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PurgoStudio

Care

How to look after it.

Four short guides, by material. Every item also carries its own care instructions in the specification on its product page, and a printed card repeating them ships in the box.

Brushes

The most important section on this page, and it comes down to one habit: a brush is never left standing on its head. Everything else about looking after a brush is minor by comparison.

Do

  • Rinse as you work, and wash properly at the end of a session — not at the end of the week.
  • Wash with a plain soap, working the lather right up into the ferrule where the colour actually collects.
  • Reshape the head with your fingers while it is still wet. This is what preserves the point or the chisel edge.
  • Dry flat, or hanging head-down, so nothing runs back into the ferrule.
  • Keep the plastic head protector a brush arrives in and use it for storage.

Do not

  • Never stand a brush in water or solvent, not even for a few minutes. The liquid wicks into the ferrule, swells the crimp and splays the head permanently.
  • Do not store a brush head-down in a jar with the weight on the hair.
  • Do not scrub a dried film off a surface with a brush — that is what the scraper is for, and it will destroy the head in one go.
  • Do not put a synthetic brush anywhere near heat. The filament is a polyester and it takes a set against a radiator.

Cotton-rag paper

Rag paper is durable in every way except the two that catch people out: it cockles if you flood it unstretched, and it takes a permanent mark from the oils on your hands.

Do

  • Stretch or tape a 300 gsm sheet down before any heavy wet work. Use the 640 gsm if you would rather not.
  • Handle sheets by the edges.
  • Store flat, in the dark, away from a radiator or an exterior wall.
  • Let a block dry completely before cutting the top sheet off — that is the whole reason the edges are gummed.

Do not

  • Do not store paper rolled. The curl becomes a memory and it fights you every time you tape it down.
  • Do not expect four straight edges. Two deckles and two torn edges is how a mould-made sheet is finished.
  • Do not leave a sheet clipped under a window. Even acid-free stock shifts in direct sun.

Birch panels & boards

Wood moves. A cradle limits that; it does not abolish it. Nearly every panel problem traces back to one of two things — sealing one face and not the other, or leaving it somewhere that swings between hot and cold.

Do

  • Seal both faces and all four edges before you work, even on the face you will never see.
  • Store upright and separated rather than stacked face-to-face under weight.
  • Let a panel acclimatise in the room for a day before sealing it, particularly in winter.

Do not

  • Do not seal one face only. It is the single most reliable way to pull a curve into a panel.
  • Do not leave panels in a car. Heat cycling is what opens a glue line, and it does not close again.
  • Do not expect the grain to disappear under a thin ground — birch figure reads through, and it differs panel to panel.

Steel tools & waxed cloth

Both are chosen for how they age rather than for staying pristine. Unplated steel holds an edge that stainless will not, and pays for it by spotting if it is put away wet; waxed cloth sheds water and pays for it by creasing and marking.

Do

  • Wipe steel dry the moment it is washed. Not later.
  • Give steel a light oil once a month if the studio is humid.
  • Take rust spots off with fine wool and re-oil.
  • Brush dry dirt off waxed cloth and sponge it with cold water only.
  • Re-wax a tool roll with a proofing bar once a year if it goes outdoors.

Do not

  • Do not put steel through a machine wash. The heat and detergent strip the finish and loosen the handle in the wood.
  • Do not lever a blade against a hard edge. They are tempered to flex and a bend of that kind does not come out.
  • Never machine wash or dry-clean waxed cloth. It strips the wax out permanently.
  • Do not roll wet brushes away inside a closed tool roll — you will find mildew in the lining.
  • Expect the wax to transfer onto a light seat, bag lining or worktop in heat.

If something has gone wrong anyway

Anything that arrives damaged is replaced or refunded in full — send a photograph within 14 days and keep the packaging until we reply. See returns and refunds.

hello@purgostudio.com — Monday–Friday, 9:00am–5:00pm MST. Every message answered within one business day.