How to brush the ends of pieces without making a godawful mess

[Kaisergrendel]

Hi all, what's the trick to varnishing the ends of a piece without messing it all up? I've been applying finishes sporadically for about 10 years now and I never seem to get it right. Problems:

1. Brush doesn't release enough varnish without a lot of pressure.
2. Brush releases too much varnish with enough pressure to lay down a wet coat.
3. Varnish drips over the top and bottom of the piece, either from runs or the brush product unloading over the side.
4. Holding the piece gets tricky the more sides you cover and some of the finish always manages to get on my hand.
5. Too easy to accidentally drag the brush over the angled edge and squeezing out massive amounts of finish where you don't want it to go.

Important note is that I've never bought an expensive brush before. I typically go for the cheapest one I can find but I think a good brush isn't going to help much if my technique isn't up to scratch.

Spent half an hour googling this problem to no effect. Any tips you folks could share?

[Call Me Jack]

First & foremost, a more expensive brush WILL help. It doesn't have to be the MOST expensive brush in the shop but, from experience, a cheaper brush is thinner than a more pricy one &, therefore, will tend to not hold as much liquid & be more likely to leave brush strokes. Also, the cheaper brushes tend to drop bristles a LOT more.
The trick is DON'T TRY TO DO TOO MUCH AT ONCE. Apply thinner coats & more of them; three light couts will give a better finish than one heavy coat. Start at the ends & edges THEN do the main body of the piece wiping any excess AWAY from the ends; by the time you finish you can go back & "mop up" any runs that may have appeared on the ends. Unless you takes more than about 20 minutes this should be ok.
Apart from all of that you could always get yourself a spray gun

[Kaisergrendel]

First & foremost, a more expensive brush WILL help. It doesn't have to be the MOST expensive brush in the shop but, from experience, a cheaper brush is thinner than a more pricy one &, therefore, will tend to not hold as much liquid & be more likely to leave brush strokes. Also, the cheaper brushes tend to drop bristles a LOT more.
The trick is DON'T TRY TO DO TOO MUCH AT ONCE. Apply thinner coats & more of them; three light couts will give a better finish than one heavy coat. Start at the ends & edges THEN do the main body of the piece wiping any excess AWAY from the ends; by the time you finish you can go back & "mop up" any runs that may have appeared on the ends. Unless you takes more than about 20 minutes this should be ok.
Apart from all of that you could always get yourself a spray gun

Thanks, it's the mistake I keep repeating even though I've learned many times before that you can't get away with cheap stuff. I bought a medium-price brush, used that and bricked it almost immediately because I didn't know how to wash it properly then upgraded to the most expensive one I could find at bunnings. I was impressed by how much more easily the good brushes laid varnish down.

One new thing I learned was to use an angled sash brush for thin vertical edges. I got much more flow control and virtually eliminated drips with this one tool. Wide brush for large surfaces, sash brush for narrow ones.