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  • #990965
    Undergoose
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        When I was first starting, I found that any reviews I could find for a certain brand/type of brush was fairly useful, some extremely, some not so much. I use the Internet for so much information gathering across any number of subjects, I’ve been trying to do my part to give back a little bit. A lot of people go on and read what other people have spent time sharing and then just run off and do their own thing without thinking about the effort involved in posting useful information. I’d rather weed through too much than hunt around for too little. Everyone has a different way of looking at things; the more info the better when trying to learn about something.

        I’ve been gathering lots of different types of brushes, mainly gearing towards size 8 rounds because that’s what I paint with almost always, and I think it’s a good middle size/shape to be able to judge a line of brushes with. Erm…one point…when I say 8, I mean the larger European 8 – for the synthetics, most of the time I use 10’s, as they seem to come pretty close to that.

        I’ll be updating this thread as I get more brushes reviewed and purchased. There’s still some synthetics that I want to try. I’m still hunting the holy grail: A synthetic that can perform as well as a Kolinsky. The Princeton Neptune has become that very thing for faux squirrel (at least for me) so my hunt there is over. I still haven’t found one that beats the sables, though, for one reason or another they fall short.

        I’ve currently got five Kolinsky’s that I’ll be comparing and a whole gaggle of synths. Aside from a few exceptions, I’m not going to be too concerned with holding capacity across the 8’s because they’re all so vastly different in size from each manufacturer.

        Like any other product in the world, I’d never pay list price for anything. The online sites always have sales and specials, the local crafty-type stores (A.C. Moore/Michael’s/etc.) always have a 40-50% coupon you can dig up, and Ebay has some epic deals that you can snipe. When I say that I’d purchase a brush again, it’s under the assumption that I’d find a good discount from ‘List’.

        Here’s my little template that I’ll be using per brush(all ratings are out of 10):

        Brand: Blahblah
        Bristle: Kolinsky Sable
        Size: 8
        Shape: Round
        Snap:
        Swoosh:
        Capacity:
        Craftsmanship:
        Look/Feel:
        Overall:
        Notes:

        How I Test
        Trees, plain and simple. It’s good practice, I like to paint them, and it’s easy to lay down a bunch of paint using several techniques at once. Here’s the steps I use for each tree and the reason for the stepped technique instead of just blobbing trees from top to bottom:

        Step 1) I start with a simple vertical line to suggest the trunk, very thin at the top and adding pressure towards the bottom. This allows me to test a brush’s line painting flexibility.

        Step 2) Going back to the top of the trunk, I follow the first line down, ‘swooshing’ back and forth to quickly lay down color. This allows me to test a brush’s ‘swooshability’, something that I use a lot of after the initial washes, whether vertical or horizontal. Sometimes, as with the bunky Raphael that I got a few days ago (any ‘floppy’ brush, really), while swooshing, the tip of the brush stays stuck to the page and for all the wiggling in the world while you swoosh, all you’re left with is a mostly-straight line with some blobs of color in it for every time the belly just sorta waved across the line without moving the tip.

        It’s also a good way to unload a full brush without tamping it into a paper towel or sponge, wasting paint. If you know an area is going to be a certain color and you need the brush for detail work right now, swoosh the area and then lift/blend it later.

        Step 3) This is the fun part, and where Kolinsky’s, in particular, really shine and set themselves above the synthetics, at least for me. This is where the ‘tip-dancing’ makes some pretty magical strokes that sometimes surprise even the best painters, I would think (me not being one of those…yet :) ). Some of my synthetics come close, and the smaller ones can do the feathery details, but you have to pick up and load another brush for that. I’ll keep searching, but for now, I hope those Siberians like eating weasel stew, because I’m still going to rely on the natural bristles. They’re superior, at least against any of the many synthetics I’ve tested.

        If the line at the top of the trunk is too stubby/thick, I’ll come back in with a good point and make it a little taller, with a nice, thin top, and then work down through the branches, spreading the swoosh and detailing the edges. I then move on to the next tree, repeating until the brush is almost empty. This allows me to go through the whole experience of the way the brush handles fully loaded all the way to dry-brushing.

        Note: If I’m doing a distant ridgeline that still needs detailed treetops, I only go so far down, and then just do a broad swoosh across a bunch of trees, later to come in and do blocks of shading and scraping out highlights.

