This is primarily back to Nelson but there may be others who are interested.
Let's see now...kukui nut oil....did I recommend that. Perhaps so since
the empty plastic bottle with kukui nut oil written on it is still in the
cupboard where it has been untouched for who knows how many years. What is
it anyway, this kukui nut. Wasn't there someone who visited many years ago
who laughed and said that kukui is Hawaiian for coconut. Does anyone know
about that? I don't know hardly any Hawaiian at all.
What I do recommend is any brand or type or sort or kind of vegetable oil as
opposed to used motor oil (which has also been used here but for another
reason). Currently in use is very old rancid walnut oil simply because it
was found in the dumpster at the time that shakuhachi Paul was moving out of
Mibusawa and into Komagane.
Camellia oil is readily available here at almost any drug store or chemist.
My wife uses it all the time on her hair. It has a very strong smell that
is probably added in and is not camellia at all. It is sold with cosmetics.
There is surely a pure camellia oil here somewhere that could be fished
out. Anyone besides Nelson interested? How about camphor oil, also in use
here? It, too, smells to high heaven and evaproates rather rapidly but
nothing like gasoline. It is the standard thinner for urushi.
OK, Nelson! Got it! Pure camellia (tsubaki) oil. 60 milliliters for
Japanese yen 1560 plus about 500 or 600 yen for the air mail postage. It's
my guess that this is pressed by one of those older outfits that has
probably been in business since about 1683. I am told by the chemist that
it does have the characteristsic cammelia smell. Beware!
Tom
Bei Shu Shakuhachi Workshop
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~shaku100/
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