Pro Arte Brush Wallet Renaissance Sable

I purchased the Pro Arte Renaissance sable brushes specifically for fine minature painting.The brushes arrive well secured in a plastic wallet which is more than adequate for safe storage. Two of the larger brushes contain transparent tip protectors but unfortunately the three smaller brushes did not. Seeing as these are the more fragile brushes, it's a shame they do include tip protectors also.The first thing I noticied was the length of the brushes seem about an inch longer than regular brushes and have longer bristles also. I have not found this to be an issue and the brushes are well balanced, fitting the hand nicely.Construction appears to be of a high standard with a lovely dark green and gold finish. I am not sure what sable these brushes are, but they don't appear to be Kolinsky sable. At this price point I would not expect them to be either. The sable is of good quality though and the brushes hold paint well, keeping a fine point at all times. I have noticied that one brush did have a stray bristle which is a shame, but this was easily trimmed.For the price point these brushes appear to be good value. I have found them perfectly adequate and to perform well. Comparing these to other brushes I have, I would say they are the best value by a margin.My only preferred brushes are Winsor & Newton Series 7, but they are an unfair comparison due to the vast price difference.A great value brush set for both beginners and intermediate users.

The shaft of each brush is made from a single, highly endangered Australian Yellow Cedar. The tree trunk is gnawed to its heartwood by a team of carefully trained beavers and then taken down to final size by Amazonian Carpenter Ants, whereupon it is rubbed smooth on the inside of a lumberjack's thighs. Because Australian Cedar is highly toxic, the beavers and ants (and occasionally the lumberjack) die in the process, so the breeding and training must begin anew for each brush. It is then painted using the traditional Shawnee Indian technique of "nose-spray-painting" - a truly disgusting spectacle and for the love of god, don't stand too close to the Indian while he's working.The brush heads are formed from carefully selected pubic hairs from the Belgian Sable - thirteen of these near-extinct creatures are c@strated for each 000 brush. The hairs are then glued to the shaft using the Shawnee Indian brush-shaft-painters' residual nose excretions.Treasure these brushes for many have suffered to bring them to you...Seriously. these are beautiful art brushes, with lovely heads that are both stiff enough to hold their shape while painting but soft enough to make paint deposition smooth and streak free. I use them with acrylic paints for my aircraft model building and they work well.There's a decent range of head sizes provided from the very finest, suitable for painting 1/72 scale pilots' faces all the way up to a large brush head for painting wings and fuselages.Yes, they're expensive, but well worth it for the great results they give. Just don't hold them in your mouth like real painters do. If you've read this review then you know exactly where they've been...

I was a little disappointed when i opened the brushes to find that 3 of them didn't have the little plastic covers over the tip which meant they had been ruined during the delivery!However the brushes that did were perfect. I've only used them once so far and they are really nice to use, the biggest brush holds quite a lot of water which means it is great for water colours if you prefer a really wet mixture.They hold their shape after use very well too. They really are a nice set of brushes that need looking after it's a shame they weren't delivered with care!

Lovely brushes, perfect for my watercolour use

Sadly I had high hopes for these brushes after the comments. They came open for some reason and the two thinnest brushes are pretty frayed. Had to snip some of the hairs off with a toe nail clipper. I can see why people love these as they are great quality for a good price but sadly mine are tarnished by bad delivery and even worse packing.

I like these thou would need a few larger ones within the pack.

only two brushes with internal plastic covers- although all the brushes are in a case- no damage though and good value for the price.

The brush set is as described but I would have liked to have known about other, cheaper brushes in the range. They are probably too good for the purpose I have in mind.