# Cleaning horsehair brushes



## stylenewbie (Jul 25, 2009)

Is it ok to do so? I was just going to run it through with warm water since my brush is pretty saturated with shoe polish.


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## Groover (Feb 11, 2008)

How do you mean saturated? Are the bristles covered in polish that they're all sticking together?

If so, then when you polish your shoes don't apply polish just use the brush, eventually it will thin down.

I've always achieved a better shine and better antiquing when the brushes are used so to speak rather than clean.


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## SlowE30 (Mar 18, 2008)

If your dauber brush is caked with polish... try waiting until it's dry and brushing it against a wadded up newspaper or something. My shoe polish isn't water-soluble, so I doubt just water would do much. Maybe water and saddle soap if it really needs it?


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## PJC in NoVa (Jan 23, 2005)

If you let the polish get all dried and caked in the bristles, it will spray out like so much dandruff when you apply the brush to your shoes, accomplishing nothing other than making a mess.

Wash the bristles under a warm-water tap using a gentle soap such as Ivory dish liquid. Then air-dry, preferably with bristles down (perching the brush at the edge of sink with something on top of the handle to weight it down works well).

I use only cream-based polishes myself, and have ditched applicator brushes altogether in favor of those wedge-shaped applicator sponges they sell in the makeup aisle at CVS. They're too soft to work with wax polishes, but with Meltonian or Allen-Edmonds cream, one sponge will be enough to put polish on two pairs of shoes before the sponge is tossed, no cleaning required.


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## rich_202 (Jun 20, 2009)

If my dauber brush is caked with polish, I find that aggressively brushing it over a scrap piece of carpet works well for removing the excess dry polish.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

PJC in NoVa said:


> ...Wash the bristles under a warm-water tap using a gentle soap such as Ivory dish liquid. Then air-dry, preferably with bristles down (perching the brush at the edge of sink with something on top of the handle to weight it down works well).
> 
> ....


I've found that Dawn dish washing liquid also works well in this type of application.


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## jst (Oct 22, 2008)

As far a I remember I have never cleaned my shoe brushes. I just use them and it works. No big deposit of shoe cream on the bristles. Well in the time of my military service we use small brush for applying the shoe wax, but the piece of old cotton T shirt is definitely better. Do you really think it is necessary to clean brushes on regular basis? I use wet piece of cloth or small kitchen sponge for removing the mad dust and salt in winter from the leather surface so it is not the brush problem. On the other side I clean the clothes brush quite often.


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## mysharona (Nov 4, 2008)

The only thing I use my horsehair brushes for are: 1)the smaller ones I use to clean the welts prior to polishing 2) the big one I use for a final buffing after i have both polished and buffed the shoe with water and a soft cotton cloth using small circular motions. How the hell do you saturate a buffer brush with polish?


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## HarryPaul (Jul 7, 2007)

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## From Vancouver (May 24, 2009)

You should have a brush used specifically for brushing/buffing the shoe after the polish has been applied and allowed to dry. This brush always keeps like new.

As for the application of polish and/or cream, use another brush, cotton cloth or sponge applicator. I usually discard these when polish has built up too much over many uses.


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