It's been quiet, so ... youtube!

Came across another beautifully made video of the making of these game 
boards, from start to finish. Some hydrocarbons and quite a few 
electrons were wasted in the first 6 minutes or so, but after that the 
majority of the work is hand-tooling. Paring, chopping, carving with 
knife and gouge, marking up and drawing lines with a remarkable curved 
sword-like inking tool, finishing and apparently burnishing with a 
bundle (bamboo sticks?) and finally packaging in an impressively 
tight-fitting crate, then put on display in the shop.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVuDM9jQQ1s&ab_channel=%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%82%
BB%E3%82%B9X

Some of these boards, and the requisite bowls and 'stones' are seriously 
pricey!

https://en.goboard-stone.co.jp/set

Don
-- 

\u201cWe should feel offended or unsettled when we hear the word homeless not 
because we stigmatize those experiencing it but because we are ashamed 
at our own moral culpability in its existence and the continued harm it 
inflicts on the most vulnerable.\u201d Josh Kruger

\u201cTo argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, 
and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like 
administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist 
by scripture.\u201d \u2015 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

>
>
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVuDM9jQQ1s&ab_channel=%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%8
2%BB%E3%82%B9X
>
> I really enjoyed this, Don. Thanks for passing it along. That knife-edge
inking technique is new to me. Steady hands!

Take care, all of you,

Greg Isola
Alameda, CA

The boards are made from kaya wood. The thicker boards come from old growth
kaya, which is now protected due to overcutting in past decades. This
explains -in part- the high prices of new thick boards... the finest
examples can cost above $19K. I've seen handmade sets of shogi pieces
(satsuma boxwood, spectacular grain, raised lettering) for $3500... just
the pieces, no board. Weirdly enough, Shogi boards don't seem to have much
value on the second-hand market. I looked into those because shogi
interests me.

The ink is urushi. It's the dyed sap of poison sumac (think poison ivy/oak
on steroids), which only cures in a high humidity environment.

The burnisher is called an uzukuri, it's similar to a polissoir but comes
in 3 grades for woodworking: coarse (karukaya grass), medium (hemp fiber)
and fine (horse hair). The one in the video is probably a karukaya uzukuri.
It's often used with ibota powder (shellac wax). A looser version of the
karukaya uzukuri is a traditional brush used to scrub cooking pots. The
horse hair uzukuri is also used to prepare the Japanese copper alloys
(shibuichi and shakudo) before patination. The Roubo-style polissoir
corresponds to the roughest grade of karukaya grass.