the brush I keep going back to even though I have nicer ones
I have this one flat brush, a no-name synthetic I picked up at a craft store for maybe $4 five years ago. The ferrule is a little loose and the bristles have a slight curve to them now. I own brushes that cost ten times as much and are objectively better in every way. And yet almost every painting I finish has that brush somewhere in the process.
I think at this point it's muscle memory. I know exactly how much paint it holds, how it lays down a wash, how hard to press to get the exact edge I want. A new brush would be sharper and cleaner and probably better. But I don't want to break in another one.
My husband doesn't get it. He keeps saying just buy a new one, it's four dollars. But it's not about the money. It's about the fact that this specific brush has been in my hand for every painting I've made since I came back to this. I'm not sentimental about much but I guess I am about this.
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I've got two hammers that are basically held together by habit and electrical tape at this point. The handle's shaped exactly to my palm from years of use. If someone handed me a beautiful new one I'd thank them and put it in a drawer.
There's something about a tool that's been broken in by your own hands. It's not just muscle memory, it's that the tool has learned you too, in its way. You can't buy that.
That's exactly it, "the tool has learned you too." I love that. I think that's why I can't switch even when I try. The new brush is technically better but it doesn't know what I'm about to do yet.
What trade did you pick up that hammer in? Or is it just general life/projects? Either way I respect a tool that's earned its place.