A Japanese hake brush 25 мм wide — a soft flat brush for laying down liquid light-sensitive coatings evenly.
What it is for
A hake is made of soft goat hair with no metal ferrule in the working area, which is exactly why it suits work where an ordinary decorator's brush does not. Metal reacts with silver solutions and leaves stains; stiff bristle scratches gelatin and leaves streaks. A hake lays a coating softly and evenly, with almost no brush marks.
How to use it
Used for applying liquid photographic emulsions, cyanotype sensitiser and other alternative-process solutions, and for sizing a support with gelatin. Rinse it in clean water after use and dry it hanging bristles-down, which is how it keeps its shape.
How it compares
Wet plate is a mid-nineteenth-century process: the plate is flowed with collodion, sensitised in silver nitrate, exposed and developed before the layer dries — the whole thing in a matter of minutes, from pouring to fixing.
For cyanotype and liquid emulsions this is the standard tool, and the cheaper decorating alternative usually costs more in the end: a ruined sheet is dearer than a brush. Match the width to your print size — a narrow brush will not coat a large sheet evenly.
