Using same brushes for oils and acrylics?

[shifflab]

Acrylic paint is my usual medium, but I recently bought some oil paints to play with. I'm wondering if I can use my bristle brushes for the oils and back to acrylics again? Why or why not?

[Flake]

Should be fine as long as you clean them thoroughly afterwards.

Bristles are actually better suited to oil than they are to acrylic. (water in the acrylic tends to make them limp)

Edit: I should add that I'm only talking about basic oilpaint, turps, linseed here. I have no idea what say, varnish or exotic mediums would do to them.

[Elwell]

Acrylics are far harder on brushes than oils are.

[Gokce]

You might want to use synthetic brushes with acrylics, they're cheaper than bristle and will last longer with the media used.

[shifflab]

Thanks for the opinions. I'm not concerned about the brushes so much as the effect solvents from oils have on my acrylics. I wash the brushes with soap and water, but there will still be some amount of solvent left behind. I'm worried about the effect it will have on my acrylics. I've read from a website(http://www.easy-oil-painting-techniques.com/Oil-painting-f-a-q.html) that you're not supposed to use brush already used with oils for acrylic paints. It doesn't say why, and if their knowledge about materials is as bad as their taste in web design then I'm going to need a second opinion.

[Elwell]

Thanks for the opinions. I'm not concerned about the brushes so much as the effect solvents from oils have on my acrylics. I wash the brushes with soap and water, but there will still be some amount of solvent left behind.
No there won't.

[hitnrun]

Just like Elwell said.

Even if there was, it'd be such a small trivial amount you'd have nothing to worry about anyway. I use the same brushes for oil as I used for acrylics - just wash your brushes with soap and water and you'll be fine. I use Liquin, and Mineral Spirits, and my acrylics dont suffer at all.

[shifflab]

Great! Thanks for clearing that up.

[dose]

The solvent will evaporate. There may be trace amounts of oil left in the brush, particularly if it gets down near the ferrule. I can't really say how this might affect things because I've always used separate brushes for the two mediums- simply because I prefer different types of brushes for each. Theoretically I would say this wouldn't hurt if the oil in the brush was dry, but I don't know for sure. I have no idea how it would affect things if the oil was still wet.