The winsor and newton brushes had such problem even before. It is therefore, not related to quality control issues, but much more on how they form the tuft of the hair and bundle them together. My guess is they are crimpled way too near the edge of the hairs, beyond the 2/3 so they exhibit the "spraying" of hairs, this is like if you bind a bundle of fibers, the strands will try to burst apart because of too much tension: and most of the brushes that i bought that exhibit such kind of behavior either have too much hairs on the bundle and they are short as well so the hairs wont taper. Kolinsky brights (which are flats that have shorter hairs out of the ferrule) exhibit the same thing. The review from jacksons' own blog by professional artist Juliet Losq has the same finding: Difficult to wick to a point:
Even the most visited website for watercolor reviews which are several years old have the same finding, which is from Bruce McEvoy and I quote:
"The tuft is also somewhat smaller for the size than other brands (33mm long and 26mm around at the ferrule, with a 9mm belly when wet), and the point has an unhappy tendency to split."
I don't think the amazon reviews for winsor and newton series 7 could be more accurate because of the number of reviews that gave it positive ratings. Sometimes the quality and property of a brush can vary from small to bigger sizes because the kolinsky hairs will be only as effective to a degree where the shape and the flexibility of the hairs can still be adequate for its size and sometimes it takes a great skill of an artist to fully discern tools that are on par with his/her skills as an artist.
The winsor and newton brushes had such problem even before. It is therefore, not related to quality control issues, but much more on how they form the tuft of the hair and bundle them together. My guess is they are crimpled way too near the edge of the hairs, beyond the 2/3 so they exhibit the "spraying" of hairs, this is like if you bind a bundle of fibers, the strands will try to burst apart because of too much tension: and most of the brushes that i bought that exhibit such kind of behavior either have too much hairs on the bundle and they are short as well so the hairs wont taper. Kolinsky brights (which are flats that have shorter hairs out of the ferrule) exhibit the same thing. The review from jacksons' own blog by professional artist Juliet Losq has the same finding: Difficult to wick to a point:
https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2018/06/15/comparing-two-top-sable-wate....
Even the most visited website for watercolor reviews which are several years old have the same finding, which is from Bruce McEvoy and I quote:
"The tuft is also somewhat smaller for the size than other brands (33mm long and 26mm around at the ferrule, with a 9mm belly when wet), and the point has an unhappy tendency to split."
and here is the link:http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/brush3n.html
I don't think the amazon reviews for winsor and newton series 7 could be more accurate because of the number of reviews that gave it positive ratings. Sometimes the quality and property of a brush can vary from small to bigger sizes because the kolinsky hairs will be only as effective to a degree where the shape and the flexibility of the hairs can still be adequate for its size and sometimes it takes a great skill of an artist to fully discern tools that are on par with his/her skills as an artist.