Sometimes brand is important

And so is paying twice the price.

So today the postman delivered the two small hakes I’d ordered. One was a big brand name. The other one – a generic version at half the price.

Small hakes

Small hakes – very useful for mixing stained glass paint

These small hakes are great for mixing stained glass paint. I’ll say more another time. For now, what you do is you use the palette knife to do the heavy grinding, then you sweep in with your small hake to adjust the darkness and consistency of your glass paint, and finally you use your tracing brush for – of course – the delicate line-work.

The small hake saves a lot of time.

I’ve also found it means my tracing brushes last longer, because I don’t use them much for mixing anymore – just … tracing.

Quality and price

Sometimes brands aren’t ‘worth’ the money in strict terms. So you or I might feel better with a ‘name’ on our shirt, but an unknown name or no name at all might be just as good.

In that spirit, when I needed to get us more small hakes, I ordered a big brand name and also an unnamed version.

The big brand name cost twice the price of the brush with no name.

Here’s the brush with no name:

The hake with no name – look at the tip …

And here’s the small hake I paid twice as much money for:

The small hake by Ron Ranson

This small hake by Ron Ranson is better made than the generic hake. True, I’m mainly using it for mixing paint. All the same, a tidy tip will spread the paint more evenly around the palette.

And I’ll wager you a big hake that the Ron Ranson small hake won’t lose its hairs like the hake with no name.

Yet every week people write and ask me where to find cheap stained glass painting brushes. (If you hear thunder but can’t see clouds anywhere, chances are you’ve overheard the reply I send them.)

Honourable exception: last week I heard from Karen C. who was ‘ready to pay dollars for a good tracer’ – and would I name one for her?

That’s the right approach.