What brush are you using for coating prints?

aconbere · Wednesday at 12:12 AM

I’ve been using these relatively cheap bake brushes: https://a.co/d/5KO0egt

My results are good, but I don’t love the brush. In particular I find the bristles so soft that they tend to bend over and it makes it a little tricky to do smooth strokes multiple directions.

I’ve used foam brushes in the past but consider the hake brush above a dramatic improvement.

Curious what brushes folks love!

F4U · Wednesday at 1:37 AM

For what purpose? Please elaborate.

Andrew O'Neill · Wednesday at 1:38 AM

I only use those for evening out gum coats...

F4U · Wednesday at 2:01 AM

First time I bought some foam brushes at Lowes for cyanotype coating I immediately discovered that was a terrible idea. Funny sometimes how you can think one idea would be so perfect and have it turn out to be so terrible.

koraks · Wednesday at 2:19 AM

Most of the time I use a synthetic spalter brush, 2" wide. My favorite is a Leonhardy type 20709.

Pictured below it is a ridiculously cheap knock-off which cost me all of €1. It does a reasonably OK job, especially considering the price, and if it's all I had, I could get by with it. But it's a little on the stiff side, and it doesn't contract as nicely in a single hairline as the Leonhardy brush. Btw, the brush at the top cost me something like €15. A quick online search shows me it still sells here in Europe for €17 - €20.

I also have some coarse pig-hair spalters that I use for misc purposes, such as remjet removal on ECN2 film. They can be used for coating things like cyanotype as well, but they produce a rather coarse coating - which some people may like, but I don't care for it. I like a little more precision and the pictured Leonhardy gives that.

The main things I look for in a brush are flexibility of the hairs (synthetic is hard to beat and things get very expensive if you go all natural), how well the hairs concentrate into a single tip/line when you wet them (cheap brushes tend to 'split' or have wayward hairs sticking out) and how well the hairs are attached to the handle (cheaper brushes easily shed hairs esp. when doing 'sticky' processes like gum).

BJ68 · Wednesday at 2:55 AM

I am working @ a university and we get cooled stuff. Sometimes there are square foam pads as protection used in the parcels. These foam pads are made of the same material like foam brushes.
So I tried it out if I can use it as very big brush for cyanotype on glass and it works.....you can reuse it, if you wash it...

Here a example:

Bj68

FotoD · Wednesday at 4:56 AM

I really like Da Vinci 5073 for even coating. It's a soft brush that comes in sizes up to 125mm. Not the cheapest, but not very expensive either.

But there are a bunch of cheap brushes that work well too.

Rick A · Wednesday at 5:49 AM

I use a two inch Hake for 5x7 prints and a three inch Langnickle brush for larger prints. I only use them for VDB, Kallitype, and salted paper, and use a cheap foam brush for everything else. I float paper for applying salt.
If you're having issues with the bristles bending too much it's probably you applying too much force , don't press the brush just use the tips, be gentle.

aconbere · Wednesday at 9:55 AM

Rick A said:
I use a two inch Hake for 5x7 prints and a three inch Langnickle brush for larger prints. I only use them for VDB, Kallitype, and salted paper, and use a cheap foam brush for everything else. I float paper for applying salt.
If you're having issues with the bristles bending too much it's probably you applying too much force , don't press the brush just use the tips, be gentle.

I can’t be much more gentle and still touch the paper! I’m fairly confident that my issue is with the very very soft bristles.

Maybe the way to put it would be that the bristles have almost no “spring” as soon as you brush with them they stay in that direction. Again, this isn’t inherently bad and I like the results I get, but I just don’t love using the brush.

aconbere · Wednesday at 10:24 AM

koraks said:
Most of the time I use a synthetic spalter brush, 2" wide. My favorite is a Leonhardy type 20709.
View attachment 399537

One of the things I’ve always read is to avoid metal ferrules since they can rust and react with the sensitizer, but I’m noticing a lot of folks use brushes with metal ferrules and don’t seem to be complaining!

[edit] heh just ran into a post of yours from 2020 saying that the gripes about metal ferrules wasn’t warranted.

fgorga · Wednesday at 11:56 AM

I have never had a problem with metal ferrules. Just wash and dry your brushes.

In my experience pretty much any brush made with "gold taklon" will work for alt process coating. I do cyanotype, salted paper, platinum/palladium and cuprotype.

I do dedicate a brush to each process, but have not tested this to see if it is necessary. The brushes I use are fairly inexpensive. Thus dedicated brushes are not cost prohibitive.

Here are the last two types of brushes I ordered from Amazon. The first type is what I use most for 8x10 inch or smaller prints. I bought the second type because I wanted some larger brushes. Both types work just fine.

Plaid 50557E Flat Brush, (2-Piece), Gold Taklon
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J8HCPAY)

Royal & Langnickel - 3 Pack Golden Taklon Paint Brushes, Assorted Sizes
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018MD600)

aconbere · Wednesday at 12:03 PM

Thanks all! Looks like I’ll have a handful of brushes to try out in the next couple printing sessions.

