Camel-hair brush

A camel-hair brush is a type of paintbrush with soft bristles made from natural hairs, usually squirrel.

The bristles of camel-hair brushes are traditionally made of squirrel hair and this is still the most common material.

[1] 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.

Camel hair is wooly, making it unsuitable for the uses to which camel-hair brushes are put.

This can range from simple coachlines down the side of motor cars, to elaborate decoration of furniture.

One of the earliest such brushes was designed by Andrew Mack in 1891, a carriage striper for the J.J. Deal wagon and buggy company in Jonesville, Michigan.

Camel hair is less effective at working into corners or to a line because of the poorer point (or edge) on the tip.

[14] Their soft bristles make them ideal for cleaning dust from delicate equipment or materials, such as film or stills cameras.