I don't have the steadiest hand can anybody give me any tips on how to be accurate / more accurate than hellish when painting skirting and cutting in as i want to get cracking on with decorating before hell freezers over!! All advise would be much appreciated.
Cutting in
- Thread starter desperatediyer
- Start date
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I've just had a week of snagging on a job and think some allegdely professional decorators need practice cutting in rather than getting it all over the glass and leaving it to some other poor so an' so to scrap off 
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Use an angled brush at least 3 inches wide, preferably wider.
Get your eyes as level with the cutting in line as possible (obv. if it's a ceiling you'll have to be slightly below it unless you have an extremely flat head). With skirting boards you'll be working from above, but get down as low as you can.
Work from left to right if right-handed.
Load the brush with paint, but do not allow paint to get onto the ferrule.
With a steady hand (and holding the brush as if it is a dining knife or a pen if that helps*), make contact with the top of the wall with the tips of the brush and draw it across, keeping the brush tips in a horizontal plane, so the full width of the brush creates the cutting-in line. Stop when the paint starts to run out, and repeat.
Practice helps!
(*this assumes you have been brought up to use a knife and fork/pen correctly/efficiently and not like a dagger).
Get your eyes as level with the cutting in line as possible (obv. if it's a ceiling you'll have to be slightly below it unless you have an extremely flat head). With skirting boards you'll be working from above, but get down as low as you can.
Work from left to right if right-handed.
Load the brush with paint, but do not allow paint to get onto the ferrule.
With a steady hand (and holding the brush as if it is a dining knife or a pen if that helps*), make contact with the top of the wall with the tips of the brush and draw it across, keeping the brush tips in a horizontal plane, so the full width of the brush creates the cutting-in line. Stop when the paint starts to run out, and repeat.
Practice helps!
(*this assumes you have been brought up to use a knife and fork/pen correctly/efficiently and not like a dagger).
I find it better to cut back into the paint instead of cutting away if you catch my drift. This stops the paint been applied to thin as when you cut away you tend to pull the paint that you have just applied. Bit tricky to explain without a demo! Hope you understand what I'm trying to say!
Cutting in is not an art it is a mere technique, two of the most important factors are never work directly from the tin, and always charge your brush with paint before you start.
Dec
I find it better to cut back into the paint instead of cutting away if you catch my drift. This stops the paint been applied to thin as when you cut away you tend to pull the paint that you have just applied. Bit tricky to explain without a demo! Hope you understand what I'm trying to say!
Actually... I don't!
Try again?
What do you mean by cutting back into the paint? What paint?
By this I think 'The Dec' means that you should work from a paint kettle or other receptacle containing paint only an inch or so deep, thus ensuring that you can load the paintbrush by plunging it into the receptacle so the tips of the bristles touch the bottom. This ensures a good charge of paint on the brush.
I find it better to cut back into the paint instead of cutting away if you catch my drift. This stops the paint been applied to thin as when you cut away you tend to pull the paint that you have just applied. Bit tricky to explain without a demo! Hope you understand what I'm trying to say!
Actually... I don't!
Try again?
What do you mean by cutting back into the paint? What paint?
What I'm trying to say is while applying the paint for cutting in I tend to cut back into the paint that has just been applied while cutting in. I will start in a corner then leave a gap then cut in back towards the corner (over the gap that has been left) with a freshly charged brush. This stops overspreading the paint.
Suppose it would be easier to say cut back into the wet edge and not away instead of the long winded explanations
I find it better to cut back into the paint instead of cutting away if you catch my drift. This stops the paint been applied to thin as when you cut away you tend to pull the paint that you have just applied. Bit tricky to explain without a demo! Hope you understand what I'm trying to say!
Actually... I don't!
Try again?
What do you mean by cutting back into the paint? What paint?
What I'm trying to say is while applying the paint for cutting in I tend to cut back into the paint that has just been applied while cutting in. I will start in a corner then leave a gap then cut in back towards the corner (over the gap that has been left) with a freshly charged brush. This stops overspreading the paint.
Suppose it would be easier to say cut back into the wet edge and not away instead of the long winded explanations
Really,
That is interesting in the extreme.
Dec
I find it better to cut back into the paint instead of cutting away if you catch my drift. This stops the paint been applied to thin as when you cut away you tend to pull the paint that you have just applied. Bit tricky to explain without a demo! Hope you understand what I'm trying to say!
A Decorator would neither cut back into or away from the paint, a Decorator using a fully charged brush would simply flirt the the brush slightly away from the cutting line, then moving both brush and paint in one simple motion into the cutting edge draw the brush along. They would in doing so often offer a slight (whilst keeping the wrist taught) a slight vibration of the hand to ensure both even flow and a clean crisp edge is acheived.
Dec
Unless you have a brush that can hold enough paint to do all the cutting in without re charging the brush then I'm afraid you will have to flow the paint towards or away from the wet edge that had just been applied. If not then you will have missed areas!
I don't think you get what I'm talking about as I said it's a bit hard to explain with out a demo!
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