Tag Archives: basic lacquer.

Tonoko and jinoko Traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials

August 7, 2020 David Pike Leave a comment

Jinoko and tonoko are 2 types of powdered, clay type materials used in kintsugi.
Jinoko is a powder and is a rougher grain. Tonoko is a mass and is a finer grain.
Tonoko has to be smashed to be used. The material itself is a finer mesh than jinoko although it looks like it is rougher since it comes in rock-like masses.
You use tonoko for making a mix called abura tonoko which is used for polishing graded metals. Graded metals are the rougher grades that start at #1 and go to #15. You can’t use tonoko for polishing the fine gold powder called keshifun. You use jinoko for making a mix called sabi which is used to do restoration work. It is mixed with water first and then lacquer.
There are many ‘recipes’ for sabi. I don’t use set proportions to mix sabi but I have seen suggestions of 2/jinoko to 1/water to 1/lacquer.
You use more jinoko to make your sabi stiffer if you like. That is, if you are doing restoration work you can add more jinoko to the mix and it will be a stiffer mix. If you use tonoko for mixing sabi often it will shrink more and crack requiring an additional applications to fill those cracks.

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Kiurushi, basic lacquer, Traditional, lacquer based kintsugi materials

August 4, 2020 David Pike Leave a comment

Kiurushi, basic lacquer.
Basic lacquer has many names, one is kiurushi. It is about 60% urushiol, the active ingredient that is responsible for both the skin reaction some people experience and urushiol contains the enzymes that are active in the 25C-38C. optimum is about 25C-29C, temperature band along with at least 75% humidity to form a natural polymer. Lacquer is collected from 10 – 20 year old lacquer trees that are tapped once with part of the process involving cutting down the tree. That is to say, lacquer comes from a tree that is only good for 1 tapping and then cut down, yielding about 200 cc of liquid. Kiurushi is that liquid with the only processing being that it is stirred and slightly heated.
It is possible to only use kiurushi for all the steps of kintsugi excepting advanced metal work.

Below is the general description of basic lacquer.
There are several types of lacquer you use in kintsugi. Basic lacquer is called kiurushi. See here, https://www.kintugi.com/?product=hon-urushi-basic-lacquer-100-grams is used in most of the basic steps of kintsugi. For sticking pieces back together you mix it with flour or rice, to do fill work or to do restorations you use it and mix it with either jinoko or tonoko to make a mixture called sabi. If you are doing a repair such as fixing a blistered glaze you would use this lacquer too. I don’t use wood powder that often, it is called kokuso, but if you did you would mix it with kiurushi. It comes out of the tube a brown milky color and as it drys it turns black or a very dark brown. It can cause skin rashes but doesn’t seem to do so with everyone. I get rashes but most of the people I have had in workshops have never gotten a rash despite having direct contact with it. Like all real lacquers it requires a damp and warm environment to dry properly, it won’t usually cure in a normal environment.

kiurushi kintsugi after 1 day

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Materials in kintsugi, kiurushi, basic lacquer.

February 9, 2018 David Pike Leave a comment

Kiurushi, basic lacquer.
Basic lacquer has many names, one is kiurushi. It is about 60% urushiol, the active ingredient that is responsible for both the skin reaction some people experience and contains the enzymes that are active in the 25C-38C temperature band along with at least 75% humidity to form a natural polymer. Lacquer is collected from 10 – 20 year old lacquer trees that are tapped once with part of the processing involving cutting down the tree. That is to say, lacquer comes from a tree that is only good for 1 tapping and then cut down, yielding about 200 cc of liquid. Kiurushi is that liquid with the only processing being that it is stirred and slightly heated.
It is possible to only use kiurushi for all the steps of kintsugi excepting advanced metal work.

Below is the general description of basic lacquer.
There are several types of lacquer you use in kintsugi. This post is on the basic lacquer called kiurushi. Kiurushi is used in most of the basic steps of kintsugi. For sticking pieces back together you mix it with flour or rice, to do fill work or to do restorations you use it and mix it with either jinoko or tonoko to make a mixture called sabi. If you are doing a repair such as fixing a blistered glaze you would use this lacquer too. I don’t use wood powder but if you did you would mix it with kiurushi. It comes out of the tube a brown milky color and as it drys it turns black or a very dark brown. It can cause skin rashes but doesn’t seem to do so with everyone. I get rashes but most of the people I have had in workshops have never gotten a rash despite having direct contact with it. Like all real lacquers it requires a damp and warm environment to dry properly, it won’t usually cure in a normal environment.