RE: [Shaku] The Power of Urushi

>From: "Karl Signell" <signell@umbc.edu>
>
>Speaking of chipping, doesn't a metal weight at the end of a tsuyudoshi
>slowly but surely scratch the urushi of the internal bore?

One of urushi's better qualities is hardness. I have it, on good
authority, that many shakuhachi makers don't like to do bore rework
because cutting out the old urushi wears out files. I know whereof
they speak, as I've tried to remove some myself (albeit w/o the
proper tools) and it's a lot of work - more than it's worth.

One of my hassuns is probably 100 years old. It's been played so
much that the skin of the bamboo is worn completely away on the
thumb and #4 holes. 1, 2, & aren't much better.

The bore (which has the slickest urushi job I've ever seen - when
dry it feels like oil on glass) shows no sign whatsoever of having
a weight dropped through it.

Maybe that weight would wear on the bore if the flute lasted long
enough and was cleaned repeatedly. But, IM(notso)HO, it will be
several hundred more years before we'll find out :-)

bj

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Received on Thu Jul 19 16:07 PDT 2007