The millimeter material for making the brush head is based on the animal millimeter. Wildlife resources are very rich, most of them live in the cold zone, temperate zone, subtropical, all the length is appropriate, the hair rod is straight, sharp, not obviously curved, not too fragile and slender animal hair, can be used to make brush heads, but the performance of the brush is different, the quality is different. It is also these unique raw materials that produce distinctive brushes that meet the different requirements of the majority of users. However, not all animals can make brushes, such as the hair of rats is too short, which does not meet the conditions of making pens and cannot be used.
The fine hairs of the same species of animals are also very different in length, performance and quality due to the influence of their breed, place of origin, sex (that is, male, female), hunting season and other reasons. Differences in the length, performance and quality of fine hairs are the main factors that determine the different types, categories and quality of brushes. Correctly understand the characteristics of various wild animal fine hairs, according to the different requirements of various brush performance, carefully select and scientifically match various millimeters, so that the formula of various millimeters is reasonable, and the configuration parts are appropriate, which is the basis for making high-quality brushes. The various animal hairs commonly used to make brush heads are described below:
(1) Weasel tail hair, weasel fur
Weasel tail hair is the hair on the weasel's tail. Fur is body hair. Weasel: Common name for weasels. It is widely distributed throughout the country. The color of the weasel's tail and fur is not exactly the same due to factors such as the origin and hunting season. There are tender yellow, yellow, yellow with a slight red, yellowish brown and so on.
Affected by climate, food and other factors, the quality of weasel tail hair produced in various parts of China varies greatly, and the names are not the same. The weasel tail produced in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces is commonly known as the "northeast yuanwei", and some places call it "north tail" and "winter tail"; the weasel tail produced in Shanhaiguan, Zhangjiakou and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is commonly known as "Jingdong tail"; the weasel tail of Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Gansu, Ningxia, Anhui, northern Jiangsu and other real estate is commonly known as "hinterland tail"; the weasel tail produced along the Yangtze River and in various places south is commonly known as "Yangtze River tail".
The gender and hunting season are the same as the weasel tail, the length and density of the tail hair, the thickness of the hair rod, the strength of the rigidity, the length of the sharp edge and other characteristics of the comparison, to the northeast meta tail quality is the best, Jingdong tail, hinterland tail second, the weasel tail produced in the south of the Yangtze River, in addition to the winter hunting can be used to make brushes, hunting in other seasons is generally not suitable for making hair
Male weasels with the same origin and hunting season are thicker and longer than female weasels, tail hair density, thick and straight hairs, the roots and waist of the hair rod are thick and symmetrical, sharp and slender, smooth and rigid, usually selected as the pen holder of the wolf pen; the female tail is shorter than the male tail, the hair is sparse, the hair is thin, soft, the sharp and delicate, hugging and attaching, the feel is smooth and soft, the touch has a soft satin feeling, the color is tender and lighter than the male tail, and it is usually selected as the shawl of the wolf pen.
The length of the hairs on the tail of the same weasel is also different, with the shortest near the base of the tail, the hair in the middle of the tail is longer, the sharp edge is also longer, the hair rod is straight and straight, the strength is strong, and it is the best part for hair picking. The hairs at the tip of the tail are curved , sharp , bald , and generally unsuitable for brushes , sometimes as padding.
Weasel tails with the same origin and gender, according to the hunting season, are generally divided into five types: "red hair", "three autumn tails", "two autumn tails", "big autumn tails" and "spring sticks".
The temperature difference between the north and the south of China is very large, and the time of frost and snowfall is different, which is not convenient to divide by solar terms and months. In addition, even in the same period, the early and late periods are not the same, depending on the place and the time.
Due to the different origins and hunting seasons , the shape , color , luster and other characteristics of various weasels ' tail hairs are different , and the uses are also different.
