Beautiful tetsubin! I think that is the first time I've seen chunks of cast iron glued to the bottom of a tetsubin and yet I have a vague memory of it. It is definitely time for it to have some really tannic assam boiled in it.
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Oh thanks!
And apologies for missing here...
The kettle is almost on the final stage of its revival - the rust is defeated, and I still need to boil water in it several times to make it clean and smooth. Several years ago, I asked one Taiwanese tetsubin collector about the meaning and purpose of those flat iron chunks placed inside - and he said that they were used to enforce the weakest spot of a bottom (the place from where all the mold was filled with cast iron and to provide better and smooth boiling.
And about the method of "glueing" it with a paste of urushi lacquer and iron sand powder - I saw it in Hokujo's (if I remember it correctly) video about tetsubin making, and also the same way is described in the book about iron kettles that I have. The same paste was used to repair occasional casting cracks or small holes and two technical holes from mold-fixing rods that were usually in a kettle's bottom after iron casting. Will try it later, when a proper moment comes.
Statistics: Posted by i_viter — Sun Sep 01, 2024 1:07 pm