Comments about Winsor & Newton Pointed Mop Quill Series 250:

This is a great brush. I've had mine 5yrs now and I'm just now needing to replace it. It's been a workhorse for me. The only brush I use-and I've tried many others. The only draw back is the staining at the ferrule. (I think that gave it character) The integrity of the brush was never in question.

Comments about Winsor & Newton Pointed Mop Quill Series 250:

I wrote the other glowing review, the one that talks about this brush's usefulness for calligraphy and washes, after using the brush for 2 days. Now, after four days, the water and ink from the brush has soaked through the handle! About a half inch above the ferrule, you can see the water has seeped through the wood and cracked the enamel. There's no way, that I can tell, for the user to protect against this kind of damage. It's a design or materials flaw. I retract my previous glowing recommendation. A wonderful brush for lettering--but with a critical flaw. I should have bought an Isabey quill instead, expensive as they are.

Comments about Winsor & Newton Pointed Mop Quill Series 250:

I use the brush for watercolor washes and lettering, and it's equally good for both. The brush holds more water than you'd think possible. Dry, the brush doesn't look like much; wet, it comes to life, and to a nice point. It's possible to get a hundred different sizes from this one brush, depending entirely on pressure. As far as the construction goes: the goose quill ferrule (and it is goose quill, not plastic) is firmly placed and, it appears, glued together at the seams (there are two goose quills patched together). The wire wrappings appear to be largely ornamental, and, indeed, are quite loose. On the opposite side of the W&N insignia and brush information, on the brush handle, was the line "in partnership with BLICK art materials". I find this annoying. I'm grateful for the discount, DB, but if I want my materials branded by DickBlick, then I'll buy DickBlick brands (which I sometimes do). I say "was the line" because I removed it with a piece of polishing paper, which does the trick very nicely without ruining the varnish on the 250 series (on series 7 it ever so slightly dulls the varnish). This is a very nice squirrel brush, and highly recommended, both to watercolorists and to calligraphers interested in exploring brush quills. I'm really pleased I decided to take a chance on this previously unreviewed product. It's very well crafted--as one would expect from Winsor and Newton's finer products--and probably has a thousand uses in addition to the two I've mentioned. This is a great brush.