        You get the gist of how I test, anyways. It’s just what I’ve chosen to quickly lay down color:

        Back in a few with some actual reviews, but I want to get this posted before the WC gremlins get it. :p

        Karl

        "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

        #1188385
        Undergoose
        Default

            Brand: Winsor & Newton
            Bristle: Kolinsky Sable
            Size: 8
            Shape: Standard Round
            Snap: 8
            Point: 7
            Swoosh: 8
            Capacity: 9
            Craftsmanship: 8
            Look/Feel: 7
            Price Point: 8
            Overall: 8
            Notes: Regarding Winsor & Newton brushes, I don’t have any Series 7’s, nor do I plan to, for a couple of reasons. They’re extremely expensive, and I’ve been reading a lot of reviews that say the quality control on them has been slipping lately. I may keep lurking Ebay and snipe one up for a low price, but for now, they can keep them.

            This is the first larger Kolinsky brush that I got, and it’s the one that convinced me that sables are amazing. I got it from the damaged/clearance bin at the local A.C. Moore, along with a bunch of others for $1.66 each. They were all scraggly disasters from being mishandled by all the Philistines pawing around in the brush racks. It took me several cycles of washing (once even in hot water-GASP) in Master’s, allowing it to dry with the suds on it over night to bring the bristles back into shape. It’s now as good as my others and holds a point and full belly of paint, and performs well.

            The fit, form and finish are all quite nice. It’s dead-true from end to tip, the satin navy blue finish has taken a very nice patina from use, and the non-stamped, printed writing on it isn’t wearing at all. No paint-chipping or handle-swelling, although I don’t leave my brushes sitting in water, ever. If I do, and it degrades the brush, that’s my fault, not theirs.

            I’m very happy with it, and wouldn’t hesistate to buy another one.

            ——————————————————————–

            Brand: Raphael
            Bristle: Kolinsky Sable
            Size: 8
            Shape: 8404 Fine Pointed Round
            Snap: 7
            Point: 9
            Swoosh: 7
            Capacity: 8
            Craftsmanship: 5
            Look/Feel: 7
            Price Point: 6
            Overall: 6
            Notes: Most of you are aware of the floppy debacle I went through with this brush. Dick Blick made it all better and I now have a good Raphael 8 :).

            I had high hopes for this line of brushes, but have been only moderately pleased. The craftsmanship/QA is low on these for what I consider to be a professional grade brush. It has a slight wobble at the ferrule joint, as do a couple of my other sizes. Couple that with the fact that I got a really bad one at first, and I’m not impressed with the Raphael’s when stood up against other brands.

            It gets the job done, but at what I consider a high price point for the end product. It IS really large, though, so some consideration has to be made for that when looking at price point. It’s a giant compared to the Escoda 8, for example.

            The design is good, the deeply stamped gold inlaid writing is quite nice and should be plenty durable unless you grab your brushes with a vice-like grip. The orange-dipped tip is okay, but I’d like to see a second color dip on there, as well as maybe a gold-plated ferrule to match the writing. The nickel plating will probably hold up better, though. All this is just lipstick and rouge anyways.

            Quite frankly, based on my experience with it and the performance, I wouldn’t buy this brush again if I had other options for a similar brush; possibly, if I could get a cracking good deal on it. There are just too many brushes that do better in various important categories.

            Karl

            "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

            #1188386
            Undergoose
            Default

                Erm, shoot. I’m past the 60 minutes where I can edit the original message, so I’ll add this note:

                The way that I test a brush for fit, finish and craftsmanship is by first cradling it at the top of the ferrule in my left index, ring fingers and thumb, then spinning it by the ‘tail’ with my right hand.

                I look for trueness, goobers/dings/inconsistencies in the finish, quality of crimp on the ferrule and strength of joinery on the ferrule. I penalize heavily for a non-true brush. When I have hundreds of cheap synthetics that run true all the way through, and then get something expensive or ‘hand-made’ that’s all wonky, it’s unacceptable to me, both as a consumer and fellow-craftsman.

                Overall, I judge the design of the brush as objectively and with as much of an eye for pleasing design that I can.

                I added ‘Point’ to the review template, re: the shape of the point.

                I’ve also added ‘Price Point’ to my little review template, which is based on a company’s ‘list’ price, or starting point. What they think it’s worth vs. what I think it’s worth.

