Contact
Address: 4296 N College Ave, Jackson AL 56545
Phone: +1-390-949-5954
SFAIH sells the same colours in three tip pairings. This is how to pick the one you will not regret.
Every SFAIH alcohol marker is double-ended. What changes between sets is which two ends you get — and because the colours are identical across all three, the tip is the only decision that actually matters when you buy.
The short answer: brush + chisel if you are colouring pictures, brush + fine if you are drawing and lettering, chisel + fine if you want the set that lasts longest and costs least.
| Tip | Best at | Bad at | Durability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brush | Skin, hair, petals, any soft gradient; varying line weight in one stroke; lettering with thick-thin contrast. | Filling large flat areas evenly — you will see stroke marks. | Lowest. A splayed brush nib is permanent, and SFAIH sells no replacements. |
| Chisel | Backgrounds and large fills, fast and streak-free; a broad flat edge for blocking shapes; a narrow edge for mid-weight lines. | Fine detail. The narrowest edge is still around 1 mm. | Highest. A firm wedge with nothing to bend out of shape. |
| Fine | Outlines, hatching, small text, tight corners the chisel cannot reach. Roughly 0.4 mm. | Covering ground. Filling a background with a fine tip is slow and streaky. | Good, though the point softens with heavy pressure. |
| If you mostly… | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Colour in adult colouring books | Brush + Chisel | Brush for the small shapes, chisel for everything larger. Outlines are already printed, so you do not need a fine tip. |
| Draw manga, anime or comics | Brush + Fine | Fine for inking and detail, brush for hair and skin. Backgrounds are usually flat enough that losing the chisel does not hurt. |
| Do lettering or planner work | Brush + Fine | The brush gives thick-thin contrast; the fine tip does the small annotations. |
| Render architecture, interiors or product sketches | Chisel + Fine | Straight edges and flat fills, no organic gradients. Also the most durable combination for heavy daily use. |
| Are buying for a child or a beginner | Chisel + Fine | Nothing to ruin. A brush nib splays under heavy pressure, and it cannot be replaced. |
| Are not sure yet | Brush + Chisel | The most forgiving all-rounder, and the pairing with the most SFAIH sets behind it. |
| Pairing | Sets available | Colour counts |
|---|---|---|
| Chisel + Fine | 6 sets | 321, 217, 168, 121, 101, 81 |
| Brush + Fine | 4 sets | 321, 169, 121, 49 |
| Brush + Chisel | 4 sets | 216, 168, 121, 72 |
A brush nib is the part of an alcohol marker most likely to fail, and SFAIH does not sell replacement nibs — we checked, and no such product exists on Amazon. If you press hard, or you are buying for someone who will, the chisel and fine tips are the safer investment. More on that here.
| Colours | Tips | Rating | Ratings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 321 | Brush + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 241 | Check price |
| 321 | Chisel + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 489 | Check price |
| 217 | Chisel + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 489 | Check price |
| 216 | Brush + Chisel | 4.5 ★ | 217 | Check price |
| 169 | Brush + Fine | 4.6 ★ | 87 | Check price |
| 168 | Brush + Chisel | 4.5 ★ | 241 | Check price |
| 168 | Chisel + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 162 | Check price |
| 121 | Brush + Chisel | 4.6 ★ | 713 | Check price |
| 121 | Brush + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 241 | Check price |
| 121 | Chisel + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 162 | Check price |
| 101 | Chisel + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 489 | Check price |
| 81 | Chisel + Fine | 4.5 ★ | 162 | Check price |
| 72 | Brush + Chisel | 4.6 ★ | 713 | Check price |
| 49 | Brush + Fine | 4.6 ★ | 87 | Check price |
A brush nib flexes, so one stroke can go from hairline to broad by pressure alone. That is what makes it the right nib for lettering and for anything organic, and the wrong one for filling a large flat area, because the same flex makes an even edge hard to hold. A chisel is the opposite: held on its face it lays a wide, even band, turned on its corner it gives a consistent thin line, and it does neither expressively. A fine or bullet nib does one width reliably and is the only sensible choice for detail and outlining.
Most people are better served by a dual-tip set than by two single-tip sets, because the two nibs on one barrel are colour-matched by definition — with separate sets you end up with two versions of “red” that do not quite agree. The exception is when one of the two nibs is a size you will never use, in which case you are paying for half a marker.
Buying a brush set for flat colour. It is the most common miss in this category: the brush nib photographs beautifully, and then the first large fill dries streaky because the nib cannot hold a wet edge across the width. If most of your work is blocks of colour, buy the chisel and add a brush set later for the lettering.
Everything on this page is read off SFAIH's own Amazon listings rather than from a press release or a review round-up. That catalogue is 75 listings, 75 of them carrying a star rating, 40,639 ratings between them. The average sits at 4.5, with 62 listings at 4.4 or better.
An average across a whole brand is a weak number, though, and it is worth saying why. Amazon pools ratings across the variations of one parent listing, so a set sold in five sizes can show the same score five times; and a 5.0 from six ratings sits in the same average as a 4.4 from three thousand. That is why the table below is sortable by rating count as well as by score — sorted that way it shows what people have actually bought, which is a far better guide than the score alone.
The strongest listings in the range by score, among those with enough ratings to mean anything, are SFAIH Black Permanent Markers Bulk, 24 Pack…, SFAIH Green Permanent Markers Bulk, 24 Pack…, SFAIH Red Permanent Markers Bulk, 24 Pack…. The weakest on the same basis are SFAIH White Liquid Chalk Markers for…, SFAIH Liquid Chalk Markers for Blackboard…, SFAIH Chrome Silver Paint Markers Pens with…. The most-reviewed are SFAIH Acrylic White Paint Pens - 8 Pack…, SFAIH Gold Acrylic Paint Pens - 8 Pack…, SFAIH Acrylic Red Paint Pens - 8 Pack 2-3MM… — and those are the ones whose scores you can lean on.
Address: 4296 N College Ave, Jackson AL 56545
Phone: +1-390-949-5954
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. SFAIH is not affiliated with Ohuhu, Caliart or any other brand named on this site; brand names are used for identification and comparison only.