Help with brushes please

Try a size 0 or 00 golden synthetic, from Rosemary and Co. I find though that if the brush is too small, it holds hardly any paint and a slightly bigger one is actually easier to manage very often. But - I can't do miniatures: I'd need a magnifying glass, and there's not much pleasure to be had (for me, anyway) hunched over a small painting trying to see what I'm doing. Magnification does sometimes help though, for very fine detail..... just more trouble than I ever feel like going to! The virtue of synthetic brushes, to go back to where we were, is their flexibility; you don't want to use your best sables, because acrylic paint is very bad for them; but now and then, a very small bristle brush, with its extra stiffness, can be what you need; though I find one gets through them at quite a rate - they don't keep a point for long. Have you tried the Ivory range from Rosemary, in the smaller sizes? They have a firmer touch - and provided you can see what you're doing will enable you to place colour where you need it, and not wobble over the lines where you don't.

Yes, well trimming a brush may be OK for a very old one that's splayed all over the place (though obviously that'll never give you a fine line) but cutting into the hair damages the integrity of the brush: not so much if you're just cutting away from the point, but certainly if you attempt more major surgery. Are Sceptre Gold all a mix of natural hair and synthetic? I've seen their rather handsome 3/4" flat, which was made that way I think... I'll investigate. The search for the perfect brush will always go on, I suspect!