Weasel fur can also be used to make a pen tip. The fur is shorter and finer than the tail hair, the roots of the hair rod are thinner, and the waist to the tip is thicker. Feng Ying has strength. The hair of the first-class northeast yuan skin, the length can reach more than 3 cm, and can be mixed with the tail hair of the fox and the hair of the fox to make a wolf pen. Use weasel fur as a pen post, with its sharp rigidity, but it is necessary to enhance the rigidity of the padding raw materials, more use of beaver hair, and appropriately increase the amount of force to overcome the shortcomings of the weasel fur root is thin, weak rigidity, to ensure the rigidity of the wolf pen. Weasel fur from other regions. The length is generally about 2 cm, and it is generally not pulled.
The variables of origin, sex, hunting season, and hair collection site are important factors in determining the feel of wolf brushes.
In addition, weasel skin is a valuable fur material that can make high-grade leather coats and hats, which is popular with users at home and abroad. If the fur is removed, the skin can no longer be made of leather clothing, so the cost of using weasel fur to make a pen is too high and is generally not used.
(2) Goat wool, goat tail hair, goat whiskers
Goat wool is goat fur, also known as goat hair. Goat tail hair is the goat tail hair; goat beard is the long whisker on the lower jaw of the goat. It is farmed all over the country.
There are many colors of goat wool. It is used for pen making white goat wool, and other colors of goat wool are generally not used except for use as a liner.
There are many production areas of white goat wool in China, and the length of goat wool produced in various places, the thickness of the wool rod, the length of the edge and so on are different. The Climate of the Yangtze River Delta is humid and the water and grass are abundant, and the goats produced by a white goat raised here are white like jade, the thickness of the wool rod is symmetrical, the sharpness is slender and tender, transparent and glowing, and it has always been a good product for making brushes. In particular, the white goat wool produced in Huzhou, Yixing, Wuxi and Suzhou along the Taihu Lake is outstanding and excellent. The harvest season for this white goat wool is best after winter and before spring. The earlier the cold wave and the lower the winter temperature, the better the quality of the goat wool harvested.
Among these goats, the lambs produced in the spring of that year have the best quality of hair on the sheep weighing 15 kg when it comes to hair picking (slaughtering). Male goats that have not been castrated and mated can harvest high-quality "light front" hair, while male goats that have been castrated and mated have a poorer quality of hair. These "light front" hairs, the hair rod is thick and straight, smooth, sharp and long, showing jade white transparent. Female goats can be harvested with high-quality "sharp" hair, and the "sharp" hairs collected on female goats have fine and even, slender and tender hairs, elasticity, and are better than the quality of the "sharp" hairs collected on male goats.
The quality of the hair picked on the same goat is also different and can be divided into several varieties. For example, the hair collected on the neck and the front of the back of the male goat is called "light front", the hair collected on the back of the ridge is called "slender front", and the hair picked on the leg is called "orthopedic claw", "secondary foot claw", etc. The quality of the wool collected on the same group of goats is also very different, not that all rams can pick high-quality light hairs, all ewes can pick sharp hairs, or a certain part of a certain part of a certain sheep must be picked with a standard kind of hair.
The quality of wool varies greatly depending on factors such as the goat's breed, food, climate, soil and water, and healthy development. After the goat wool is "ironed" into flakes, it must be carefully combed and selected piece by piece, and separated into various varieties. Usually according to the length of the hair, the length and luster of the sharp edge, the bending and thickness of the hair rod are divided into four categories: "light front", "sharp edge", "pointed head" and "flat head", with the "light front" and "sharp edge" type of hair quality being the best, followed by the "pointed head" class, and the "flat head" class is worse. Of course, according to its use, it is also necessary to play a variety of hair specialties, such as sheep tail hair, sheep beard, although the edge is not as good as the light front and the sharp edge, but the sheep tail hair, sheep beard hair rod is straight and straight, full of strength, is one of the best raw materials for making a large dismantling pen. All kinds of hairs have their own strengths, and the selection should be adapted to the material.
Grade of wool (image from Chinese Brush)
Goat wool from the Yangtze River Delta generally does not exceed 15 cm in length. The goat wool of the northeast, northwest, north China and other real estates can be up to 20 centimeters long. Large pens with a length of more than 15 cm are mostly made from goat wool from these regions. However, the long goat wool produced in these areas has a rough surface, astringent feeling, inconspicuous sharpness and is bald. The large grasp pen made of it is not ideal for use, the pen tip is easy to split, and the nib is more split.
