Marc,
For many years I have been purchasing disposable brushes that are perfect from Craft stores and Big Box stores in the children's coloring section.
For example:
[
www.walmart.com]
These are 144 brushes for $17.50. 5 years ago, the same brushes were 144 brushes for $8.50 - seems like inflation.
The price of these brushes come out to 12 cents each.
But they have nylon bristles that normally do not come out. They do a nice job of finish application and with the right finish get perfect finish application.
Because of the price, I use one brush for each time that I mix a batch of finish. So, If you mix 5 batches of finish - I use 5 brushes. i.e. 60 cents in brushes to apply one coat of finish to 5 rods, or 5 coats of finish to one rod.
No cleaning of brushes - ever. No thinner, No brush cleaning chemicals, No cleaning smell in the shop.
Whenever I use one brush in a plastic cut for a single use on a rod or rods - I lay the brush across the top of the mixing cup, so that I can test the finish cure in the cup for the rod that I am working on - without touching the blank and possibly put a mark on a drying rod.
When the finish has cured, the plastic cup and mixing brush are pitched and we move on.
For the mixing cups, I go to the grocery store and pick up the 2 oz plastic cups used for serving food samples in the grocery store. I think that they are something like $3 for 100 cups.
