Okay so now we've fixed the mortar joints in the fireplace, we've cleaned, we've vacuumed, we've wiped it down with a rag, our fireplace is ready to be painted and by looking at the fireplace it still looks pretty dirty but actually it is pretty clean. We've got all the loose materials out of there. And now we are going to paint it with this high quality high heat rated fire paint. This is rated up to a 1,000 degrees. So if you have a big fire in there and it is still going to discolor the paint a little bit. So once a season you are going to have to repaint your fireplace if you want it to have that real dark black look to it at all times. Always if you wanting to resell your house and I know a lot of people are afraid to use the fireplace because they don't want to get it discolored; that would lose the value of their house on it but it is not the case. With this fire paint and if you use all the steps that I have shown you, you can have your fireplace look like it was brand new and no one could even tell you've had a fire in there. As far as the brush goes, don't go out and buy a really expensive brush. This brush is going to get messed up. It's not like you are painting trim so just buy a moderate brush even if it is cheap because my guess would be just to use this once and throw it away.