Goat's tail hair and beard, thick hair rod, straight and upright, strong and strong, sharp and good. The length is mostly 5-8 cm. Beards can some up to 10 cm. The wool rod is not as rough as the northern goat wool, and it is mixed with the goat wool to make a long-edged large pen and a bucket pen, etc., and the use effect is very good. "Tao hermitage with a sheep's whisker pen" (Liang Tongshu", "History of Pen").
(3) Mountain rabbit hair, rabbit beard
Mountain rabbit hair is hare hair.
Mountain rabbit hair is the best raw material for making brushes that our ancestors were the earliest to screen out in the long-term practice of making brushes. The earliest existing brush in China, the pen head is made of mountain rabbit hair. Almost all historical documents that record brushes have records of using mountain rabbit hair to make pens, and all of them list mountain rabbit hair as the best raw material. For example: "The counties of the Han Dynasty offer rabbits and rabbits" (Wang Xizhi's Pen Classic). "However, none of them are as good as rabbits" (Tu Long," "The Rest of the Examination Plate"). "However, it is not like a rabbit" (Kitado Record).
The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and various parts of Jiangnan are rich in mountain rabbits. The mountain rabbits produced in these areas have long hairs, thick and straight hairs, sharp and slender, sharp as cones, and are popular with pen workers. The southern part of Anhui Province, the southern part of Hubei Province and the northern part of Jiangxi Province are the best producers of mountain rabbit hair in China.
The mountain rabbit hair harvesting season is the best quality in mid-autumn to winter.
Rabbit hair on the same mountain rabbit skin can be divided into several species. The longest needle hair on the back of the front leg is called "rabbit ying", also known as "rabbit gun hair". Rabbit Ying is divided into two kinds: "purple milli" and "white millimeter", the length is generally about 4 cm, and some can reach 5 cm. The tip and waist of the purple millimeter are black, the roots are gray, and the color gradually becomes lighter from the waist to the roots.
The tip of pekoe is pale yellow, the waist is black, the root is gray, the same as purple milli, and the root color is lighter than the waist. Both purple and white are shiny, sharp and slender, sharp as a cone; the waist is thick and strong; the roots are slightly thinner. "Rabbit Ying" is the best of the mountain rabbit hair. In addition to rabbit Ying, mountain rabbit hair can also be divided into "three flowers", "four flowers", "five flowers", "six flowers", "seven flowers", "eight flowers" according to the length of the front, and some areas call "flower tip" hair.
The tips of these flower hairs are black, the waist of "three flowers", "four flowers" and "five flowers" is yellow and slightly red, the waist of "six flowers", "seven flowers" and "eight flowers" is light yellow, and the roots are gray. Among these flower hairs, the quality of "three flowers" is the best, the length of the front is up to 1 cm, the sharpness is as sharp as a cone, the waist is strong and powerful, the performance is basically the same; the "four flowers" and "five flowers" are slightly inferior, and the length of the front can reach 0.8 cm; the sharp edge of "six flowers", "seven flowers" and "eight flowers" is shorter and the rigidity is also poorer, which belongs to the lower product of the mountain rabbit hair.
Purple milli, white and various flower hairs are mixed together to make a purple pen, which can also be mixed with goat wool to make seven purple three sheep, five purple five sheep pen, and can also use goat wool to make a sheep purple pen. The wolf pen produced in southern Jiangsu Province is to add an appropriate amount of rabbit ying to the pen holder of the wolf pen, using the sharpness of the rabbit ying and the rigidity of the waist to enhance the rigidity of the wolf pen and waist, and the use effect is also very good.
Mountain rabbit hair can be made into a brush for ceramic painting, commonly known as "double material", "material half", "single material" and other paint pens, but also can be made into a repair pen for repairing phases", the use of the effect is very good.
