I've got a few Escher stones now that have old labels attached, and so I was looking into preserving the labels by coating the back of the stone plus label with some very nice, clear Japanese urushi lacquer that I bought for another project.

Does anyone have any experience doing this or know of a good reason not to to try it at all? I don't want to hurt the resale value of my hones, but I want to USE them too!! And those delicate, old labels just seem to get more frayed and faded and wet every time I pull the stones out.

(Also, I'd love to know how people have managed the task of restoring or repairing the torn and disintegrating boxes that some of these hones come in. In fact, I'd love to just soak the labels off the boxes in one piece, throw the moldy cardboard away and lacquer the labels to a nice, new hardwood boxes that could be opened, closed and USED instead of just rotting away like the cardboard ones, but I don't know if this would really end up hurting the value of what I have.)

Thanks!