I probably do not need 14 - 1" brushes and 14 - 2" brushes ... LOL. I end up doing this with every hobby I get into. For example, I probably have 250 brushes for my scale miniature painting. I may have a problem
Just picked up an insanely large lot of 65 Bob Ross brushes ...
Brushes are supposed to be consumables no matter what they are. But reality BR brushes are so expensive so we try to extend their lives beyond limits. It is a great thing you got a nice stock. Congrats.
What’s the usable life expectancy for the various brushes?
Depending on the quality of your paintbrush, their lifespan can range from a few days up to three to four years! For the standard interior paint brush, there are two types of bristles: synthetic materials—like nylon or polyester—and natural hair.
Cronenberg89 Take you working horse aka your mostly used brush with you to the art store and compare length of bristles to new one. If it is 1/2 inch shorter that brush has worked out much of its resource for application but can still live but for rougher works.
I mean 1/2" or 1" BR brushes - bristles abrade and we do not notice it most of the time. However brushes are made in the way that hair thickness varies from ferrule to the tip. Meaning as it serves as working tool the stiffness increases with decrease of length of the bristles and making some of the brushes more difficult to control in their normal applications.
Old brushes are still good for gesso, for creating things with character, like some foliage even even they became too fluffy, it can be used to create additional interest in the brush marks.
Sunnylady thanks Sunnylady!