Craft & DIY

#17 · Paint stirrer

Before cracking open a tin of paint, give it a proper stir with a chopstick. No waste, no mess, no big stick required.

Every hardware shop sells wooden paint stirrers by the bag, and they are the same object as a chopstick with a wider blade. For a tester pot, a sample tin, or the half-litre of emulsion you are using to touch up a skirting board, a chopstick does the job without you having to remember to buy anything.

Stirring matters more than most people think. Pigment and extenders are heavier than the binder they sit in, so they settle. A tin that has stood for six months has a dense sludge at the bottom and thin, weak liquid on top, and painting from the top of an unstirred tin is the usual reason a second coat doesn't match the first.

How to do it

1. Wipe the rim before you open the tin, so dried paint doesn't drop in.
2. Slide the chopstick straight down until it touches the base.
3. Stir slowly in wide circles, keeping contact with the bottom, and drag the settled pigment up into the body of the paint.
4. Switch to a figure-of-eight for a while - circles alone can spin the paint without actually mixing it.
5. Keep going for a full minute on a tin that has been standing. Longer if you can see streaks of different colour.
6. Wipe the chopstick against the inside rim so the paint runs back into the tin rather than onto the floor.

Why it works

Settled pigment forms a compacted layer, and stirring is about shearing that layer back into suspension rather than just moving liquid around above it. A rod that reaches the base and stays there does that. A rod that only sweeps the top half produces a tin that looks mixed and isn't.

Tips & warnings

• One chopstick per colour, then bin it. Cleaning solvent-based paint off bamboo is not a good use of an evening.
• Snap one in half for tester pots - a full-length chopstick is unwieldy in a 60ml tin.
• For anything above about two litres you want a proper wide stirrer, or a paddle in a drill. A chopstick doesn't move enough paint.

Common questions

Will the bamboo shed fibres into the paint?

A plain, undamaged chopstick won't. A splintered one might, so check the end before you start and snap off any frayed bit.

Can I use it with solvent-based paint and varnish?

Yes - bamboo doesn't react with white spirit or the solvents in household gloss. Just don't try to reuse it.