[HN Gopher] Repairing my mug with Kintsugi
___________________________________________________________________
Repairing my mug with Kintsugi
Author : fellerts
Score : 156 points
Date : 2024-05-31 09:57 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (fellerts.no)
(TXT) w3m dump (fellerts.no)
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> These days, some hobbyists opt for modern epoxy instead of the
| traditional and expensive Urushi lacquer. Epoxy probably yields a
| more robust bond and certainly allows for quicker repairs, but I
| question its safety for food-related use, especially at the
| temperatures found in a steaming cup of coffee._
|
| People opt for epoxy because Urushi lacquer is traditionally made
| from poison oak sap and is a potent skin irritant to most people
| (it's where urushiol gets its name). It's really tough to do
| Kintsugi without smearing trace amounts of it all over the place,
| especially if you're doing it with kids, and cleaning it off is a
| pain since it's a hydrophobic sap. Even trace amounts can cause a
| reaction, especially if someone has sensitive skin or is severely
| allergic. People who do a lot of kintsugi develop a tolerance for
| it but it's an annoyance that most hobbyists just don't need.
|
| Epoxies can be perfectly food safe and the FDA has a database [1]
| although it's not particularly user friendly. You can get MAX CLR
| or similar from Amazon. I wouldn't use it in an oven above 300F
| but it's fine for boiling temps. These FDA approved two part
| epoxies are used all over the place in hospitals and food
| manufacturing facilities where they're used to coat rough
| surfaces that would otherwise harbor bacteria.
|
| [1]
| https://www.cfsanappsexternal.fda.gov/scripts/fdcc/?set=Indi...
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I spent a few years messing with different approaches with
| epoxy but I never found anything that could replace urushi.
| It's really hard to get foodsafe epoxy to cure as hard as
| urushi, though I did eventually get one I was happy with. But
| the wheat flour in the traditional material pulls the shards
| together as it dries, and gives just an incredibly tight and
| strong bond that can really hold up to actual use of the
| restored vessel. Epoxy always weakens and fails after a while,
| while I have urushi/wheat/clay pieces that have been in daily
| use for years.
|
| Depending on your goals though non-foodsafe epoxy can work
| well. Thickened marine epoxy, for under-the-waterline boat
| repairs is rock solid for decorative items. I'm sure it's toxic
| af and I wouldn't want it anywhere near my food but it would be
| fine for a lot of the things people want to do kintsugi for.
|
| Cashew lacquer is also pretty cool. It's nowhere near as nasty
| as urushi and doesn't require a special environment for curing.
| If I were just getting into it now I'd probably start with
| that.
| thot_experiment wrote:
| I recently broke a piece of glassware that had been with me for
| over a decade. I have all the pieces and I'm wondering if it's
| possible to stick it in a kiln and run a heat cycle that will
| cause all the cracks to flow together without deforming the
| shape, and barring that if there's a thin gold glue I could use
| to do some approximation of this technique but with cracks that
| are essentially zero width.
| throwup238 wrote:
| A _very_ skilled glassmaker might be able to fuse the pieces
| together by heating the edges and pushing them together if the
| piece is simple enough but in general, no. That 's why it's
| called glass _blowing_ : the air pressure is what gives the
| glass form while it cools and vitrifies.
| chris1993 wrote:
| The BBC "repair shop" show recently (last year?) had an episode
| repairing a shattered vase with some specialist glass repair
| glue, so you can probably find some for this.
| thingsilearned wrote:
| For those of you in the Bay Area there's a great Kintsugi
| workshop that's run out of the SF zen center almost weekly
| https://stonegoldcrafts.com/
|
| I got into Kintsugi when my toilet needed repair. It's a
| rewarding craft https://thingsilearned.com/things/my-kintsugi-
| toilet/
| avtar wrote:
| For those in Toronto :) https://introjapan.ca/inperson-classes/
|
| No affiliation. I gifted my partner an intro workshop pass and
| she's been returning for more classes since then.
| criddell wrote:
| How do you discover classes like this? Are there city-
| specific guides to interesting classes and seminars that you
| can take?
| mholt wrote:
| I'm also looking. The University of Utah has a random one-
| off kintsugi course this fall but I think it's full
| already.
| kelnos wrote:
| I've attended one of those at the Zen Center! My partner took
| me to one as a birthday present last year. She ended up being
| kinda frustrated with the process, but I found it soothing and
| relaxing, and left happy and contented.
|
| The guy running the workshop had us use epoxy and not urushi
| powder (not surprising; I'm sure all of us would have ended up
| with severe skin irritation otherwise). The article mentions
| concerns about food safety; IIRC we were told that the epoxy we
| were using in the workshop was not food safe, but that it's
| easy to acquire food-safe versions of it.
|
| We also didn't do this in anywhere near as many steps, with as
| many different treatments for different sizes/shapes of damage.
| Ultimately we fully repaired a piece in a couple hours, not the
| several months that the article author took to do it right.
