Need you guys to check these brushes . . .

[Wihtesparrow]

I just got a few W&N Series 7 brushes in today from dickblick.com and since I'm so new to painting minis, I would like some of you more experienced guys who use these brushes to check their tip quality!! The top picture is the No. 2 and the bottom is a No. 0.

I have a few concerns (which may just be picky-ness on my part): 1. The size 2 tip almost seems as if it came a little hooked already. Is this a normal look? (Not to mention the random stray hair) 2. Some of the hairs on both of them don't converge towards the tip (more visible on the size 0)

Let the assessing begin!!

 

[me_in_japan]

to see how they really point up, its important to see them wet. Can you lick em (or if youre hygenically inclined, dip em in water and point em with your finger) and post pics of those, please? At the moment, I'd say the stray hair is a bad sign, and the wee hook could be a problem, but it depends on how it behaves when wet.

 

[AndyG]

No no no bad bad bad send em back!

 

[MAXXxxx]

the stray hair on the no2 doesn't look good, but other than that it doesn't seem to be bad. As others said it depends how it looks when wet.

as for the No0: it doesn't look good at all. this one I'd send back. (Also it's not a WnN7-Size0, but a WnN7Mini-Size0, so depending on what you ordered it may not be the same brush)

 

[airhead]

They look bad, send them to me and I'll recondition them over the next year and send them back to you......

but seriously...
As Me-In-Japan said, wet them up. If they hold a nice point, you're good to go.
If they hook or split, you need to send them back.

 

[Wihtesparrow]

My confidence has risen!! (hopefully) Would I be able to snip the stray hair? Not too close obviously, but just enough to get it out of the way? Or is that a nono? Check out these pics of the tips having been wet (the last one is to make confirmation that the size 0 is indeed not from the mini series as MAXXxxx proposed which I assume would be printed on the handle):

 

[QuietiManes]

It looks like my 0, which is not a mini.

The stray hair can be cut (not pulled). If you have a razor or hobby knife, put it on the ferrule, pull the hair down, push the knife up, should cut it off as close as you can get safely. Or just pull the hair to the side and snip with scissors.

If you have a brush restorer, you can try using that to reform the hair though. Or even your hair conditioner from the bathroom. Lather it up, form the hairs into a tip, let it dry for a day or two, rinse and see how that hair is doing, repeat it a couple times if needed. It's also subject to reshaping with a hair dryer just like normal hair, wet it and blow dry it strait, might be hard to hold the hair forward with the heat on it though.

Of course, sending DickBlick a message might get you another sent out, keeping both? Or just returning it for an exchange is probably easier.

Anyway, g'luck.

 

[Einion]

@Wihtesparrow as you now know you have to assess a brush point when the brush is wet. Bit more on how to assess rounds in this post on planetFigure from a few years ago.

Down the line a bit if you hunt around you'll see there are plenty of threads and blog posts trashing Series 7s for ongoing problems in QC and longevity. A search here and on pF will bring up some other brands that are worth checking out, in a couple of posts of mine you'll see two other very viable options which are available from DickBlick also.

They look bad, send them to me and I'll recondition them over the next year and send them back to you......

:laugh:

The stray hair can be cut (not pulled).

Actually there are a number of pros that recommend you pull not cut. The thing to avoid obviously is trying to put it out, which is deffo a bad idea. But the edge of the ferrule is actually sharp enough to get a clean break in the hair if you yank downwards sharply.

You do have to have a decent pair of tweezers for this, or pliers will do as well.

Einion