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June 11, 2006
Urushi Lacquer on Shakuhachi
Hi All,
I finished an interesting repair a little while back but didn't have time to post it. Things are crazier than ever. Jet just turned one this week. My days are filled with running from gig to gig, rehearsals, shakuhachi making, playing, lessons, feedings, diaper changes, potty training, naps, baths and bedtime (which is craziest of all with Sasa still in her terrible twos!).
Anyhow, I somehow manage to squeeze in time problem solving some interesting repairs such as this one:
This old 2.4 was badly cracked all over. The bamboo must've been too young when it was made into a shakuhachi. The entire flute had cracks running along the length and filled with super glue. There were inlayed rattan bindings under monofilament line at some places. After all this, it was still leaking somewhere. Some of you following my previous repairs know that locating the leak could be really problematic since it could be under one of the inlays.
The utaguchi was a bit warped and turned up at the sides
The original metal rings and rattan had fallen apart at the nakatsuki.
Since the owner was financially challenged, we decided that the most economical to make this flute playable was to lacquer the entire flute in urushi to seal the exterior. But, first we had to deal with the nakatsuki. Since it would reflect the older look of the Komuso flutes, we decided on a thick rattan wrapping.
It took a little time but it came out nicely.
The lacquer reveals everything underneath. I tried to steelwool off a lot of the peeling super glue but it still showed up under three coats of black urushi (this is why I never use super glue on external cracks).
In the end, it came together well. The owner came by and said it was much more than he had expected. We played Choshi together on our 1.8s since he needed time to get used to the new 2.4.
Namaste, Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at June 11, 2006 09:53 PM