Pig Bristles For Paint Brushes

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31215, 12 November 1966, Page 12

Pig Bristles For Paint Brushes

Canterbury Industry

(Specially written for "The Press" by DON GRADY? rpHE black pigs of China—their long A coats are necessary in the harsh climate—are the basis of the paintbrush industry of the Hamilton United Brush Company, of Christchurch.

The pigs’ winter coats provide millions of bristles for paint brushes. The bristles are collected either when the pig is killed or in the moulting season.

Hamilton United’s managing director (Mr E. C. Munt),

says the bristles have different qualities and blending them is one of the major steps in the production of an efficient paint brush. Soft bristles come mainly from Manchuria and Tsingtoa and Korean and Formosan bristles have a similar quality. Shanghai and Hangkow bristle on the other hand is

slightly stiffer and the stiffest comes from Chungking. Hamilton Brush’s supplies of Chinese bristle with perhaps a little Formosan and Korean included, all come from London. At the Christchurch factory it is received already sorted, graded and wrapped in rice paper. Soft bristles come in case lots weighing 110 pounds, and stiffer bristles come in at 133 1-3-pound cases. By far the biggest selling paint brushes in New Zealand today in spite of the inroads of the synthetic product, says Mr Munt, are those made of Chinese pig bristles. A nylon brush might last

longer, but it will not hold the same amount of paint a pig-bristle brush will. The thicker the brush, the more paint it holds. Hamilton United, exports to Fiji, Samoa, Port Moresby, Rabaul and Malaysia, in addition to its substantial corner in the domestic market. Soon it hopes to export to the West Indies.

Mr Munt says the reason paint brushes in New Zealand and elsewhere have increased steadily in price over the years, is that the prices for Chinese pig bristle have risen sharply.

Bristle Prices

Mr Munt recalls buying four-inch bristle at 9s 6d a pound 32 years ago. Today, the market price is £4 10s a pound. When Mr Munt returned from a trip in Britain at the end of last year, he immediately launched plans for factory and office expansion in Durham street, on a piece of land adjacent to its present premises.

Hamilton United, said Mr Munt, would add another 10,000 square feet to the Christchurch factory. New offices and administration

block with up-to-date amenities for staff, would be upstairs. The cost was expected to be about £25,000. Does Mr Munt see the future of the paint brush manufacturing industry in Christchurch dimmed by the rapid development of paintrollers and spray-painting? Indeed no, he says. Each system of painting is complementary.