daVinci - Germany - ( not the same company as DaVinci the artist-paint company ! ) - is one of very few brushmakers remaining (Western style brushes, at least) who still utilize manual skills in many of the steps involved in brush making - it is a 3-year apprenticeship to become a brushmaker at DaVinci - They have developed various of their own synthetic fibres - Casaneo included, which received much accolades at international sketchers symposiums when it was introduced a few years ago - it mimicks somewhat the qualities of squirrel hair... holding plenty moisture... yet it also provides more springy-ness holding a sharper tip than natural squirrel does - thus, Casaneo combines a bit the qualities of squirrel and sable to some degree - Hair-/fiber-selection, meticulous assembly of various thicknesses of fibers into one brush to create 'capillary-action' to hold specially larger amounts of paint/moisture, as well as enabling more smooth-consistent-longer release of paint from the brush, longer hairs/fibers and set deeper into the ferrule (compared to many other brands) improves how it holds/releases the water/paint - As for their Kolinsky brushes - again, only the absolutely best individual hairs (microscopic examination) are selected - unbroken tips/exact thickness/shape of the tips of the hairs - from specifically the best Red Sable male Tobolsky-Kolisnky - winter tail hairs - daVinci will have higher amount of discarded hair /unfit for their own in-house standards, thus a higher price - Same principle of selection and perfection in brushmaking applies to their Usuri-Squirrel hair brushes, of course - as well as to their other lines, including the Casaneo line, which is a synthetic mimick of Kazan grey Squirrel, the hair of which had become difficult to obtain; thus the decision to create Casaneo as a substitute - On a side note, daVinci utilizes and implements a range of environmental business practices, encourages and incentivizes their staff to contribute in various ways, too (although that is not uncommon practice in many German companies these days); has an in-house- artist program, children's art programs, and gallery - Is open to creating new kinds of brushes and brush styles according to special requests from artists desiring unique brushes for their projects - Casaneo, by the way, also comes in a variety of round sizes as a two-part travel brush - ok... can you tell I like daVinci brushes... :-) :-) - I have no affiliation or benefit from sharing the info - other than the satisfaction of sharing info :-), but I did have a product training with them and I understand German, so have investigated a bit further on their webpages and on other German review-pages to figure out how they compare to others -

Thank you for this comparison.

Got the Casaneo because I wanted to switch from animal fur to something cruelty free once I saw how brutally they kill the squirrels in Russia, the main supplier of real squirrel fur. After a few months I still can't tell the difference between this and real squirrel so I couldn't be more happy! :)

Very useful comparison, thank you.

good lesson. very helpful. thanks Eric.

Thank you for this well done review.

The Casaneo brushes... I still want to get one. The reason why they hold slightly more paint and water is because they have wavy bristles. I would say that they can be a very good alternative to the Maestro brushes but I didn't tested them yet.

Interesting and informative... thanks Eric

I am very confused about the casaneo brushes. I have one quill and it works perfectly and come back to a sharp point every time. However, the round brush is terrible. It does not even hold a point at all. Feel more like a oval brush than a round brush.

I use the Casaneo Wash Brush in Size 0 as my standard brush and I love it so much, I have so much control with this.. I also bought a round Petit Gris Pur in Size 8 which I cannot use at all because I'm just not getting along with the softness of the squirrel hair.. Its not jumping back like the Casaneo one which gives me a better feeling of control

I have a few Escoda synthetics, from their Versatil and Prado line. Neither brush is bad, but after a few weeks of use, what point they had was gone. I recently got the DaVinci Casaneo quill in 2 sizes, the 0 and the 2. So far I’m really impressed. Beautiful brushes. I plan on buying more.

Just yesterday I bought a round Da Vinci Casaneo size 4 and a Flat one size 20. 16,30€ and 18,80€ here in Italy. They are my first professional brushes. Now I watched this. :)

Than was really nice to watch, because i was planning to buy such a brush and this helped me greatly in deciding. Thank you!

Good job. Well done! I'll use that information.

thank you ! such a helpful video ☀️

This man has more brushes than my local store 😂🤣👍

Da Vinci Casaneo no.4 is my favorite brush for big arias or first washes- it holds a lot of water but it costs 26€ in Austria. Second good brush for me is the Da Vinci finest red sable no.6.

Thanks for the imformation

Hi Eric! So after 2 years of using the Casaneo oval brush, what do you think of it? Has it worn down?

Our Opus Art stores in BC sell the #6 oval for $47!!! But I'm not sure if it would be any better ordering from the States after money conversion and shipping, I'd have to check into it. But thank you for the link and the review, I am still looking for a round and a good flat.

Great review. This was very useful as I was planning on getting one of these oval ones. Thank you

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