I've got several Japanese naturals and I've ordered some urushi to coat the sides and maybe the bottom on some of my stones. I'm wondering about other people's experiences with this?
Some of my stones have no lacquer, etc, on them now, so no problem and I should be able to just go ahead and apply the urushi. However, others already have a kind of shellac. If I decide to apply urushi on these too, I'm not sure if I should first attempt to sand off some of the shellac or not. If not then the urushi might not adhere as well?
Naturally, I'd like to avoid trying to remove any shellac if possible - more work and there's also the possibility of damaging the stones; I suppose sanding would be the only option. On the other hand, I don't want to experiment too much and waste the urushi.
The other thing I thought someone might have an opinion on is whether to coat the bottom of the stones as well. Often this seems to be done, but I've also read that traditionally urushi might just be applied to the sides of naturals. Extra protection if the bottom is coated, of course, but if the bottom is pretty strong and stable it might not be needed and I was thinking that not having urushi down there might allow the stone to breathe better and dry out well.
Thanks for any thoughts on this.
Some of my stones have no lacquer, etc, on them now, so no problem and I should be able to just go ahead and apply the urushi. However, others already have a kind of shellac. If I decide to apply urushi on these too, I'm not sure if I should first attempt to sand off some of the shellac or not. If not then the urushi might not adhere as well?
Naturally, I'd like to avoid trying to remove any shellac if possible - more work and there's also the possibility of damaging the stones; I suppose sanding would be the only option. On the other hand, I don't want to experiment too much and waste the urushi.
The other thing I thought someone might have an opinion on is whether to coat the bottom of the stones as well. Often this seems to be done, but I've also read that traditionally urushi might just be applied to the sides of naturals. Extra protection if the bottom is coated, of course, but if the bottom is pretty strong and stable it might not be needed and I was thinking that not having urushi down there might allow the stone to breathe better and dry out well.
Thanks for any thoughts on this.