The process of dividing the bristles into uniform lengths is termed “dragging,” a very interesting process which requires considerable expertness on the part of the operator. A handful of bristles, after being mixed, is placed against a gauge, and the operator, grasping firmly those bristles which project beyond a mark which indicates the required length, withdraws them with his thumb and finger and places them aside. The whole bundle having been gone over in this way, a second dragging to the next mark is made, and so on until the bristles are arranged in little piles of uniform lengths.
The operation of “mixing” is also interesting. This is done in order to obtain an uniform colour and quality in the bristles. First, all the bristles of different colours are piled on the top of one another, varying considerably in colour in the different layers from top to bottom. Perhaps there will be one layer nearly white and another nearly black. If these were all mixed up indiscriminately to make a brush, the result would be a very patchy appearance that would not be liked. The object, therefore, is to have an equal admixture of black and white throughout. A workman takes in his hand a portion of the bristles from top to bottom, cutting through all at once. These he holds in his two hands and ‘jabs’--for the want of a better word--through a steel comb which is fixed upright before him. This mixes the different coloured bristles, and at the same time pulls out inferior or woolly parts that may have been left in. As each handful of bristles is dressed in this way it is laid aside, and when the whole is completed the second dressing is gone through in the same way as the first, the result being that the admixture is perfect, and the appearance of any one part of the pile is exactly the same as that of the other. It is essential also that all the bristles should lie the same way, and, as in the rough an uncertain small proportion of the bristles arrive with their heads the wrong way, to extract them another small comb, termed an ‘engine,’ with teeth very close together, is used; the ‘flag’ end of the handful is combed over this, and the roots of the ‘turned’ hairs catch in the comb.