Ian Leake · Wednesday at 3:14 PM

Japanese synthetic hake-style brush.

koraks · Wednesday at 3:20 PM

aconbere said:
One of the things I’ve always read is to avoid metal ferrules since they can rust and react with the sensitizer, but I’m noticing a lot of folks use brushes with metal ferrules and don’t seem to be complaining!

[edit] heh just ran into a post of yours from 2020 saying that the gripes about metal ferrules wasn’t warranted.

It's correct that those metal ferrules do corrode, and the cheaper brushes tend to be worse in that respect. Note the difference between the two I've shown. The one on the top looks pretty much A-OK despite years of use with aggressive sensitizers of several types. The cheap brush at the bottom has started to rust pretty badly, so I might have to replace it one day. The discounted annual cost for the brush will be something around €0.15 on a yearly basis, or just a little over €0.01 per month. For the more expensive brush, it'll be something like €0.10-0.20/month based on retail price and its life expectancy. If you're looking to save that cost, then by all means, try to avoid the metal ferrules.

As you can tell, I'm kind of skeptical. In a perfect world, a €1 brush would have a plastic ferrule, soft, pliable hairs that are just stiff enough, that stick to a perfect point/ridge when wet and that clean perfectly with just a quick rinse. In the real world, you buy a couple of brushes and end up with one or two you like. If they die, you replace them. As photographers, we have a habit of making really simple things really complicated!

Patrick Robert James · Wednesday at 4:50 PM

Like Andrew I only use Hake brushes for evening out gum coating. For that they work great.

Like Frank I've found golden taklon to be the best bang for the buck. Taklon has some spring to it so it won't flatten out. I have some of those R&L brushes Frank pointed to and replaced the ferrules with cloth when they started to rust. Not necessary but I figured why not? There is also a brown taklon that Bostick sells these days.

I've used expensive brushes like the Richeson 9010 a lot of alt printers swear by, but frankly they don't do a better job. I think it is just one of those things, like Leica for example. People get it in their head...

Foam brushes have too much friction. They can ruin the surface of the paper. I don't use them.

My most used brush is one I've had for 30 years or so. It is a one inch watercolor wash brush I use to make smaller prints. It appears to be a type of taklon but who knows. It is thicker than the same type brushes I see around today which makes a difference.

aconbere · Wednesday at 5:17 PM

koraks said:
It's correct that those metal ferrules do corrode, and the cheaper brushes tend to be worse in that respect. Note the difference between the two I've shown. The one on the top looks pretty much A-OK despite years of use with aggressive sensitizers of several types. The cheap brush at the bottom has started to rust pretty badly, so I might have to replace it one day. The discounted annual cost for the brush will be something around €0.15 on a yearly basis, or just a little over €0.01 per month. For the more expensive brush, it'll be something like €0.10-0.20/month based on retail price and its life expectancy. If you're looking to save that cost, then by all means, try to avoid the metal ferrules.

As you can tell, I'm kind of skeptical. In a perfect world, a €1 brush would have a plastic ferrule, soft, pliable hairs that are just stiff enough, that stick to a perfect point/ridge when wet and that clean perfectly with just a quick rinse. In the real world, you buy a couple of brushes and end up with one or two you like. If they die, you replace them. As photographers, we have a habit of making really simple things really complicated!

Ha! Well in this case let it be noted that I am not looking for the best brush, just surveying what others use and like! Brushes are an entire rabbit hole of their own. In this case I’ve gotten a small handful of alternatives to the hake brush I was using and they should all be here by the end of the week! Excited to see how it goes

fgorga · Wednesday at 7:11 PM

Patrick Robert James said:
I've used expensive brushes like the Richeson 9010 a lot of alt printers swear by, but frankly they don't do a better job. I think it is just one of those things, like Leica for example. People get it in their head...

This is my experience as well. I have two Richeson brushes that I 'inherited'. I find that the inexpensive ones work just as well as the fancy ones.

Patrick Robert James said:
My most used brush is one I've had for 30 years or so. It is a one inch watercolor wash brush I use to make smaller prints. It appears to be a type of taklon but who knows. It is thicker than the same type brushes I see around today which makes a difference.

Regarding Taklon, stick with the gold. The white version is much stiffer and not suitable for alt process coating.

Patrick Robert James · Wednesday at 11:46 PM

fgorga said:
This is my experience as well. I have two Richeson brushes that I 'inherited'. I find that the inexpensive ones work just as well as the fancy ones.

Regarding Taklon, stick with the gold. The white version is much stiffer and not suitable for alt process coating.

I never tried a white Taklon for alt processes. They are terrible brushes for painting from what I recall. Never liked them. I am curious about the brown Taklon though. Next time I order from Bostick I think I'll pick one up. Bostick doesn't sell expensive brushes anymore if that says anything about expensive brushes....

What brush are you using for coating prints?

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What brush are you using for coating prints?

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