Thread: Sealing JNATs? Whaddya mean by 'laquer'?

Decided to use some Urushi lacquer on my Nakayama.

I had built a false bottom onto the stone and sealed it with oil based undercoat and then over the next few years I added layers of clear plastic spray .

The plastic spray is excellent for Nagura stones , ie protecting the writing's but it started to peel in places on the Jnat, because the jnat gets a lot of water , lapping, slurries and so on.

Plus a few corners got chipped over time , so I added CA glue to those parts...

A few weeks ago I decided to use Urushi . Not keen on the colour but a nice seal would be preferable .

I used 3 coats , taking 3 days to cure per coat . I placed the stone in a shoe box with a glass of water by its side . Hey, it worked

Pictures below

Nice job and nice stone. Hope you like it.

I wasn't too keen on the color to begin with, either, but I've come to like it a whole lot. It changes a bit over time...

regards

I also filled in a little fracture at the top with C.A glue...

The stone is lapped to perfection , ready to go but I am only honing with Escher's at the moment and its killing me. I have new Naguras to try out

After looking at the many varying sealing methods, I decided to use Shellac. Over two days I gave a mixture I prepared using raw shellac flakes dissolved in methylated spirit. I made a particularly strong batch. Just half a cup of metho and I dissolved a fair bit of it in the cup. I gave it, an Ozuku Asagi about 10 coats of this mixture, giving over an hour between coats. My question is, how long after the final coat does it take to be appropriately water resistant. I have tested this technique on an old stone I had and using that it was water tight, and I soaked it in water overnight and it stayed intact. I allowed about three days on the test. I don't want to risk mucking up an expensive stone, so is there any given rules to it curing? My climate is between 70 F and 90F, and I put it (the stone) out in the sunlight to give it a bit of heat. Please tell me I'm not nuts about this. Bob.

All my stones have shellac sealer on them. I could not be more pleased.
First coat should be 1pound solution then three coats of two pound solution. Again 1 pound then another three coats of 2 pound solution then finish with last coat of 1 pound solution.
You can do more but I have found this is good for me. The reason for the one pound solution in between is to smooth previouse coats. Even if you use a very,very fine brush. I learned that from woodworkers and is invaluable to get a really smooth finish. I only use fresh solution made from flakes. Bullseye is ok but not on par to the fresh solution.
Kind of like real japanese wagyu 5A stake copared to choice albertsons grain fed. At the end the little extra effort is well worth the time and investment. That is why they use it on 250,000 dollar furniture and equally expensive musical instruments, they have not found anything that works as good and protects. Believe me they would use it in a hart beat.
Urushi is very nice looking to but, even more work than shellac and I am very allergic to poison oak so for that reason alone I stay away, or I would use that. I like to keep it real.