SABLE is the Rolls Royce (soft hair) brushes offering the best of all worlds
Great point and spring
Great colour carrying capacity
Sable hair is suitable for all mediums.
A relatively new development has been the marrying together of squirrle and taklon
TAKLON For point and spring
SQUIRRLE for colour carrying capacity
This mix gives a suberb brush for watercolour in particular at a much lower price than sable
The new NEEF 7007 is a blend of two new synthetic hairs
One acts like squirrel hair and the other like goat hair.
Together they provide an affordable and fantastic watercolour brush
SQUIRRLE HAIR
A soft and generally dark coloured hair particularity suitable for watercolour as it carries a lot of water.
Does not offer the spring of a sable but is not as expensive. A delight to use in watercolour painting.
Best examples of squirrle are the wire bound mops such as RAPHAEL 803 and the NEEF 2803
(recommended by David Taylor and Alvaro Castagnet) amongst many others.
Generally all cheaper types of squirrle hair
TAKLON
until recently (say the last 20 years) all brushes were made from animal hair. That is until the advent of
synthetically made hair. The original examples were not so good but the later versions starting with the
NEEF (Robert Wade series of brushes are really quite amazing in the performance and relative priced.
They offer a great point, Great spring and precise control. A delight to use and suitable for all media
particularly when brush marks are not required in paint film. They do not carry as much colour as
sable/squirrle but are a fraction of the price and offer great value.
The best example is the so-called 100% interlocked hoghair blue handle Neef 1150
Probably 90% of oil painting would be done with hoghair. This bristle leaves brush marks in the
paint film where required and only the best quality Chunking bristles are selected. An extra length
of hair is inserted into the ferule formed into a mould and oven heated for a short time this gives the
bristles greater spring All of this quality control enables the interlocked bristle to retain its shape
and resilience over many years.
MONGOOSE
(Indian sable/ badger) are very satisfying to paint oils and acrylics
A little courser than sable and not as expensive but they offer great control and spring
OX HAIR
is not very common in today’s market place and has largely been replaced with synthetic hair.
For the people who cannot afford sable.