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Increasingly I am using fish an hide 192 an 350 on my cheapo chinese bristle brushes purchased from the hobby shop. I/ve been using ammonia from dollar store and vinegar 3% from grocery store . I notice that neither is doing such a good job of cleaning . I rinse with soap and warm water . yesterday I boiled my glue brushes on the stove with vinegar . That helped ,in the past I used mostly titebond and soaked them in cold vinegar. Now I use titebond infrequently. Any ideas for getting a cleaner brush . Thanks. ernie

I just rinse mine with water after each glue-up. Every once in a while I forget and they dry out - then I just throw them away.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I just pop them in a dish/jar of water (part of the glue-up preparation) after use, until I get round to cleaning them properly. I usually use hot water, don't usually need soap/chemicals.
Just part of the routine now.
Been using same set of brushes (Chinese artist's bristle) 5 years now, still perfectly useable.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

as soon as i'm done with titebond, i dunk the brush in a glass of water and leave it there indefinitely (30 minutes, 2 weeks, whatever) until i get around to rinsing it. just water, nothing else necessary. hide glue ought to be exactly the same

Snap!! Musta posted about same time.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

soak in water,
clean with a brass or steel toothbrush....
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20097&cat=1,190,43040

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i guess what hasn't been mentioned, is: get it in water well before the glue hardens on the bristles. have a glass of water with you when you are gluing, if you must...

Put a jar of soapy water and a steel brush on the work table Thanks everyone.

Getting the brushes into water immediately after use is definitely the best practice. Hot/boiling water will clean it all off if given enough time. For PVA (such as TB or Gorilla wood glue) concentrated citric acid, which can be found in hardware stores as some variety of orange solvent, works wonders. Not only will your shop smell like an orange grove, you will also be able to clean the brush, tool, or surface. In both cases, start with a 30-60 minute soak. If that doesn't do it, leave them in overnight.

Is there a name brand for the citric solvent ?? Can you get it anywhere else besides hardware stores?? thanks

Warm water.