Hares are produced all over the north of our country, but the names vary. Jiangsu Province is called Huai Rabbit, and Shandong, Hebei and other provinces are called Grass Rabbit. Rabbit hair produced in these areas, the length is generally not more than 3 cm, the hair shaft is brittle, the sharp edge is short, it is bald, it is rarely selected to make a pen, and sometimes mixed with goat wool, horse hair, etc. to make a low-grade small pen.
Rabbit beard
The hare beard and rabbit beard produced throughout China can be used to make pens, and the length is generally about 5 cm, and some are as long as 8 cm. Rabbit beard is black, the root is thick, straight and upright, strong like a pig's mane, the sharp tip is slender, usually mixed with weasel tail hair, goat wool, raccoon needle hair, etc., to make a large kai wolf, a big kai sheep, a big kai, a bucket pen and so on. These brushes, after adding rabbit whiskers, increase the strength of the pen waist, and the use effect is also very good.
The root of the rabbit beard is too thick, and the amount of doping is too much, which will make the root of the pen head too thick, resulting in the deformation of the pen tire and the gap of the pen bucket, so the amount of whisker-free doping should be appropriate.
(4) Stone badger needle hair
Stone badger needle hairs are needle hairs pulled from the skin of stone badgers. Stone badgers are found along and south of the Yangtze River. The needle hairs plucked from the bark of stone badgers hunted in winter are of the best quality.
The stone badger needle hair is pale yellow at the tip, black under the pale yellow, grayish yellow at the waist, and grayish white at the root. The root of the hair rod is thinner than the waist. The length is generally 5-8 cm. The stone badger needle hair rod is thick and straight, strong and straight, rough and sharp, and it feels like a hand when it touches the hair edge with a finger.
The length of the stone badger needle hairs produced on the same stone badger skin, the thickness of the hair rod, and the length of the sharp edge are not the same. The long needle hairs on the neck and back are straight and powerful, slender and sharp, suitable for pen posts, and the long needle hairs on both sides of the abdomen are thinner and suitable for shawl. After selecting the thick needle hair as the pen post and the appropriate needle hair as the lanceolate, the pad of the stone badger pen is selected according to the length and thickness of the needle hair in each part.
(5) Beaver tail hair, incense fox needle hair
The tail hair of the beaver is the hair on the tail of the beaver, and the needle hair is the needle hair on the skin of the fox. It is distributed in all parts of the Yangtze River Basin in China.
The color of the fox's tail consists of eight or so black, brown, yellow (or white) rings. The same is true for the color of the tail hairs. The sharpness of the black tail hair is thinner than that of the yellow tail hair, and some yellow tail hairs are also black.
The beaver hunted in late autumn and winter has the best quality tail hair and good needle hair quality. In other seasons , the needle hairs of the beaver hunted are very short , and are generally not used to make brushes.
The tail hair of the fox is about 3.5-4.5 cm long. The hair shaft is straight, thick and straight, the root is slightly thinner, the waist is thicker, the sharp edge is slender and sharp, and the strength is strong. The beaver tail produced in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from Puxi in Hubei Province to Anqing in Anhui Province has long hair, high density, thick and straight hair rod, slender and sharp edge. The use of beaver tail hair and weasel tail hair mixed together to make a wolf pen column, enhance the rigidity of the wolf pen, the use effect is no less than the simple use of weasel tail hair made of wolf pen, but also save the weasel tail hair, reduce the cost. The sheep pen made by mixing the tail hair of the fox and the goat wool enhances the rigidity of the sheep pen and the use effect is also very good. "Attached to the incense beaver ... The law of obtaining is used for a long time and is healthy" (Tu Long's "Examination of the Rest of the Matter").
The brush made solely of fox tail hair, sharp and strong as a needle, is suitable for retouching and ceramic painting, and can be compared with the purple brush made of pure mountain rabbit hair. The oil paint pen made solely of beaver hair is also very effective.
The hair rod of the fox needle hair is finer than the tail hair, the root of the hair shaft is thinner, sharper, and the length generally does not exceed 3. 5 cm, can be used as a padding for the middle wolf millimeter pen, especially the padding for the brush, which enhances the strength of the pen waist and the use effect is very good.
