Thread: Brush stands - do you really need them?

For me, a user mainly of boar bristle brushes, the stand is almost a necessity. So many of the brushes I have found...and left...in the wild had a cracked ferrule around the knot. That is probably why so many older brushes were "Set in Rubber' and "Rubber Set," there was some give there.

Badger brushes of age...which I have seen out there and purchased do not seem to get cracked ferrules. I read somewhere they were closer to a porcupine quill than a hair and pretty non-absorbent..

A real good reason to store quality brushes bristle down was mentioned above. To prevent the hairs from breaking off after a period of time when the lather dries and fills all available space in and near the ferrule. I did find a lot of brushes with stray hairs around the ferrule and many broken off hairs there, making the knot smaller in diameter.

I am old enough to have spent a bit of time staying in older homes where waking up to finding water frozen in the upstairs rooms was not unusual. That as late as 1959. But freezing a brush with water/lather in it would most likely crack most any brush handle.
~Richard