Pinterest Testing

I saw this pin about re-newing old paintbrushes by soaking them in vinegar.  So I decided to give it a try.

Here's my paint brush before the soaking.

 It's not in terrible shape, but I wondered if the soaking would release the old paint.

 So I boiled up some vinegar.  I would have rather put the paint brush flat, but to cover the whole thing I would have needed to put it in my 9 x 13 pan. I didn't want to use up a huge amount of vinegar, so I stuck it upright in my quart measuring cup.

I let it soak for about 6 hours.  Then I washed it really well in soapy water.  Here's what it looked like after.

I do think it turned out nice, but not as nice as I had hoped.  The oldest paint is still there.  You can't tell from the photo, but the bristles were softer.  What I don't like is that because I didn't want to use up a gallon of vinegar, the bristles are now a little distorted!  I hope they return to normal when we paint again!

But the question is, "Was it worth it?"  No.  I may do this for little paint brushes, when just a small amount of vinegar is used.  But I don't think it affected how the paint brush will work, unless it is adversely affected by the warped bristles!  Plus, my house was stinky for 6 hours! (It was cold, and I didn't want to put the experiment outside.)