Beaver tail hair and needle hair are one of the best accessories for making wolf pens.
(6) Raccoon needle hair
Raccoon needle hairs are needle hairs on the skin of raccoons. Raccoons are widely distributed throughout the country.
The raccoon needle hairs are black at the tip, pale yellow at the waist, and the root is slightly thicker than the waist. Raccoons hunted in the winter have the best quality needle hairs.
The raccoon needle hairs produced in the northeast and northwest provinces of China are about 6-8 cm long, the hair rod is thick, straight and powerful, the sharp and slender, sharp and hard; the raccoon needle hairs produced in the provinces south of the Yangtze River are slightly shorter, the hair rod is straight and smooth, the rigid and soft is suitable, and the sharp edge is slender and sharp. Using raccoon needle hair as the main raw material, mixing an appropriate amount of goat wool and bristles as a pen holder, using goat wool as a shawl to make a pen and a grasping pen, the length of the pen head can reach 7 cm. The nib is just soft, the pen waist is strong and powerful, the ink content is large, the ink is evenly spit out, and it is a good rigid growth front and a millimeter pen
(7) Horse hair, horse leg hair, horse mane, horsetail hair
Horse fur is the fur of a horse. Horsehairs come in a variety of colors. Horsehairs usually selected for brushes are white and yellow (yellow-brown, reddish-brown). Horse fur harvesting seasons are of the best quality for horses slaughtered in autumn and winter.
Horses grazing on the grasslands of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are said to be at the end of the Qing Dynasty, in order to improve the quality of riding horses, good breeding horses were introduced from abroad to be stocked here. These horses have been in the grassland for many years, the body is strong, and there is no enlistment, the sharp edge of the horse hair is not worn, and the horse hair produced here is of the best quality, commonly known as "horse hair outside the mouth" (outside Zhangjiakou). The length of the "outer horse hair" is generally about 3-5 cm, the thickness of the hair rod is symmetrical, delicate and soft, the sharp edge is thin, the hugging force is strong, and it is usually selected as a shawl. Horses in the Hailar area, whose fur is slightly thicker than the "horse hair outside the mouth", can also be selected as shawl. Horses in other regions, most of them have been enslaved, the wool rod is rough, the sharp edge is bald, and it is not suitable for choosing a brush.
White horse hair is mixed with white goat wool, and it can also be used simply with white horse hair as the "white cloud pen" shawl, taking advantage of the delicate and soft characteristics of horse hair. After trimming, the surface of the pen tip is shiny and smooth. When used, the horse hair "hugs" the pen holder tightly, and the effect is very good. Yellow (or reddish yellow) horsehair is used as a low-grade pen shawl, using the characteristics of the color of yellow horse hair and the color of the weasel tail hair to make a "fake wolf millimeter" pen. This kind of fake wolf pen, if the padding of the pen column is proper, although the use effect is not as rigid and soft as the wolf pen, it appears slightly softer, but the price is cheap, suitable for beginners to choose.
Horse hair length of more than 5 cm less, the use of such yellow horse hair as a shawl, with white goat wool mixed with the appropriate amount of rigid materials to make a pen holder made of fake wolf milli pen (this pen should be called "concurrent milli") the price is much cheaper than the wolf milli pen, the use of the effect is also better.
Horse leg hair, commonly known as horseshoe hair, comes in a variety of colors, usually white and yellow. The hair rod of the horse's leg hair is thicker and straighter than the horse's hair, straight and sharp, and the length is generally more than 5 cm. Pens made of horse leg hair to make a shawl are more healthy than pens made of horse hair.
Horse mane, horsetail hair
Both the horse's mane and the horse's tail are longer. Some horsetail hairs are up to 80 cm long. The wool rod is thick and straight, straight, no sharp, ink unchanged, is currently the longest raw material in the tail hair used to make brushes in China. Large pens with a tip length of more than 30 cm are difficult to complete with goat wool and can only be done with horse mane and horsetail hair.