                Karl

                "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                #1188387
                Undergoose
                Default

                    Brand: Creative Mark Rhapsody
                    Bristle: Kolinsky Sable
                    Size: 7
                    Shape: Standard Round
                    Snap: 9
                    Point: 9
                    Swoosh: 8
                    Capacity: 8
                    Craftsmanship: 5
                    Look/Feel: 7
                    Price Point: 7
                    Overall: 8
                    Notes: The Rhapsody literally showed up out of nowhere for me. The first one I got was a free sample #4 from Jerry’s Artarama a while back, at which point I’d never heard of them. I haven’t typically been a fan of Creative Mark’s stuff, but lately it seems they’ve been trying harder. When I first saw the #4, I was excited to get a free Kolinsky, then I laughed at the craftsmanship. Big scuffs in the paint from the elastic bands holding it to the sample card, bent at the ferrule joint AND a warped handle. It didn’t look good for them. Then I actually used it. Amazing brushes!

                    The greatness of the #4 (performance, bristle/belly size, point and snap), and the fact that Jerry’s shortly after ran a buy one, get one sale (still going till August, I think) led me to purchase numbers 5 and 7 rounds as well. I got them both for less than $60, and BOGO on top of that. Less than $15 each for four good-sized Kolinsky’s.

                    The reason I didn’t get the 8 is that these things run really big and the 7 is only a mm or so shorter than the Raphael 8 with almost identical bellies.

                    When I got the 7 and 5 in the shipment (along with my Escoda for the review) I was excited! On opening the neat little sealed plastic tubes they came in (very well packaged!), to my chagrin, both 7’s and one of the 5’s (only slight on the 5) were gnarly-crooked at the ferrule, really bad. The handles are true, but obviously something’s really wrong with their crimping jig or something. I called Jerry’s and they first wanted pictures, which I would be able to easily give with the degree of the wobble. You could see it with the naked eye, let alone spinning it. They wanted me to send them back to them, at which point they’d assess the defect and decide on the refund, which didn’t sit well with me at all. I’ve been trying to get these reviews done and off my plate, so I told them I’d just go ahead and review them as is. All of the brush portions on them are just epic, performance-wise, and I don’t want to send them back and risk getting a straight handle on a lesser brush.

                    Since I don’t trust the ability of a replacement to be any better, for the low price and since I was rather irritated with their CSR’s solution, I went full-hail-mary and just forcibly bent the ferrule as straight as I could. Those handles are attached VERY well, and this was a good dynamic test of the brush’s ability to handle someone sitting on it, even. I have them almost true.

                    The handles on these are too long in my opinion, placing the balance at the middle of the overall length rather than at the lower-positioned ‘hold here’ bulge in the handle, which is where it should be in my opinion. Every one that I have, when balancing on the bulge, tilts backward towards the tip of the handle. I’m going to yank the handles out of the ferrules and trim them back around 3/8″, then narrow the dowel portion a little and reset them with 5 minute epoxy, making sure they’re straight this time. This will probably throw the balance off even further. Maybe I’ll drill/drive a small stainless nail or screw into the brush end to counter. It’s not rocket surgery :p and at least I’ll know it’s done right. So, that’s the reason for the low craftsmanship score. The stellar business end of the brush’s score gets affected by the fact that they can’t eyeball something as glaring as these joints were.

                    The brush itself is great! Large sized, monster snap, plump belly and excellent point. A pleasure to paint with.

                    The design is quite nice, love the double-dipped white and violet blue tail, and the writing matches the ferrule nicely. Great looking brushes. The one caveat is that the stamped writing isn’t deep enough, and the shiny silver inlay is rubbing off wholesale-like. They’ll be plain black soon with any kind of consistent handling.

                    Overall, these are GREAT brushes and not only would I not hesitate to buy again, I’m planning to. The price point rating would be higher were it not for the bad joinery. These are definitely worth what other fine brushes cost. I highly recommend making use of the currently running BOGO sale at Jerry’s if you can stand the better than average chance that you’re going to get a crooked handle, whether warped wood or a bad crimp.

                    Karl

                    "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                    #1188388
                    Undergoose
                    Default

                        Brand: Escoda Supreme Tajmyr Series 1212
                        Bristle: Kolinsky Sable
                        Size: 8
                        Shape: Round
                        Snap: 8
                        Point: 7
                        Swoosh: 8
                        Capacity: 8
                        Craftsmanship: 6
                        Look/Feel: 8
                        Price Point: 7
                        Overall: 7
                        Notes: This came in the shipment with the Rhapsody’s and was similarly out of round at the ferrule joint, visible to the naked eye. After the forcible reset of the wonky Rhapsody’s went so well, I figured ‘why not?’ with this one as well. So far, so good. I have it almost true. If it starts getting rickety on me, I’ll yank it and reset it, although the crimp on this is pretty deep. If I have to break it, drill it out and goop the epoxy in there, that’s what I’ll do.

