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Sable
The finest Kolinsky sable hair is taken from the tails of the sable marten, a member of the mink family. Sable allows fine control of your brush strokes due to its high absorbency and resilent spring; the ability to return to its natural pointed shape. The finest grade of brushes are hand made from Kolinsky red sable male winter coat tail tip hairs, are extremely resilent and lively and can be quite expensive. With proper care, cleaning and storage, buying the best quality brushes you can find will be a lifetime investment.
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Squirrel Hair
This thin, fine hair has been the primary choice of sign painters for brush construction. Due to its thiness it can hold more liquid than other hair types. It lacks the spring and snap of sable but it makes fine mops or wash brushes as well as liner or riggers.
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Ox Hair
Ox hair holds color well, is thicker and more resilent than squirrel. It lacks the snap and sharp point of sable.
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Goat Hair
Wide usage for make-up applications due to its softness and strength. Also used for large wash brushes.
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Sabeline
Another term for a dyed, fine grade of Ox Hair.
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Camel Hair
A catch-all term used by manufacturers of economy brushes constructed of soft inexpensive soft hairs such as pony, horse or goat. Children's paint sets usually come with this variety of brush and the better shaped ones work quite well in a pinch. Camel Mops can move a lot of liquid to your paper quickly but the hairs do not spring back to their original shape. If you pull a stroke across your paper, as the brush runs dry, the hairs are usually stuck at a 45° angle from the ferrule.
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Bristles
A coarse, heavy white hair traditionally used in oil painting, bristle is primarily made of hog hair. Bristle has great snap and resilence but lacks a truly fine point. Use it for scrubbing out areas of color in your watercolor painting as well as for creating textures. Zoltan Szabo developed such a distinct stye using wide angle cut bristle brushes that he markets these brushes and palettes of his own design.
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Badger, Fitch
Primarily used by oil painters, these smooth hairs are finer than bristle and coarser than sable, they generally have great snap and can hold a fine edge or point. Fitch hair is taken from the polecat or mongoose and has a fine, medium stiffness. Badger is stiffer and has more spring and is used as a blender in oil painting. Sign painters quill-style brushes are often make of these varieties as well.
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Synthetics
Synthetic nylon or taklon brushes are used for acrylic painting due to their unique feel and response, and their low cost and durability. The golden yellow or white hairs hold a sharp point and are more flexible than bristle. Finer, softer synthetic "sable" grades are used for economical watercolor brushes but synthetic cannot approach the quality and usefullness of red sable. You will have to alternate techniques if using synthetics and sables on the same painting (ed—I use a Winsor & Newton #2 University bright for scrubbing and lifting detail work and a 1 1/2" Winsor and Newton series 965 (a nylon and natural hair blend) for laying in large washes. For painting frisket I use a cheaper brand such as Liquitex Series 690 Basic Round that I found at Office Max.
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