Don’t Throw Away Your Chinese Brush Cap! Use It to Prevent Handle Cracking
Bamboo handle Chinese brushes often have a tendency to crack, especially brushes with high animal hair content. These brushes absorb more water, making them more prone to cracking. Here, Qi Ming shares a method using the Chinese brush cap to reinforce the brush barrel area, preventing the brush handle from cracking or stopping existing cracks from getting worse.
Step 1: Remove the Chinese Brush Cap from Your New Brush
Let me mention something important here. Many calligraphy enthusiasts might think it’s a waste to cut off the brush cap. Actually, the cap’s only purpose is to protect the brush during shipping.
Once the brush safely arrives in your hands, the cap basically becomes useless. Some people have a habit of putting the cap back on a wet brush to prevent the ink-soaked bristles from drying out quickly. This is actually a bad practice.
The moisture-keeping effect is very limited. If you’re only taking an eight-hour break before writing again, this method might work. But for longer periods, it doesn’t help. You might even forget to wash the brush, causing the bristles to dry completely. This can actually damage your Chinese brush quite a bit.
Step 2: Cut Off Part of the Cap
Cut off the weaker section at the larger end of the cap. Even if you put this part on the brush handle, it won’t provide much support. Plus, because it doesn’t fit snugly against the handle, it tends to collect ink or moisture.
Step 3: Cut a Properly Sized Section of the Cap
Look at the size of your brush handle and figure out which section would fit best. Then use scissors to cut a small piece, about 1 centimeter long.
Step 4: Slide the Cut Cap Section onto the Barrel Area
Since the brush cap is cone-shaped, slide it on from the end with the larger opening near the ferrule. If your hands are slippery, you can use a cotton cloth to grip the cap ring while pushing it onto the barrel area.
Step 5: Complete the Installation
When the smaller end of the cap piece is flush with the end of the brush handle, you’re done. Now, even if the bamboo handle develops cracks, they won’t get worse.
Besides using the brush cap for reinforcement, you can also tightly wrap several layers of small transparent tape around the area for the same effect. Some calligraphy enthusiasts use fishing line or heat-shrink tubing for reinforcement. I won’t go into detail about all methods here.
If you’re interested in other methods for repairing cracked Chinese brush handles, you can check out this article: “How to Fix Cracked Chinese Brush Handles: 4 Effective Methods.“
Wishing everyone a pleasant life and great progress in your calligraphy skills!
