Camel-hair brush

A camel-hair brush is a type of paintbrush with soft bristles made from natural hairs, usually squirrel. Camel hair is not a suitable material, although historically camel was used for ancient Chinese ink brushes (and for camel hair cloth). It is a widely used brush in art, but is considered inferior to the more expensive sable and ox-hair brushes. In some niche applications, such as pinstriping, camel hair is an ideal brush. Camel-hair brushes have numerous uses outside of art, particularly dusting where a soft brush is needed for delicate objects or skin.

The bristles of camel-hair brushes are traditionally made of squirrel hair and this is still the most common material. They can also be made from goat, ox or pony or a blend of any of these. They are never made from camel hair, either in whole or in part.

Camel-hair brushes are a soft brush. They are a considerably cheaper alternative to the expensive kolinsky sable-hair brush (a red sable), considered the best brush for watercolour painting. However, they are inferior in that they lack the springiness and natural point of red sable.

Cheaper camel-hair brushes, such as those supplied to schools, are usually mass-produced from pony hair cut from the mane. Pony is used because the long mane hairs can be cut up by machine to make many brushes simultaneously. However, the cut ends are not so good at coming to a point as the natural tips.

There is an often repeated urban legend that camel-hair brushes are so named because they were invented by a "Mr. Camel". This is almost certainly not true. This person, or his company, has never been identified. The story is very old, at least as far back as 1922 when it was mentioned in Marvels of the Animal World. The alternative explanation that brushes were once actually made of camel hair is true, but these would be a very different brush and would not be considered a camel-hair brush in modern terminology. Camel hair is wooly, making it unsuitable for the uses to which camel-hair brushes are put.

In 250 BC, the Chinese general Meng Tian invented the ink brush. Meng Tian is perhaps better known for supervising the construction of the Great Wall of China. Meng Tian's brush consisted of actual camel hair, or sometimes rabbit hair, lashed to a wooden handle with twine. This brush was a great step forward in writing. Writing became much easier and the spread of calligraphy in China created the need for a cheaper and more plentiful medium to write on. This came in 105 AD with the invention of paper which in turn paved the way for the invention of printing.

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