Nylon brush

In detail

A brush exists to put mechanical energy into places a cloth flattens over: grout lines, the moulded seams of an appliance, the underside of a tap, a textured tile, a trainer sole. Nylon is the usual bristle because it is springy, resists water and most cleaning chemistry, and is softer than ceramic, glass, porcelain and stainless steel while still being hard enough to dislodge a bonded film. That comparative hardness is exactly where the judgement lies. The same brush that leaves a porcelain tile unmarked will scratch an acrylic bath, a plated tap finish, a lacquered metal, a painted surface or a soft stone, and on any napped textile a stiff brush changes the surface rather than cleaning it — the furniture and leather trades both say so explicitly. A softer, denser brush does more useful work than a stiff one on most domestic surfaces, because the aim is to get the bristle tips into the texture rather than to press hard. Brushes are also the tool most likely to carry soil between jobs: a brush used on a drain and then on a worktop is moving contamination, not removing it.