It was cloudy from the morning today, and it is expected to rain tonight. I started the day with the finishing work on the 4-sun boxes that I assembled earlier. This time, all the boxes have Ichimatsu (checkerboard) side panels, so I rounded the corners using the traditional method used for Japanese puzzle boxes. There were no areas that needed correction, so after that, I finished the surface with sandpaper.
After this, I was planning to move on to the base coating, but I had some time, so I worked on the Aruki panels for the 3-sun 18-steps boxes. The panels had already been cut to the correct width and the step shaping was done, so about half of the process was already finished. Because of that, I was able to complete this part without taking too much time. It is going to rain tonight, so I will not attach them yet. I’m not sure how much it will rain, but I would like to do that step when the humidity is lower.
Now, about the base coating for the 4-sun boxes—today felt like a bit of a challenge. As you may know, due to the worsening situation in the Middle East, many products are becoming scarce and prices are rising. Because of this, solvent-based paints are also disappearing from stores, and it’s unclear when they will be available again. I still have some paint in stock, but I saw this as a good opportunity to try something new. So today, I used another type of coating that I have been testing from time to time since last year. For the boxes that were made to order based on previous models, I used the usual coating. But for the ones I made as stock this time—such as the traditional yosegi combined with walnut panels, and the random grain type using bubinga and teak—I used this another coating. Some customers who bought them last year may already know about this finish. It is more environmentally friendly, and once applied, it looks almost the same as the previous coating. In fact, some of my regular customers have given me very kind feedback about it. This coating has many good points. It does not require large equipment, it has very little smell, and most importantly, it is gentler on both the environment and people. The traditional coating is certainly beautiful, but this has been a good challenge for me, and I would like to include this option in my work going forward.