| (And the extra care and use of the proper materials shows; the
| final repaired alligator mug from the article looks orders of
| magnitude better than my work.)
| JSR_FDED wrote:
| This is super inspiring and the end result is amazing,
| congratulations!
| kelnos wrote:
| > _I knocked it off the kitchen counter and, giving into the
| idiotic reflex of trying to catch it with my foot, kicked it into
| the wall instead_
|
| Not idiotic! I've saved more things than I've further damaged by
| doing this.
| sunaookami wrote:
| Unless you are dropping a knife ;)
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Or the business end of a blender. Or a big-ass chisel.
|
| Not hypotheticals, either of those, and not me.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| This is really great results for an early project, none of my
| first few came out anywhere near so good.
|
| I've been doing traditional kintsugi for about twelve years, a
| couple hundred successful repairs. Though when I started there
| was very little instruction or english-language resources
| available. It's become pretty popular for obvious reasons which
| is great for people getting into it now.
|
| It remains probably the most difficult and frustrating skill I've
| ever learned. It's really hard to communicate just how
| meticulous, near-impossible some of the joins can be. There is a
| _huge_ variety of technique and nuance to learn about different
| media and lacquer ratios for different kinds of joins & fills
| and it all needs to be done by intuition and experience.
|
| And then the medium has no holding power until the curing process
| is well underway. So you need a lot of creativity to come up with
| a scaffolding system, pretty much completely unique to each
| project. Any problem after applying lacquer means hours of
| careful filing and rework, and more days or weeks of curing.
|
| An edge-of-my-skill repair on a complete shatter takes about 100
| hours spread out over 2-3 months. Even just an ideal three piece
| clean break is easily 8-10 hours and a handful of weeks.
| talkingtab wrote:
| Danger!!! Urushi is basically poison oak/poison ivy sap. Not
| quite the same, but in that family and with the same effects. Not
| to scare you off, but if you are interested in this, imagine all
| the things that can go wrong from if you were to get a tube of
| poison ivy sap and then do things with it.
|
| That said, Urushi is great and the number of things you can do
| with it is truly amazing. Just don't do it rashly.
| mholt wrote:
| My wife recently got into kintsugi. She's learning the
| traditional method described here. I'm reading these comments
| with great interest and will be passing this onto her!
|
| Most of the methods taught in the US are "gold relief" methods,
| which is basically glue with golden pigment mixed in. It doesn't
| look great but is modern and quick. "Gold flush" methods take a
| bit more time and are more authentic, but still don't use the
| traditional materials shown in this article.
|
| Does anyone know where to get these traditional materials for use
| in classroom settings (i.e. in bulk, preferably discounted)? Not
| massive scale, just enough for a few classes. The kits have such
| a tiny amount and are so expensive, even a bulk discount of
| ~10-20% would be ideal.
| serf wrote:
| aside from 'the craft' and tradition of the process, is there any
| real benefit to using legitimate urushiol?
|
| there are _lots_ of bonding agents and epoxies out there that are
| _not_ urushi based , _actually_ food safe, and just as easily
| doused in gold dust, and completely compatible with prepared
| ceramics.
| mholt wrote:
| What's food-unsafe about cured urushi?
| conkeisterdoor wrote:
| I don't think the GP was implying that urushi isn't food
| safe, but rather that some epoxies aren't food safe
| MBCook wrote:
| The author of the peace also mentioned that while there are
| food safe epoxies they were worried that they may be less
| food safe than expected when used with high temperatures
| like tea or coffee as opposed to being used in a simple
| serving dish.
| yegle wrote:
| Apparently there's another styles of repairing ceramic/porcelain:
| https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E9%94%94%E7%93%B7
| vsgherzi wrote:
| wow it's beautiful. Amazing job. Can you still use it in a
| dishwasher or microwave?
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I have a bunch of kintsugi stuff in regular use so I can
| answer. Microwave is a definite no! It arcs, kind of like gold-
| rimmed plates would I guess.
|
| Dishwasher you _can_. The repair is really two parts: the bond
| that holds it together and the gold dust that covers the
| lacquer. The join bond can handle the dishwasher. The gold
| layer needs touchup every few years anyway, but it will need it
| a lot more often if it goes through the dishwasher regularly.
| Gold is expensive.
|
| There are some other ways of applying the gold that can hold up
| better, but they're less common.
| dlbucci wrote:
| This is awesome! The handle on my favorite mug broke off
| recently. I tried super gluing it back on, but it broke off after
| a few trips through the dishwasher (hand washing got old). I was
| gonna try epoxy next, but I try to avoid that stank whenever I
| can. Maybe I'll give this a shot.
| tern wrote:
| I tried to order a kit with urushi powder from Japan recently and
| they had to cancel the order, saying it was now illegal to import
| into the US
| astrea wrote:
| I had no idea it was done with a resin.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-06-01 23:00 UTC)