Brushes for SE1 emulsion?

[Bill Banks]

I recently purchased my first jar of SE1 from Silverprint in London but they did not have any of the recommended Jaiban brushes in stock. Since the most important thing seems to be not letting the metal parts of a brush touch the emulsion, I assume I can just use an 'ordinary' brush and be very careful!

So my question is which brushes should I buy? I have access to both a decent art supplies shop and a DIY store and want to coat watercolour paper up to about A4 size.

Can anyone advise me?

Bill

 

[paul_c5x4]

You should be able to get a Jaiban or Hake brush from most decent artist shops. However, they are not essential as you can use a coating rod (a glass themometer for example). I would suggest diluting the SE1 with equal quantities of distilled water as you use it.

I use a plastic knife to gouge out small lumps from the original bottle to save reheating the stuff - 20-30ml is usually enough to last me a coating session. You only need a thin coat to get a decent image.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Guys;

The makeup of the ferrule portion of a brush is critical for some processes, but is not as critical for most silver gelatin emulsions, at least the ones I make and teach. You see, processes like cyanotype or VDB have relatively free metal ions in solution that can react with the metals in the ferrule. With Silver Halides though, there is little metal to interact with. So, almost any brush will work as long as the hairs are suitable for application.

PE