Made in Devon since 1954 How a brush is made Trade & contract Contact
Bideford, England +44 1237 470 118
Sablemark Brushmakers · est. 1954
Full range Stockist enquiries Request a catalogue
Rows of finished brushes standing in a wooden drying rack at the works
Series 40 · Kolinsky
Dressed, tied and set by hand · sizes 000 to 14

Since 1954, artists' brushes made in Bideford — sold through the trade and made under contract.

Thirty-one people, four benches, and roughly nine thousand brushes a week.
A group of brushes showing seamless metal ferrules and turned handles Series 40Kolinsky sable · watercolour Brushes in a glass jar beside a watercolour box Series 62Squirrel & mixed natural hair Studio bench with brushes standing in a pot beside paint tubes Series 18Interlocked hog bristle · oils Fine pointed synthetic brushes against a plain background Series 77Synthetic filament · acrylic A handful of wide flat brushes held against a timber wall Series 90Wash brushes & hakes A jar of school brushes with coloured handles Series 12Education & institutional

Most ordered by the trade

Trade prices are per dozen and exclude VAT. Retail prices are set by our stockists.

Pointed round brushes with pale handles Series 40 round, size 6 Ref. 40R-06 · Kolinsky · seamless nickel Case pack 12 · lead time 5 days £23.40 each, trade
Flat brushes with brass ferrules Series 18 flat, 25 mm Ref. 18F-25 · interlocked hog · brass Case pack 12 · lead time 5 days £7.80 each, trade
School brushes standing in a jar Series 12 assorted, 30-brush pack Ref. 12A-30 · synthetic · aluminium Case pack 6 packs · ex stock £19.20 per pack, trade
Brushes laid beside a palette Series 77 rigger, size 2 Ref. 77G-02 · synthetic · seamless Case pack 12 · lead time 5 days £4.95 each, trade

Added this season

Two additions and one revision to the education range, all now in stock at the works.

A sunlit bench with brushes in a glass jar Series 62 mop, size 4 Ref. 62M-04 · squirrel · quill-set Case pack 6 · lead time 10 days £31.60 each, trade
Brushes standing beside tubes of paint Series 90 hake, 50 mm Ref. 90H-50 · goat · timber handle Case pack 6 · lead time 10 days £12.30 each, trade
Well-used brushes in a studio pot Series 18 filbert, 12 mm Ref. 18B-12 · interlocked hog · brass Case pack 12 · lead time 5 days £6.40 each, trade
Brushes and a paintbox on a wooden table Series 12 revised handle Ref. 12R-** · shorter grip, same head Replaces 2019 pattern from October Price held, trade
Hands turning a wooden handle on a lathe

How a brush is made

Dressing, cannoning, tying, setting, turning, crimping. Eleven stages, seven of them by hand.

See the sequence A craftsman working timber at a bench

Contract & private label

We make under other names for eleven brands. Tooling, minimums and lead times, stated plainly.

Contract terms A painter working at an easel in a studio

Schools & colleges

Institutional packs, replacement heads by the gross, and a repair service for department stock.

Education range An experienced maker's hands at work

Seventy years at Torridge

From four benches in a net loft to a works that still tests every Kolinsky head by hand.

Company history

Supplied through

Independent art shops, UK & IE College & university stores Distributors in 14 countries Contract manufacture, 11 brands

A brush is hair, a ferrule and a handle. Everything that matters happens between them.

Any factory can buy the same three components. What decides whether a size 6 round comes to a point after four hundred washes is how the hair was dressed, how tightly the bundle was tied before it was set, and whether anyone checked it afterwards.

We still tie by hand for that reason, and we still test every Kolinsky head with water at the bench before it is crimped. About one in eleven goes back into the dressing tray.

Walk through the works
A metal component being formed on a lathe at the works

What the trade tells us

“We have carried the Series 40 for nineteen years. In that time the price has moved and the box has changed twice, and the brush has not changed at all. That is unusual enough to be worth saying.”

Buyer
Independent art materials retailer, Yorkshire

“Their contract work is the only line we do not have to inspect on arrival. Eleven years, two rejected batches, both flagged by them before they shipped.”

Operations manager
European distributor

“The education packs survive a term of foundation students, which nothing else we have tried does. They also take heads back for reworking, which our budget notices.”

Technician
College of art, Midlands