Mediums - what do YOU use?

You and me both, Diesel - I have all sorts of evil concoctions still lurking about, which I ought to dispose of (though they're safe enough, in their glass bottles). Ancient Liquin; stand oil now the thickness of tar; Copal Oil medium - which you can't get now; a tube of some sort of gel medium, which is older than my adult nephew...; aged bottle of masking fluid which I KNOW is now unusable (why do I keep it?); an acrylic retarder dating back to around 1972 .... a little Aladdin's cave of 'orrible mixtures.... Oh, and a bottle of Mattwax, a picture varnish, with Rowney (not even Daler-Rowney, which it's been for years) on the label. They all seemed like good ideas at the time (oh, and Dammar varnish, look...) but most of them probably weren't - stand oil aside.

Just quickly - yes, to using a plain soap for cleaning brushes, after wiping any oil paint out on a kitchen towel and maybe giving 'em a swish in the solvent/cleanser of your choice first. Yes, absolutely do NOT use hot water to clean brushes - it can do untold damage to the hairs, and will loosen them in the ferrule; tepid at most. Laying your brushes flat to dry won't hurt them: there are various devices you can get to hold them vertically, but I've never bothered with any of them. And no, don't leave them to dry with the hairs pointing upwards. You don't need to use any medium with oil paint, but if you do, Linseed oil is better than safflower and walnut, at least for the lower layers, because it makes a stronger bond. Avoid using varnish of any kind with your medium, whatever Jacques Maroger said in his book, which was published a good many years ago - too many years ago to be reliable now. People worry too much about cleaning brushes, it's really not that hard to do - and as I know I've said before, I have brushes that are very nearly as old as I am, which are still in very good condition: and all most of them have ever had is plain soap and water. I've never actually used Masters Soap, to which Sylvia has linked, which is a bit surprising I suppose .... but there it is: nowadays, I use the same soap as I employ on my velvety-soft, luxuriant skin, and my brushes and I are looking just lovely on it (it's Dove, for those in search of my beauty tips). Someone said on another website that Masters Soap could be a bit gritty - Sylvia, what do you think? I'm not competent to judge that, but so many people have used it that I can't believe it's much of a problem.