Hake brush

Bamboo handle hake brush

The hake (pronounced hah–kay) brush was developed in the far east.  It has several variations – the original consisted of a group of bamboo brushes bound together in a line.  These are still made and used. Many modern hake brushes have a broad wooden handle with a wide line of hairs.  These brushes are made of very fine, soft hairs - often goat hair is used. 

Flat wooden hake brushes

The flat hake brushes are most often cheaper and in a wider variety of sizes than the bamboo ones.  I prefer the bamboo for the feel in the hand that the broad handle gives.  With the longer hairs, it holds more moisture and delivers even amounts of kiln wash even with long strokes. 

Use

These brushes can hold a lot of moisture and deliver it evenly.  This makes it good for laying  down large areas of even colour in watercolours, and in glass painting. The same characteristic makes it very good for coating shelves with kiln wash.  The brush should be filled liberally with the paint or kiln wash. The brush should be gently shaken to remove any excess. Hold the brush nearly vertical and let the bristles barely touch the surface as you move along in smooth sweeps across the surface.  This allows the kiln wash to be evenly spread with very few brush marks.

Maintenance

One drawback of these brush is that the fine soft hairs are difficult to bind into the ferrule.  This results in the brushes often shedding hairs onto the shelf as it is being coated. A tip I learned from Bullseye is to treat the new hake brush with superglue at the base of the hairs. It does not have to be super glue.  It can be any runny glue, or diluted PVA.  I prefer super glue, even though it is reported to have some sensitivity to moisture. You can work the glue into the centre by using a needle to poke at the hairs to move the glue toward the centre of the bristles.  The glue binds the hairs in addition to the binding at the ferrule, and so keeps the brush from shedding. 

I did this on my bamboo handle hake brush a couple of years ago and it is not yet shedding hairs during applications of kiln wash.

Make sure you clean the bristles immediately after using to avoid any material drying among the hairs and causing them to break when next used.  To clean the brush, you only need running water run through the bristles.  Do not scrub the bristles against anything.  The hairs are delicate.  Set the brush aside horizontally to allow water to drip off and the hairs to dry.  Setting the brush upside down when wet allows water into the bindings of the hairs.  Putting it with the hairs down onto a surface deforms the hairs, making it difficult to straighten them later.

A hake brush is among the most useful tools to put kiln wash onto shelves and moulds because it holds so much moisture.  It does require maintenance to ensure the hairs do not shed and that the delicate hairs are not broken.