You can choose among the top ten brands of Chinese brushes:

Huzhou "Thousand Gold Medal" Hu Brush, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Zou's "Nonggong Brand" in Wengang, Jiangxi Writing brush

"Zhilantu brand" writing brush produced by Shaozhiyan Pen Factory in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

"Shuangyang Brand" Hu writing brush produced by Shanlianhu Pen Factory in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province

"Tiger brand" calligraphy and painting brushes produced by Shanghai Laozhou Huchen Pen Factory

"Longquan brand" calligraphy and painting brushes in Jiangdu, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province (I have been looking for them for a long time but did not find them available online)

Jiangsu "Jinding brand" writing brush in Suzhou, Zhejiang Province

"Wu Jingsheng brand" writing brush in Beijing

"Huyang brand" produced by Jintahu Pen Factory in Lianshi Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province

"Three Rabbit Brand" Xuan Pens from Jingxian Xuan Pen Factory in Anhui Province

1. How to choose a brush:

The brush is really important, just like meeting your girlfriend for the first time. If you feel good, you will have a lifelong relationship with calligraphy. If you feel bad, you may just pass by.

Most people go to stores to buy brushes or shop online. My experience and analysis - "point, round and healthy" (point: when the pen hairs come together, the tip of the pen should be able to close to the tip. Qi: dip the tip of the pen in water and pinch it flat, and the hair on the end of the pen should be neat and uneven. Circle: around the belly of the pen, The brush hair is full and round, conical, neither flat nor thin. Strong: The bristles are elastic and easy to gather when spread out. The so-called four virtues cannot be verified before paying. It is basically based on visual inspection. Not working. There is only one way, don't buy cheap stuff. It is best not to buy in the store. It is normal for the store to increase the price by three to five times. Online shopping is worth choosing.

A good online store that sells brushes should have a detailed introduction to the brushes, including the texture of the pen head, the texture of the pen barrel, the length of the tip, suitable uses, etc. A better online store should have renderings of test pens.

Judging from the price situation at the end of 2011, pens priced at more than 20 yuan are considered good. Generally, you can buy two more, with different specifications or different pen tip textures (try not to buy pure sheep hair and pure wolf hair pens. If they are genuine and good, they are too expensive, no less than 200 yuan each. Because pure wolf hair and sheep hair are , hair that belongs to the right part is very expensive). Nowadays, 90% of the brushes are made of both hair and bristles, mainly artificial hair, linen and pig bristles. Artificial hair is very good, cheap and strong. However, if you only use artificial hair, you won’t be able to make a writing brush, so you must add animal hair.

2. How to distinguish a good pen from a bad pen:

The pen barrel should not be thick or thin, 0.7-1cm is most suitable. Don't choose a pen with a nice-looking pen, which is quite heavy and seems to be very expensive. The hair is used for writing instead of the pen holder. The expensive-looking pen holder is often made by very poor pen craftsmanship. Because there is no good hair and no good craftsmanship, the pen holder can only be worked on.

Get the pen, open it, and try it out. The characteristics of a good pen, in addition to being "pointed, rounded and sound", are that it is hard but not hard, soft but not soft.

Of course, it is difficult to choose a brush that is very suitable for your hand, and you need to pay a lot of money. The best way is to find a craftsman who makes brushes.

Finally, there is a big difference between the quality of the brush and the quality of the brush. This feeling is a bit unclear. First of all, do you prefer handling guns or sticks? Do you want to kill or punish? Secondly, it is the turn to consider the quality of this weapon. As your calligraphy level and sensitivity improve, you can more clearly appreciate the quality of this weapon and write good calligraphy with ease. In turn, as your level improves, you will be able to write good calligraphy with a bad brush.

My suggestion is that when you first get started, choose an ordinary brush and never buy a cheap one; then, choose a good brush that suits your character.

3. The use and maintenance of brushes:

1. Before using a new brush, soak the tip of the brush in warm water for 5-10 minutes (it is recommended to open it fully) to allow the glue to melt and make it natural. Develop. Because there are floating hairs in new pens, after the pen tip naturally disperses, gently wash it in water to remove the floating hair, and then gently squeeze the water dry with your hands (it is recommended to gently drag the pen tip on a highly absorbent paper such as rice paper. Moisturize the pen) and then add ink. In addition, some people like to soak all the small pens and use them to practice large calligraphy.

Although it is easy to control the strokes in this way, it is not conducive to mastering the changing writing skills. Moreover, it is difficult to close the pen tip when writing thick strokes, and the loss of the brush is also large. Some people also like to practice small calligraphy with a large pen that is fully soaked. Although this is overkill, it can exercise the ability to control the pen, which is of certain benefit to calligraphy practitioners. (Tips: There are two points to note. One is that a large pen can be used for small characters. Although it is oversized and the material is small, it does not matter. A small pen cannot be used for large characters. Using a small material for a large purpose will only increase the loss. Second, do not break up the new pen directly with your hands. The most important thing about a brush is its edge. Without the edge, the brush is useless. It is easy to mess up the edge of the brush by simply breaking it up with your hands.)