Update:

Here are some kind words from the owner of the two flutes:

I have used Perry’s services several times over the years, most recently this month.  He does a really excellent job repairing and binding flutes. He is responsive and easy to communicate with.  He is skillful as a technician.  And, most importantly to me, he is sensitive to the sonic quality of the flute. It helps that he is a player.

Stephen Nyoyoh Scholle, shakuhachi player since 1987 and licensed teacher since 1996

Just finished the repairs on the shakuhachi making brothers - Gyokusui and Gyokuzan. Here is the original Shakuhachi Brothers Part II.
The 1.8 Gyokusui was pretty staright forward - rattan inlays over a superficial crack. But the 2.4 Gyokuzan needed some investigation to find the leak.

At first, I thought the leak was on the crack that went into the thumb hole.  After fixing that, it played better but not as well as I expected.

So further investigtaion was needed. After examining all the cracks by taping and blowing, I pinpointed a small leak in the middle of the top section. There was a crack in the Ji plaster that had lifted slightly. This may not affect the playability sometimes, but in this case it was the culprit. It’s difficult to photograph but I sanded down the crack and painted two fine, thin layers of Japanese urushi lacquer just over the crack so as not to disturb or affect the tuning and response of the instrument. The work was done just on the bottom of the bore at 6 O’clock.

The top was opening up also so I inlaid a new binding there. In all, I added six new inlays. Inlays are time consuming to do. It takes the concentration and steady hands of a surgeon.

Namaste
When this flute first came in, it had a mixture of mono filament line, nylon cord and rattan inlay bindings. It was also a little messy with super glue everywhere. I cleaned it up cosmetically but left the glue that was right on the top of the cracks. It’s difficult to say whether this would prevent them from leaking in the future, but it can’t hurt. The flute now has a clean and uniform look.

The owner came by to pick it up but couldn’t find parking (it is NYC after all) so I brought the flutes down to the street where he was double parked.

This was the second time this week. My neighbors must think I’m up to no good (bamboo belongs to the grass family )

It was a hectic week. More than the usual as I’m working on a new theater piece using shakuhachi. I’m going to stop work early today to take the kids back to PS.1 Contemporary Arts Museum in Long Island City. They really enjoyed the faux swimming pool installation last week.

I’m so glad the kids love art.