Garage tip:

A handy way to manage used turps.

TURPENTINE, OR TURPS for short, used to cost a mere R25 for five litres. Then came the first and second Gulf Wars and the subsequent escalation in the price of Brent Crude. Nowadays, a five litre container of turps will set you back R130 or more. With it being so expensive, I had started buying cheapo paintbrushes and not even bothering to clean them – once a job was done, I’d just throw them away. But these cheap brushes usually have shorter, stiffer bristles and this affects the quality of the paint job. As a solution, I developed a simple way of saving and reusing turps for washing my brushes. All you need is two large containers

(I use old coffee jars) and a few rags.

METHOD

1. Mark the containers #1 and #2.

2. When you’ve finished your paint job, ease as much paint off the brush and back into the paint container as possible. Pour 1 cm of turps into a jam jar and wash off the brush. Pour that dirty turps into container #2 and dry the brush on a rag. (Drying it helps to keep each batch of turps clearer.)

3. If the brush is still quite paint-soiled, repeat the whole washing process, once again pouring the soiled turps into container #2.

4. Dry the brush again.

5. Now wash your brush a third time, but this time, save the turps by pouring it into container #1.

6. Dry the turps off the brush, then wash it in warm water and laundry detergent.

7. Rinse well, then flick off excess water using your fingers only. (Do not bang it against a wall or a garden fence as this destroys the bristles.)

8. Wrap the brush in newspaper and allow it to dry slowly over a day or two.

WHAT NEXT?

Allow the pigment, which is now suspended in the turps, to settle in your two containers. There will be more sedimented pigment in container #2, and the turps may have become more discoloured than that of container #1. Use the turps in container #2 to do the first paintbrush wash after your next paint job. Use the cleaner turps from container #1 for the final wash, and when it becomes too cloudy, pour it into container #2.

Eventually, container #2 will become very cloudy, overfull, and the sediment will build right up. Now is the time to dispose of it, importantly, in an environmentally responsible way.

Using this simple cyclical method now enables me to buy good-quality paintbrushes and keep them in tip-top condition without spending a fortune on turps.