                        Good balance, excellent design, this thing rivals the beauty of the Neptunes. If the dull gold, surface-printed writing was stamped and inlaid with shiny gold (like the Raphael), this brush would get a 9 for Look/Feel. The surface printed writing looks to be the same grade as the Winsor and Newton one, so it should hold up.

                        These brushes run much smaller than the European sized ones (about the same as a Rhapsody 6 and Yorkminster 7), but I’ve kept the price point high because even the size 10 lists cheaper than most other 8’s. The 12 lists about the same as the Euro 8’s.

                        It’s a decent performer, but the tip loses shape quickly, spreading/splitting. Decent capacity for the size, typical of all sables.

                        It pretty much feels middle of the road, aside from the really nice design. I wouldn’t purchase it again, but would opt instead for the Winsor & Newton (not Series 7), Rhapsody or George’s Yorkminster.

                        Karl

                        "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                        #1188389
                        Undergoose
                        Default

                            Brand: Yorkminster – From Ebay George
                            Bristle: Kolinsky Sable
                            Size: 11
                            Shape: Round
                            Snap: 9
                            Point: 9
                            Swoosh: 9
                            Capacity: 9
                            Craftsmanship: 7
                            Look/Feel: 4
                            Price Point: 8
                            Overall: 8
                            Notes: Now for the fun one :) I didn’t know what to expect with this, not a lot of reviews on it, most of them from WC and favorable, with 100% positive on Ebay. Ebay is the only way I know of to purchase them, and George has some really good deals on sets. He’s a great guy, and his customer service is outstanding! I got this 11 in a set with a 3, 5 and 7. I’ll be doing a seperate review on that purchase soon.

                            I’m using the 11, it’s only slightly larger than the Raphael 8, and the 7 isn’t here yet.

                            Hands down, the best performing brush of the bunch. The #5 is the same. Brilliant brushes. Unbelievable snap and point, holds a ton (even for its large size) and is just outstanding.

                            The reason that I’m giving it only a 7 for craftsmanship because the black paint has a lot of imperfections, it had a lot of dried glue and/or stickery residue on it, and the ferrule, while expertly joined to the handle, fell right off. Looking at the disconnected handle, I’m pretty sure it was glued in with hide glue, which I haven’t seen in use since I was restoring antique furniture years ago.

                            The balance is perfect. The ferrule only has a single crimp, and shallow at that, but it’s very nice. I may do some ‘prettifying’ on the handle before I epoxy it back in. Looking into the ferrule, the glue holding the bristles in is solid and doesn’t look like it will allow water to wick up on to the handle, which is great.

                            The design of this brush feels very industrial and minimalistic, almost feels like an antique. The ferrule is a dull-steel color, almost like brushed stainless. The black paint is run of the mill, and the gold stamped writing is pretty boring and kind of sloppy. With all that being said and me doinking the design score down to a 4, I’ll also say this. Some of the best, most-used and well built tools in my toolbox are also very industrial looking. They’re tools, not pianos, and this brush is in this category. The performance blows away anything else that I’ve tried, and if I want a pretty handle, I’ll make one for it. I actually like the look of the ferrule; it’s got a heavy-duty feel to it and is well built.

                            The price point is great, even at list. I got this set for a song on Ebay, and George even threw in a #12 squirrel quill mop! I HIGHLY recommend doing whatever you can to get ahold of some of these, and soon, as I’m not certain what sort of stock and future availability there’s going to be. George’s Ebay user name is geohabe (http://www.ebay.com/sch/geohabe/m.html?item=121112039097&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562).

                            I can tell these brushes are going to be my workhorses. The only thing keeping this from having an overall score of 9 is the silly design stuff and the problems with the ferrule. Fixing it is not an issue for me, but I wouldn’t expect my Mom to have to do it.

                            Karl

                            "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                            #1188390
                            Undergoose
                            Default

                                This is all that I have for Kolinsky’s, and I don’t plan on spending any more money purely for the sake of doing a review.

