Why Chinese Brush Bamboo Handles Crack and How to Fix Them

Although the title focuses on why Qi Ming Wen Fang’s bamboo-handled Chinese brushes crack, the truth is that all genuine bamboo-handled Chinese brushes can potentially crack. I’m writing this article not only for myself but also for my fellow Chinese brush sellers.

Recently, some calligraphy beginners who purchased bamboo-handled Chinese brushes from Qi Ming Wen Fang (such as Qingquan bamboo handle and Qingyue models) encountered cracking issues with the brush handles. They contacted me to complain, and some even left neutral or negative reviews directly.

My mood hit rock bottom. I’ll spare you the lengthy details…

I realize that although I’ve previously published articles about how to repair cracked bamboo handles on Chinese brushes, there’s still room for additional explanation.

Why Chinese Brush Bamboo Handles Crack？

Generally speaking, besides the natural characteristics of bamboo itself, the main reason bamboo-handled Chinese brushes crack is that these brushes contain a relatively high percentage of animal hair.

As everyone knows, the hair materials used to make Chinese brushes are typically goat hair and weasel hair. Additionally, some Chinese brushes also mix in nylon and pig bristles for added strength (for more on this, you can refer to my article “Are Chinese Brushes with Nylon Bad Brushes?”).

However, nylon and pig bristles absorb far less water than animal hair. This is why those $10-$15 bamboo-handled Chinese brushes on online marketplaces actually don’t crack.

The Hair Composition of Qingquan and Qingyue

Let me specifically explain the material ratios of Qi Ming Wen Fang’s Qingquan and Qingyue brushes.

Qingquan’s composition is 85% goat hair, 12% pig bristles, and 3% nylon. Qingyue’s composition is 84% goat hair, 13% pig bristles, and 3% nylon.

Qingquan was Qi Ming Wen Fang’s first Chinese brush, and I designed it entirely according to my personal preference, so it’s relatively soft.

After that, I communicated with my brush master many times and developed Qingyue, a Chinese brush with noticeably improved spring compared to Qingquan. Of course, when I say “noticeably improved,” that’s only apparent to experienced users with sensitive hands. For many beginners, if you don’t engrave the brush name on it, many people probably couldn’t tell which one has better spring.

Why Qingyue Has Better Spring

Qingyue’s improved spring comes from two factors. Besides having slightly more pig bristles, another important reason is that Qingyue uses better quality goat hair than Qingquan.

In Teacher Li Zhaozhi’s book “Chinese Calligraphy Brushes” (page 40), he categorizes goat hair used for making Chinese brushes into four major types based on the hair shaft and tip: Guangfeng (glossy tip), Jianfeng (sharp tip), Jiantou (pointed head), and Pingtou (flat head).

Within these four major categories, there are many subcategories, as shown below:

Now let’s look at this next image to understand what Guangfeng means and what fine Guangfeng is.

This is a scene that Qi Ming photographed of a brush master selecting goat hair under strong lighting. You should notice that the tip area is semi-transparent. Actually, this part is the most critical part of a single hair. In industry terms, it’s called “Heizi” (black core). Only hair with Heizi and a proper tip can be used to make Chinese brushes.

Qingquan Chinese brushes use coarse long Guangfeng goat hair, generally collected from the back of the neck of middle-aged to older goats. Qingyue uses fine short Guangfeng goat hair, generally collected from the neck and back legs of young to middle-aged goats.

The Importance of Hair Quality

What I want to emphasize is that the age of the goat and which part of the body the hair comes from are very important. Additionally, seasonal factors matter too.

Generally speaking, when winter temperatures are lower, goat hair quality is better. Gender also makes a difference. For example, high-quality “Jianfeng” from female goats is better quality than from males.

Of course, this difference isn’t particularly obvious. As I mentioned before, only professional insiders with sensitive hands will notice these subtle differences. This is why Chinese brushes that look similar – all appearing white and fluffy, roughly the same size, all with bamboo handles – can have vastly different prices.

This is a diagram created by Teacher Huang Jian in his basic calligraphy tutorial. Generally speaking, hair spring is related to the length of the cortex layer, medulla layer, scale layer, and Heizi (the filled front-most part). This is one of the reasons why Qingyue has better spring than Qingquan.

The Degreasing Process

Another important step in making Chinese brushes is degreasing.

This is a photo that Qi Ming took of the hair material degreasing process. After hair is plucked from the animal’s skin, it carries a large amount of oil. The hair itself from root to tip also contains oils. Oil secreted from hair follicles can coat the hair from root to tip. If you don’t wash your hair for a few days, you’ll have a deep understanding of this feeling.

But as you can see from the degreasing photo, typically the lime water only soaks the root area. The oil at the hair tip relies entirely on the hair’s own water absorption to draw it upward.

Since I’m discussing this, let me add a bit more. The lime water degreasing must be timed just right. Hair material soaked too long will produce Chinese brushes with shortened lifespans because the degreasing was too excessive. This is also why some sellers’ Chinese brushes have short lifespans.

Of course, short lifespan might also be due to improper maintenance or determined by the hair type itself. For example, weasel hair and purple hair, which have greater hardness and spring, obviously don’t last as long as softer goat hair. When people get old, their hard teeth fall out first, while their soft tongue stays perfectly fine. Although this comparison isn’t quite appropriate, you can imagine and compare the principle this way. I won’t expand on this further or I won’t be able to stop.

Why Better Goat Hair Absorbs More Water

What I want to say is that Chinese brushes made from better goat hair are initially less smooth to use, but become better and better with use. Experienced calligraphy friends who have used both Qingquan and Qingyue definitely have this feeling.

The reason is that better goat hair contains more natural oils, which need to gradually wear away during the writing process and ink erosion.

Most importantly, the better the goat hair, the stronger its water absorption. So this is why my bamboo-handled Chinese brushes crack.

If they don’t crack, one possibility is that this particular bamboo piece has a denser texture, or the brush handle itself is thicker with a substantial inner wall that doesn’t get split open by expansion.

Please don’t think Qi Ming is cutting corners. I would never do something so dishonest as shooting myself in the foot and ruining my reputation to cut off my own income. After all, my entire family’s income depends on this business.

A Request for Understanding

That’s all I’ll say. I hope everyone will go easy on me and not rashly give neutral or negative reviews for my cracked bamboo-handled brushes. Also, please don’t give similar brushes from other shops neutral or negative reviews because of cracking.

If there’s a problem, you can contact the shop owner directly and discuss it properly. People doing e-commerce really have it tough, especially shop owners determined to build a respected small business.

I have tremendous enthusiasm to do well with the Qi Ming Wen Fang shop, and I hope everyone will be more understanding and communicate more. I’m willing to share everything I know and provide exceptional after-sales service. Any dissatisfaction will ultimately receive a satisfactory response.

In short, for anything purchased from my shop, I take full responsibility!

Repair Methods for Cracked Brush Handles

Method provided by calligraphy friends:

This is a reinforcement method where you cut off the brush cap and slide it over the crack.

Reinforcement method commonly used by Qi Ming:

Simply wrap several tight layers with this type of small transparent tape.

For more advanced methods, you can refer to: “How to Fix Cracked Chinese Brush Handles: 4 Effective Methods.”

Final Thanks

Once again, thank you to all the friends who care about and support Qi Ming Wen Fang, as well as those who help promote my business in various ways behind the scenes.

I hope that when you praise my Chinese brushes, you’ll also mention their shortcomings to lower people’s expectations. After all, the Chinese brushes I sell are all customized according to my own preferences and carry Qi Ming’s personal bias.

Thank you!