Puddle pusher

Glass Coating Rods – Puddle Pusher

A Puddle Pusher is a glass coating rod used to spread light-sensitive solutions evenly over the surface of paper. It is primarily used in alternative and historical photographic processes, especially where a thin, uniform coating and efficient use of a small amount of solution are important.

A small amount of the prepared solution is placed in front of the rod, and the Puddle Pusher is then drawn across the surface of the paper. The glass rod spreads the liquid evenly across its entire width, helping to create a uniform coating without brush marks.

A Puddle Pusher can be used in processes such as platinum and palladium printing, cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, salted paper, and other techniques that require hand-coating or sensitizing paper.

How to choose the right Puddle Pusher size

Choose the rod primarily according to the width of the area you want to coat. It should be slightly wider than the image area, allowing the solution to be spread evenly across the entire required surface.

13.5 cm – suitable for small prints and smaller sheets; a good choice for formats such as 9 × 12 cm, 10 × 15 cm and 13 × 18 cm.

18.5 cm – a versatile size for medium-format prints; particularly useful for prints larger than 13 × 18 cm.

30.5 cm – designed for larger sheets and larger prints where a wider area of paper needs to be coated evenly.

There is no need to choose the longest rod “just in case”. Selecting a Puddle Pusher that closely matches the width of the print makes the coating process easier to control and helps reduce unnecessary solution waste.