Raphael : Kolinsky Red Sable Brushes : 8404 / 8408

The brushes arrived with barcode stickers on the handles. Peeling off the stickers left an impossibly sticky residue. Thankfully, I was able to completely remove the adhesive with some 91% isopropyl alcohol I have on hand. These brushes are a 5 out of 5 stars, except for the adhesive residue that will surely need to be removed from the handles.

As great as the 8404 but with a thinner belly

Bought 2 small brushes for botanical work and find them excellent. They have a really good point so I recommend them. However, I wish I’d read Pierre’s review first as I totally agree with him. The bar codes are unsightly and difficult to remove, particularly on small handled brushes as the edges of the stickers overlap. The plastic of bar code material itself stretches as the glue is so strong. I ended up picking the labels off in little bits. I had some success getting the adhesive off with ‘sticky stuff remover’ but took a couple of days as they seemed clear of the adhesive only for it to become apparent again the next day when the brush handles clung to each other on my desk! Hopefully Jackson’s can sort this problem out, maybe a thin cover of some sort to protect the handle first?

I have bought 7 Raphael brushes, from series 8404 and 8408 (order placed on 5/28/24). The brushes themselves are great products. However, they all came with big bar-code stickers on the handles. Sure, the brushes are usable with the stickers on but it's sad to only see these bar-codes when holding them in hand. So I patiently removed all the stickers one by one, only to find out that the glue on these is the worst I have ever encountered! I tried using multiple solvents to remove this glue, but none has been fully successful. So I have a set of high-quality brushes with STICKY handles now. I would absolutely recommend the purchase of Raphael brushes, I would just recommend NOT buying them on jacksonart.com, if you don't want handles covered with either bar-codes or with glue.