                                Moving onto synthetics and blends :)

                                Karl

                                "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                #1188391
                                Undergoose
                                Default

                                    Brand: Varied, all taklon or clones, all very similar – Simply Simmons (both standard and ‘watercolor’ rounds), Langnickel Majestic, Langnickel Sunburst, Princeton Snap!, Princeton Preferred, Creative Mark ‘Beste’, etc.
                                    Bristle: Golden Taklon
                                    Size: 10
                                    Shape: Round
                                    Snap: 10 – some have too much snap, though
                                    Point: Aside from a couple weirdos, all 9-10
                                    Swoosh: 4 – low score due to dumping so much paint at once
                                    Capacity: 5
                                    Craftsmanship: Varied, but all pretty good, call it 8
                                    Look/Feel: Varied, with some nice looking standouts
                                    Price Point: Mostly 10, affordable, good quality
                                    Overall: 5, but higher scoring for certain applications
                                    Notes: You’ve all used them, I’m not going to split each one out individually. They all perform about the same, good for straight lines, scrubbing, neglecting and abusing. I haven’t really found one that’s better than the others. I do have a lot of Majestics, Simply Simmons, Langnickel Sunbursts and Princeton snaps.

                                    A few have some weird shaped for a round brush, but ultimately, they all kind of feel the same to me after using natural bristles and higher-end synthetics/blends.

                                    Not terribly helpful, but I want to move on to the interesting stuff :)

                                    Karl

                                    "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                    #1188392
                                    Undergoose
                                    Default

                                        Brand: Winsor & Newton Sceptre II
                                        Bristle: Sable/synth blend
                                        Size: 8
                                        Shape: Round
                                        Snap: 9
                                        Point: 9
                                        Swoosh: 5
                                        Capacity: 7
                                        Craftsmanship: 8
                                        Look/Feel: 8
                                        Price Point: 7
                                        Overall: 7
                                        Notes: These don’t feel much different to me than pure Taklon. They hold a lot more, but the snap is still extreme, as is the color-dumping. Like all blends that I’ve tried, rather than combine the best of both worlds, you end up with something closer to the worst of each.

                                        I don’t see any benefit to this brush over a standard synthetic other than it seems to hold a little more paint.

                                        I’m constantly seeing stray hairs pop out of the side of the brush mass. I don’t like using it to scrub due to the natural bristles getting damaged.

                                        I wouldn’t buy it again.

                                        Karl

                                        "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                        #1188393
                                        Undergoose
                                        Default

                                            Brand: Silver Brush Black Velvet
                                            Bristle: Synth/Squirrel blend
                                            Size: 10
                                            Shape: Round
                                            Snap: 4
                                            Point: 6
                                            Swoosh: 6
                                            Capacity: 9
                                            Craftsmanship: 9
                                            Look/Feel: 8
                                            Price Point: 7
                                            Overall: 6
                                            Notes: Kind of disappointing, I had high hopes for this based on the “almost like a Kolinsky” marketing hype. It’s NOTHTING like a Kolinsky. It’s very floppy and doesn’t snap very much at all.

                                            Extremely well made and nice looking brush for the price.

                                            Holds a TON of paint but seems to drop it really fast as well. The Neptune 10 full synth does a better job of emulating real squirrel.

                                            I wouldn’t buy it again.

                                            Karl

                                            "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                            #1188394
                                            Undergoose
                                            Default

                                                Brand: Creative Mark Mimik
                                                Bristle: Full synthetic
                                                Size: 10
                                                Shape: Round
                                                Snap: 4
                                                Point: 4
                                                Swoosh: 5
                                                Capacity:5
                                                Craftsmanship: 7
                                                Look/Feel: 7
                                                Price Point: 6
                                                Overall: 6
                                                Notes: Didn’t see many reviews for this anywhere. The hype is that is was engineered to mimick a Kolinsky/squirrel blend (not sure who decided that was even a good goal).

                                                Well, they missed the mark. It does retard the amount of color dropped, but with that, it almost feels like they’ve retarded the amount it can pick up. It holds the least amount of paint of any that I’ve tested, with the exception of a couple Taklons.

                                                I think I got a bunky one. It doesn’t come to a point, but rather looks like there’s too many bristles at the end all chopped to the same length. It kind of forms a little tube at the end instead of a sharp point. Super floppy.

                                                On every stroke, no matter what I try, if the brush leaves the paper, it drops off a tiny dot of color. I’ve been looking at it and trying to figure out what I’d use something like that for. Nothing yet.

                                                Decent looking brush, not breathtaking. Good craftsmanship, nothing really outstanding about it.

                                                I wouldn’t buy it again. I’m being generous with the ‘overall’ 6, giving them a small bump for at least trying something different to save some animals.

