PSA: That $15 crud brush from the big box store is actually worse than a $3 steel wire brush

I grabbed one of those fancy black crud brushes with the brass bristles from Home Depot last month to clean up my anvil face. Cost me $14.97 and I figured it would be gentler on the surface while still clearing off scale. After two weeks of using it the bristles started shedding like crazy and the handle cracked right where the ferrule meets the plastic. Swapped back to a cheap steel wire brush I get from the auto parts store for like $3 and it's holding up way better. The only downside is it can scratch a softer anvil face a little if you push hard but honestly the scale comes off faster anyway. Anyone else tried both and had the same luck with the cheap route?

2 comments

2 Comments

richardh448d agoMost Upvoted

Yep, same here. Cheap steel brushes just work better.

harper_smith8d ago

Cheap steel wire brush all day. The fancy ones are just marketing. They fall apart way too fast to justify the price. A little surface scratching is worth it when the scale comes off in half the time anyway. I stopped buying the expensive route after the third one broke on me.