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Originally Posted by Gary Hoff
I was taught the same brush care tips as Rich was, btw.
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Yeah, but I learned 'em even though I was in the "slow" group!
Re/ Raphael . . . are those Frenchies? Several years ago, I ordered some French made brushes from NY Central, on the recommendation of a friend. They cost about half again as much as top-tier brushes I was buying at the time . . . when I received 'em, I was appalled to see that while they seemed well made, the bristles
had been trimmed at the tips! They were next to useless, except perhaps for daubing paint remover, or at the lathe for a chip brush. (We're still friends, in spite of this . . .)
Good natural bristle brushes use carefully selected hairs that have "split ends", i.e., they are "flagged". The hairs have a slight natural curve, and it's the master brush-maker's craft to assemble (cup) an amount of hair properly arranging them to form the tip of the brush before tying off and hafting.
Recently, in a vainglorious quest for brushes with longer handles, I ordered some brushes represented to be hand-made (there's really no other way) in the UK in a sort of "cottage industry" situation, presumeably to ensure very high quality. Same thing . . . clipped ends.
Is this a European "thing", or what?