The very best brush is a Richeson Sable series 9010 (I'm going on memory here) it's a 2 inch brush with a metal ferrule. I don't carry them but they're are $50.00 to $75.00 in fine art stores. The ferrule gets yukky real quick. I've had mine about 10 years. I don't like foam, but many do. If you get foam get the kind with the wood handles, it's a tighter finer foam. The red plastic handled ones are course and I think scratch. Then there is your standard japanese hake brush, probably the most popular, There is no escaping the price. The cheap ones shed more hair than Bruce Willis* The more money, the less shed. There is lttle physical difference apparent between the cheap and expensive ones, but you get what you pay for. I liked to give mine a sharp wrist flick to shake out the ater after rinsing it. I busted the handle on one doing it. I was over at David Kennedy's and saw his brush handle taped up. Yup, his snapped doing the same thing. That's 2 out of 2, so you've been warned. Some
folks like to rise the brush in a mild clearing agent and then rinse in tap or distilled water. This may prolong the life of the bristles. Mine sits around and gets hard from the yuk and I wash it out and all is well. I've had my Richeson Sable for about 10 years, but it was on vacation for about 7 of those. Since I am charter member of the Gene Smith school of darkroom management it managed to hide out behind my sink until we moved to Santa Fe.
Then there is the glass rod, it will last forever but most folks manged to drop one every six months or so, so we keep up a steady stream of them moving out. There are instructions on its use on my web site.
*Gene Laughter's description!
Dick Sullivan
At 03:43 PM 11/25/97 -0600, you wrote:
>
>I'm waiting for my first platinum kit from Bostick-Sullivan. I'm
>wondering what kind of brush is best for applying the emulsion. I'm
>goingto make small prints--at least until I get the hang of things, and
>thenI'll gradually work my way up to larger prints. Do the glass rod
>pusherswork well--especially for the larger prints?
>
>
>David Kern
>dkern@juno.com
>
>
<center>
Bostick & Sullivan
Http://www.bostick-sullivan.com
505-474-0890 FAX 505-474-2857
</center>
</x-rich>