                                                Karl

                                                "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                                #1188395
                                                Undergoose
                                                Default

                                                    I’m going to wrap this up with a full review of Princeton’s Neptunes, because the #10 is kind of a different animal, and not really trying to emulate anything but a pure squirrel brush which, at that size, is nothing more than a mop with a point. Great for holding the brush perpendicular to the paper, but useless for details.

                                                    I have to say, Neptunes are amazing.

                                                    The mottlers have replaced all my wash brushes, the quills are outstanding, the larger rounds are kinda ‘meh’, but from about size 8 down in the rounds, they’re awesome. I’ve replaced all my smaller (less than 4) with them for doing details. They hold a TON, even in the small sizes.

                                                    With the shorter length on the smaller rounds, the bristles lose a lot of the floppiness that makes the 10 plus sizes kind of useless (you can use the quills to accomplish the same tasks).

                                                    I LOVE working with the mottlers. I watch and use a lot of Steven Cronin’s techniques, which he in turn got from Ron Ranson. They both use hakes, which I can’t stand because of the perpetual shedding of goat hair into my paintings and palettes. The Neptune mottlers do everything those hakes do, without shedding, I think they hold more paint, and can be used for repetitive, razor thin detail lines when needed. They’ll also do a few things the hakes can’t. I love the little 1″, it’s so tiny I can take it with my little travel palettes and have monster washes on the go.

                                                    The quills are every bit as good as natural squirrel, IMO. I was going to order an Isabey and a Harmony, etc. but after using these and the Yorkminster squirrel, I don’t see the benefit of the squirrel quills at all.

                                                    I also have the #6 rigger, which I think I could load with paint, hang out the car window and draw a line from here to Seattle on my upcoming trip.

                                                    Absolutely beautiful design on the brushes, although I’d love to see stamped writing with inlaid shiny copper writing on the wood handles.

                                                    I’m not fond of the ‘sea glass’ colored handles on the wash/aquarelle brushes, but people seem to like it. It just sorta doesn’t match the wood handles, although I get what they were trying to do with the Neptune theme. I don’t much like those thick plastic type handles with the scraping grind on the back, anyhow.

                                                    What I’d really love to see is a size 10 round that is about 50% neptune fake squirrel and 50% gold taklon. It’d look great, and I think it would give the Kolinsky’s a run for their money. With the size 8, I can almost pull of the tip dancing of the sables if I work with the brush perpendicular and only about half-loaded with paint.

                                                    I would and plan to buy more of these, and highly recommend you try a couple if you haven’t already. I wish I’d have found them many hundreds of brushes and dollars ago. Ebay has some monster deals on the larger ones if you can find a lot with some quills and mottlers.

                                                    We need a Neptune that emulates Kolinsky. Princeton has a ‘synthetic sable’, but since I haven’t heard too much about it, I don’t hold much hope that it lives up to the marketing.

                                                    Outstanding brushes at great prices for the quality you get.

                                                    Karl

                                                    "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                                    #1188396
                                                    Undergoose
                                                    Default

                                                        That’s it, I’ve given back my pound of flesh to the innerweb, hopefully these reviews will help some of you decide.

                                                        Keep in mind, these are my opinions. Some of you may paint using totally different methods than I do and would have alternative opinions, but like I said in the beginning, it’s better to have more information to weed through than not enough.

                                                        :)

                                                        Karl

                                                        "Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... "How to Build a Boat." ~Steven Wright

                                                        #1188364

                                                        A wonderful tour de force Karl, I love you matter of fact descriptions. Imam sure your reviews will be very helpful to members.

                                                        Thank you :clap:

                                                        Doug


                                                        We must leave our mark on this world

                                                        #1188380
                                                        notbob
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                                                            [FONT=Century Gothic]Thanks a bunch, Karl.

                                                            Your review is extremely helpful to rank newbs like myself who have never even heard of a sable brush, let alone squandered a small fortune on one. Your explanation of how a good sable brush should work –tree examples– really helped put this surprisingly expensive investment into a usable light and helps explain the justification of their purchase. I’ve yet to acquire enough waco knowledge/experience to warrant going down this road, yet, but it never hurts to be forearmed. I’ll continue following this thread and any others you may care to begin that reviews waco supplies. They do exactly what you set out to do, which is provide plenty of practical information to folks like myself who are in desperate need of it.

                                                            Again, thank you. ;)[/FONT]

                                                            [FONT=Century Gothic][FONT=Century Gothic]nulla dies sine linea[FONT=Century Gothic]

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