I’ve worked with Allback linseed oil paint for awhile, and am experienced with various “boat soup” concoctions (with great success). I’m struggling, though, with brush cleaning after the final coat when working with linseed oil paint. I’ve used linseed oil soap, then suspended in pure (raw) linseed oil. But the brushes “gum up” and retain the pigment of my last color used. I’m using the recommended high quality ($$) brushes, but the manufactures’ sites are hazy on advice. Your comments?
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No personal experience with this. Using my chemistry knowledge, I'd try mineral oil to remove the linseed oil paint and then maybe either acetone or mineral spirits to the mineral oil. In terms of the colors, I'm leaning towards trying something that might help chelate the inorganic pigments. I would try a water based solution of EDTA. All pure speculation on my part. For what it's worth, I used a decent brush to apply milk paint. Washed the heck out of it and never was able to remove the color. I didn't try the EDTA. That brush is now dedicated to milk paint.
I use to suspend my spar varnish brushes in diesel and use a spinner to clean them. This is the technique from the Woodenboat magazine :
Badger-hair bristle brushes are the standard for serious varnishers. They are worth their cost, because they hold plenty of varnish and release it evenly and cleanly—that is, with minimal brush marks. With careful cleaning and storage, they can be used year after year. Cleaning typically requires three rinses in clean thinner, with a twirl in a paintbrush spinner between each rinse. Then they can be soaked in kerosene or diesel and spun out before being wrapped in a clean rag and hung from a hook for the season; to use them again, soak them in thinner to wash off the kerosene, spin them out, and they’re ready to go. Never store them in a can of thinner, because remnant varnish solids will settle to the bottom of the can, contaminating the brush.
Oil painters (like the artist kind) use gum terpentine or odorless solvent usually.
You also need to really work the bristles around. There are videos on YouTube from painters about cleaning brushes that might help!
Have you tried just using paint thinner (mineral spirits) or turpentine? I have always used this on any oil based paint or stain.
Also, either of these are reusable. Start with a fresh container of thinner or turpentine. Clean your brush as best you can and pour the used thinner/turp into another container. Repeat this two or three times until you brush is clean. Let your container of dirty thinner/turp set for a few days and decant the clear liquid into another container for reuse the next time. Discard the contaminants that have settled to the bottom. Then, the next time you need to clean a brush, start with this reusable thinner/turp and finish up with a small amount of fresh. You can do this over and over many times.