GLOSSARY OF BRUSH TERMS 
(Page contains many listings, but is not yet complete.)
BADGER BLENDER ... Soft-haired, bushy, round brush, used for blending and softening colors.
BLENDER ... Most commonly associated with Badger or Fan Blenders, but broadly speaking, any brush designed for softening edges and blending colors. Available in many shapes, sizes, and degrees of fiber stiffness.
BRIGHT ... Brush shape characterized by a flattened ferrule, squared corners, and shorter bristles than a flat. (See also Filberts and Flats.)
BRISTLE ... When used with a modifier (e.g. synthetic bristle) may be almost any fiber. When used without, it is frequently shorthand for Hog Bristle.
BRUSH POLICE ... Our own name for a nonexistent entity feared by painters who refuse to use a brush for other than its primary application, as for example using a watercolor brush in oils or acrylics. Ignore the brush police and use whatever works.
CAMEL HAIR ... Generic term for natural bristles that may come from almost any beast except a camel. Pony hair is the most common source. Other sources include ox, goat, and squirrel. Not considered of good quality for most art applications.
CHINA BRISTLE ... See Hog Bristle.
COMB ... See Rake.
DAGGER ... Brush shaped like a dagger with one side straight, the other curved. Chiefly a Striper for sign painters, but has some art applications. Used for painting long lines.
DEERFOOT STIPPLER ... Hoof-shaped brush used in a tapping action (called pouncing) for texturing. See also Stippler.
FAN BLENDER ... Fan-shaped brush used for blending. May use either soft or stiff fibers in either natural hair or synthetic.
FERRULE ... The metal connector which joins the brush fibers to the handle. Ideally seamless and rustproof.
FILBERT ... Similar to a Flat, but with rounded shoulders which produce an oval shape.
FITCH ... (1) Polecat hair, sometimes called Russian Sable. (2) Name for a flat hog bristle brush widely used by billboard painters. Usually not as full as an artist's brush of equivalent width.
FLAGGING ... Branch-like splits or protrusions occurring on the ends of the best quality Hog Bristle which help to hold paint and control its flow.
FLAT ... Similar to a Bright, but with longer bristles.
HAKE BRUSH ... (Pronounce it like hockey or hoe-key.) A thin, flat brush used for blending. Of Oriental origin, it is most often made of goat or sheep hair, but also sometimes comes in softer grades of hog bristle.
HOG BRISTLE ... A relatively stiff brush fiber, normally from China. The highest quality comes from the northern regions and is called Chunking (or was before Pin Yeng became the preferred method of spelling Chinese names). A lesser grade called Shanghai is used in cheaper brushes. Both actually do come from hogs.
KOLINSKY PLUS ... Trade name for brushes combining Kolinsky Sable with synthetic fibers.
KOLINSKY SABLE ... Brush fiber especially valued in watercolor brushes for its supurb fluid-retaining qualities and magnificent spring. Comes from tail hairs of the Kolinsky Mink. Hairs from a male taken in the dead of winter are considered best. Increasingly in short supply. Animal rights advocates should blame the fur industry, not brushmakers, for the harvesting of these animals. The tails are leftovers from the more valuable pelts.
LINER ... A brush, usually round, with longer than normal bristles, allowing it to hold extra paint and so produce long, unbroken lines. See also Rigger.
MONGOOSE ... Hair taken from the cobra's deadly enemy. Softer than hog bristle, but a bit stiffer than sable. Virtually unobtainable now, but excellent grades of synthetics such as Monarch from Winsor & Newton, Princeton's 6600 series, and Ruby Satin from Silver Brush mimic it well.
RAKE™ ... Loew-Cornell name for flat brush with bristles of varying lengths spaced somewhat apart like teeth of rake. Used for texturing to create hair, grass, fur, etc. The rake designation being unavailable, brushes of similar design are called combs by several other manufacturers.
RED SABLE ... Brush fibers taken from a member of the weasel family. Considered inferior to Kolinsky Sable, but superior to Sable.
RIGGER ... A round brush whose longer fibers hold more paint, and thus are useful for painting long lines, (e.g. for tree branches). Sometimes used synonymously with Liner. Usually possesses a pointed tip, but one school holds that riggers are squared off at the tip and only liners are pointed. Liner is also sometimes applied to Daggers and Swords, although Striper is more commonly used for these.
ROUND ... Pointed brush with hairs emerging from a round ferrule. Used for fine lines when only tip is used, but can produce wider areas as increasing pressure is applied.
SABLE ... (See also Kolinsky Sable and Red Sable.) Unlike its classier namesakes, the term, when properly used, refers to a brush fiber that is either an inferior grade of weasel, or sometimes even dyed ox hair.
SCRAPER TIP ... Watercolor brush with a beveled cut on the end of the handle to allow scraping out highlights.
SCRIPT LINER ... An extra long liner.
SIGNATURE BRUSHES ... Not a brush type, but a term for brushes pitched by television art hucksters, and so called because the name of the featured artist is stamped on the handle. Frequently the artist (or his marketers) assign a pet name to these brushes, e.g. Petal Brush, Foliage Brush, etc. in the hope of discouraging any brand substitutions. While generally of good quality, these brushes are almost invariably over-priced in comparison to identical (or nearly identical) brushes which lack the artist's name.
SIZING ... Factory applied coating which helps a brush maintain its shape while in shipment and storage. Has legitimate uses, but can also be used to make the sorriest brush look like a million dollars.
SNAP ... Used interchangably with Spring to measure a brush's ability to regain its shape after a stroke.
SOFT-GRIP ... Trade name for a series of brushes from Royal featuring a soft plastic gripping area. If used for oils observe caution while cleaning. The soft plastic used is soluble in mineral spirits or turpentine.
SPOTTER ... An extremely short, pointed Round used for fine detailing.
SPRING ... Used interchangably with Snap to describe a brush's ability to snap back into its original shape at the conclusion of a stroke.
SQUIRREL ... A fiber valued for some applications because of its ability to hold vast quantities of fluid, but rejected for othjers because it lacks spring or snap. (But the Black Velvet line from Silver Brush blends squirrel with a synthetic for a magnificent watercolor brush that overcomes this problem.) Squirrel-hair brushes are the product of choice for signpainters' quills.
STENCIL BRUSH ... A blunt ended brush used in a tapping or pouncing action to fill in the area of a stencil. Usually made with stiffer fibers than stippling brushes.
STIPPLER ... Any blunt-ended brush designed for use in a pouncing or tapping motion such as for texturing. See also Deerfoot Stippler.
STRIPER ... See Dagger or Sword.
SWORD ... Similar to a Dagger, but with two curved sides rather than one. Primarily used for striping.
TAKLON ... This synthetic fiber is actually polyester. It's been reported that the name was chosen to escape the cheap tie, cheap suit, image that polyester might create.
WASH BRUSH ... Any brush designed to apply thin, highly fluid washes of color. Most commonly used by watercolorists. but not restricted to that medium.
WHITE SABLE ... Trade name for a synthetic-fiber brush by Robert Simmons. Said to be the first synthetic brush widely marketed.
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