Arroworthy Painting Tools Review – by James Wildish

Arroworthy Paint Brushes

My Preference

Having used Purdy Monarch Elites for many years but becoming more disappointed with the recent batches, I bought a set of Arroworthy Finultra online from Next Day Paint to try out. I was looking for something to rival the Corona Archers (one of my favourites) for use with emulsion. I prefer a stiffer bristled brush for cutting sharp lines – but as with many of the brands that are fairly popular at the moment – I find they last a couple of months at most and start to lose their shape, and I then struggle to replicate the results of the initial use. Would the Arroworthy Finultra stand up to the test?

First opinion

I went with the 2.5” Angled brush and removed it from the brush keeper. Straight away you can see the ferule is good quality and will not rust like some cheaper brushes. The bristles felt nice and firm and are slightly longer than usual. The handle felt comfortable to hold and the brush was a nice weight.

Usage

On first use I knew this was a great brush. It cut like a knife through butter and laid off smoothly. The longer bristles enabled more paint to be loaded resulting in less dipping, without clogging up. I used this brush to cut in all the walls on a luxury new build home in Sevenoaks, Kent. We used a few different products – Tikkurila Optiva 5, Johnstones CovaPlus and some Leyland Contract Matt and had spot-on results with all products.

Our client was over the moon with the completed works and I would say some of the feature colours that we cut in could have been a little more challenging with a lesser brush.

As a test I did use this with some waterbed satin on some woodwork and found it a little stiff. I would pick the Proform Blaze over this for any trim paints but this is up there in emulsion.

Conclusion

Ive been using this brush solidly for around 3 months and it has still kept its shape and still a pleasure to use. I would highly recommend it above most other brushes for emulsion. The Arroworthy Finultra along with the Corona Archer are now my go to brushes. If you are looking for a quality brush that will last try this out. Click here to see online prices.

Arroworthy Microfibre Roller Sleeve

Introduction

When I bought the Finultra brush I thought I may as well give the sleeves a try. They come in 9”, 14” and 18” in a few different pile naps. I always give any new sleeves a rinse through to get rid of any loose fibres. With this Microfibre sleeve I didn’t notice any shedding at all. The quality is there to see and feel. For finer finish work my team and I tend to opt for the Wooster Pro-Dooz sleeves, and Purdy Colossus for the faster coverage. These seem to be even shorter pile than our usual choice.

Usage

The Arroworthy roller sleeves used on the same exclusive home in Sevenoaks as the brushes. The finish needed to be 1st class so we used a short pile 14” sleeve. We had sprayed the mist coat onto the new plaster and all the woodwork sprayed to a finish beforehand.

We masked off the woodwork with brown paper and got to work. The first coat really sucked in and made it fairly hard work due to having to load up so often because of the low loading capability due to the short pile. It took far longer than it usually would have, but the finish was nice and smooth. The second coat went on a dream. Only having to load up a few times per wall was a joy after the hell of the first coat.

Conclusion

We have added these sleeves to our regular stock now. They last for ages and give a beautiful finish without having to work too hard. I would say use a longer pile for first coating on new plaster or more porous substrates, but for the final coat these are top notch. Only gripe is they aren’t available in 12” as far as I’m aware. Click here to see latest prices.

This blog was written by James Wildish – Professional Painter and Decorator