One thing I love about blogs: You can't buy the sort of independent testimonial that NB Herbie gave to the Brush Mate paintbrush storage system this week:
Brush Mate ... a simple plastic box in which you hang paint brushes, and containing a chemical pad which prevents the paint from drying on the brush. Phil Speight recommended it to me.
... After a long term trial I can report back, and I can honestly say it is simply superb.
I first used it in May, when I was retouching Herbie's gunwales with black paint. Finishing the job, I just hung the brush in the box - no cleaning - and every time I need to cover up a scratch I just take the brush out of the box and off we go.
... The brush has now hung there for 6 months and the paint is still wet on the brush!! I really should change the chemical pad now I suppose. Replacement pads cost about £3. The box itself which holds four brushes costs about £12.
Not only does it make keeping touch up brushes ready for use really easy, it also saves a lot of time and mess in cleaning brushes AND saves on brush cleaning fluids. Looking after brushes is not the most enjoyable part of painting, and failing to look after them is expensive. This gadget does away with all that.
You naturally look for the downside, and Neil of Herbie does give a couple: That it will strip the varnish off brush handles, and that it only works with oil-based paints.
He forgot to mention another: That once you have one colour of paint on the brush, that's it; the brush is wedded to that colour, until you clean it as normal. Still, I guess that's too obvious to mention.
Who knows, perhaps Gordon Products, the makers of Brush Mate did pay underhand for that sort of testimonial. Doubt it, though. One thing that marks a good blog is the sense of veracity that shines through, and it does with Neil's NB Herbie blog. This sort of feedback is really handy for boaters.
All this follows on from Neil's original post last year about Phil Speight's boat painting course last year, and Graham of Jannock's own experience of the Phil Speight course the week before last.
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