OldTools Archive
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278266 | Don Schwartz <dks@t...> | 2024‑02‑23 | making Japanese Go and Shogi boards |
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 |
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278276 | Greg Isola <gregorywisola@g...> | 2024‑02‑26 | Re: making Japanese Go and Shogi boards |
> > > > 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 |
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278284 | michael petre <petre.mic@g...> | 2024‑02‑27 | Re: making Japanese Go and Shogi boards |
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. |
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