Let no one suppose that brush-making is a
mere insertion of mere bristles into mere
pieces of wood. It has a classification almost
as complete as that of a branch of natural
history. First, come the two great groups of
single brushes and compound brushes: the
single brushes being those which consist of
a single bundle or tuft; and the compound
brushes being those formed of several small
bundles or tufts, separately inserted in a
stock or handle. Then, among single brushes
we may distinguish three kinds—those in
which the brush is inserted in the handle;
those in which the handle is inserted in the
brush; and those in which the tufts are laid
side by side, like the pipes of a mouth-organ.
And we may separate the compound brushes
into two parties—pan-work and drawn-work
brushes: designations having relation to the
mode in which the bristles, or hairs, are
inserted in their places. And, if we require
evidence that the classification may go farther
and farther, we have only to see how great
is the variety of brushes with which society
is favoured. Painting-brushes, dusting-
brushes, artist's-brushes, whitewash-brushes,
distemper-brushes, bannister-brushes,
scrubbing-brushes, clothes-brushes, shoe-brushes,
tooth-brushes, nail-brushes, shaving-brushes,
hair-brushes, flesh-brushes, bottle-brushes,
hat-brushes, velvet-brushes, carpet-brooms,
hearth-brooms, stair-brooms, birch-brooms,
long-brooms, stable-brooms, whisk-brooms.

The pencil used by the artist, encased by a
quill, is one of the simplest of all brushes,
and yet its manufacture requires some nicety.
In nearly all cases the taper ends of hairs and
bristles are left exposed, to form the brush;
while the root ends are bound to the handle.
The handles may be of beech, or birch, or
oak, or alder, of sycamore, lime, satinwood,
rose-wood, of bone, horn, ivory
or ebony, according to the kind and
purpose, and price; but the artist's pencils
have long straight handles of some light
wood. The delicate little pencils for water-
colour painting are not made of such stern
materials as hog's bristles; they claim
the soft hair obtained from the tail of the
sable, the marten, the badger, or some other
soft-furred animal. The hairs are scoured
in alum-water; they are steeped in clean
warm water; they are dried and combed;
they are sorted into little parcels, according
to their length; they are placed (enough for
one pencil) in a little receptacle, and held
tightly while a bit of thread is bound round
them, near the roots; they are trimmed by
the aid of scissors, and then they are ready
to be inserted in their quill-holders. These
quills are of the swan, the turkey, the goose,
the duck, the lapwing, the pigeon, the crow,
or the lark, according to the size of the
pencil to be made. When the quill has been
softened and swelled in hot water, the little
tuft of hair is introduced at the larger end,
and pulled forward, by an ingenious little
contrivance to the smallest end; and then,
when the quill cools and shrinks, it binds the
tuft tightly. It is by the delicate fingers of
women more successfully than by men, that
the hairs of the pencil are so arranged that
their ends may be made to converge to a fine
point when moistened and drawn between
the lips, a matter of much importance to
the dainty work of the miniature painter.
The larger kinds of pencils used by oil-
painters rather than water-colour painters
have the hairs inserted in a tin tube instead
of a quill.

The bristle brushes, of course, cannot be
such nice holiday work as the camel-hair
pencils; and yet there are many curious
processes required in their production.
Brushes shaped in other respects like these
pencils, but too large for quills or for tin
tubes, have the hairs bound round very
tightly, and tied to the end of a wooden
handle, cut in a forked shape to assist in
obtaining security; and a compact coil of
glued twine serves to bind all together. Such
brushes as the large painting and dusting
brushes, used by house-painters, in which
the handle is inserted in the tuft of hair,
require, of course, a different mode of treatment.
The hairs or bristles are tied closely
together with string, with the pointed end of
the wedge-shaped handle just inserted in
their centre; the handle is then driven in
with great force, until the thick or larger
end finds itself buried among the bristles.
We all know what the "small end of the
wedge" does, in parliament and elsewhere;
and we can easily see how the small end of
the wedge-handle being once among the
bristles, the bristles must become gradually
compressed and tightened. Such a brush is,
in fact, a hollow cylinder of bristles, although
it does not present such an appearance; and
to this hollow cylinder family, however
different in other features, belong the carpet-
broom and the birch-broom. An extension
of the family is met with in what are called
stock-brushes, such as are employed for
whitewashing and distempering; in which
three or four cylinder brushes are ranged
side by side, and fixed to a flat stock or
handle.

Workmen are famous for using terms which
no one else can understand. We might look
at a long-broom, or a bannister-broom, or a
hearth-broom, until our eyes ached, and yet
fail to see why its manufacture should be
called pan-work, or set-work. There is,
doubtless, some good cause, however, for the
designations. Whatever it may mean, a
good plain honest long broom may be taken
as an example of pan-work. There are tufts
or knots of bristles, inserted separately in
holes bored in a wooden stock to a certain
depth; the holes are bored obliquely if the
bristles are intended to radiate or spread
out; or the face of the stock is rendered
convex to ensure this spreading. The bristles