Unless you have some stray hairs sticking out from the tip, there is no need to trim a brush. If you trim it you then have a blunt tip and all your starting lines will have a blunt end. If you have to cut from the belly to get the brush to turn, you haven't learned how to use the brush. If you want to have tight circles, use an outliner or the Kafka brush which is basically a liner with a stubby handle.
I don't trim mine other than just that, I wear them out fast enough... Oiling your brushes when not in use helps keep their shape and also keeps them from drying out. I use neatsfoot oil (from the local Ace hardware) but my 'Mentor' Tom Sanborn used ATF and I've seen guys that used motor oil... One thing I learned from another striper (which will help if you're doing quite a bit of work) - is to have several brushes 'conditioned' and ready to use, and rotating them so you always have a few broken in. Till I learned that it always seemed a brush would start losing hairs right in the middle of a piece, and that's no time to try and get the 'feel' of another new brush. And again, as a few others have said, just do it - practice practice practice...
You should not use motor oil unless it is NON-detergent straight weigh only. There is chemicals in detergent motor oil that will attack the brush hairs and shorten the life on the brush. I don't like Kafka brushes, but I do like his brush oil, it is acid free and works very well. Again just like real estate the three most important things when you start to learn striping is PRACTICE!!! PRACTICE!!! PRACTICE!!!
OK;here's a few thoughts on learning to stripe: 1)If you REALLY want to learn brush control,dig up an old Grumbacher 1010 in size 00 or the equivalent since they haven't been made in 25 years or so.A good alternate would be ANY striping brush with synthetic hair.They work really great for pulling long lines but do not turn very well unless you really get up on top of them(hold them vertical)and even then you might have to make three or four passes to bring the line up to the proper width. 2)The two most important things to learn are: a)proper paint consistency which can and usually will change in mid-stripe. b)painting a long line that is consistent in thickness all the way along. c)putting the brush back down on the line where you just left off and maintaining b) 3)Learn to pull a line while: a)bent over in a position that makes your back hurt. b)laying on a creeper trying to paint down the rocker panel of a car. c)laying in a reclining beach chair under a hydraulic lift that is part-way down(with no safety locks)striping a semi-hot oil pan or the bottom of frame rails. d)working on a black car in August without the benefit of shade. e)trying to lay the brush on the surface with periodic 30 knot wind gusts. f)trying to lay the brush on the surface just as the owner decides he needs to get a beer out of the trunk. g)some idiot 30 feet away from you is pulling about 9,000 rpm on an engine dyno. h)next to the local gun club and it's big bore rifle sighting-in day. i)an indoor car show in an acoustically-challenged auditorium next to the latest TV/movie personality with the conversation level in the waiting line approaching 150db or better yet the vendor who has to have the latest speed metal band playing at a volume that is setting off car alarms 3 blocks away or these ricers that are having amplifier duels.That one managed to deafen my dog and just about everyone that was working the show. If you somehow manage to survive all that and still want to stripe,then you will be pretty much on your way to being a pinstriper. Note: All of the above I have experienced more than once in the 50 plus years I've been striping.
I'm interested in lettering. Any recommended resources out there? Do you guys use the same brushes for that as you do lines? Thanks
I use old(from long ago-no additives) unused motor oil to practice with on glass. A pane of 1/4' glass with paper under it,sometimes with a grid,mostly not. I hate green,so the emerald or medium green one shot is also practice material. Someone wrote that you should play your favorite music and "get into your zen zone?" I truly believe that helps and makes the striping time more enjoyable? It's a fun hobby!
The beauty of pinstriping is (or should be) there are really no rules? Make something purty anyway you can,however you can?
It's the company we keep! He he he Does anyone know the striper that appeared in SignCraft waaaay back showing his method of pouncing designs of peacocks,dragons,animals,??? for intricate side-to-side setup? Bert ? i can't recall his name,but that set me to thinking that that technique would open a whole new avenue of striping and repetition of the design? As far as my "grid",I think of a clock.If I pull the right side line to 5:30,then the left heads to 7:30.Sometimes I touch a small dot of paint and pull to that. Works for me?
Grids and Pounce Patterns have been used by artists and sign painters for hundreds of years. They are tools,to be used when necessary. I doubt Michelangelo considered them a crutch, when he used them on the Sistine Chapel. The end result is what counts.
The crazy thing about the Bishops statement is that my dad was a contractor and we built hundreds of houses and I never once saw anyone using a grid. A carpenters square, but no grid.
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