Urushi Preppy Journey

I do love my pens and pencils but I want to get my hands busy with these stationery things with anything other than writing with them.

So for my next project I want to try to "coat" my Preppy with Urushi Lacquer.

Note: This is my first time doing this and I am just learning as I go along. I tried my best to be well informed before doing

March 21, 2021

I took off the clip with a my trusty Dremel. It's not difficult to remove and easy to smooth out as long as you have good hand control. Setting the Dremel on High will easily eat away the plastic material of the pen. We better be careful.

It looks nice when clipless. Clipless, it feels like you've taken away a chunk of Preppy's personality. It still looks pleasant and slender, sort of androgynous 

When it's all smooth after, I proceeded to sand the cap and case with 600, 1200, 2400 grit sand paper. If ever I  would do this again, I would use coarser sand papers as it does get the thing

Short update: For my later copies of the Preppy, I've used 240 grit sandpaper only. I did not bother getting into finer grits as I was afraid the Urushi might not stick.

April 12, 2021

Finally my Toho Urushi arrived. Bought via Lazada from a seller named Want JP Fishing. Due to language differences it is difficult to find the exact purpose of this. I just assumed they use it to decorate bamboo rods or color floaters or lures. Someday I will know the intended use for these small tubes of Urushi. I am not even sure if this is real Urushi.

This is about 460 pesos when I ordered March 24. As of April 18, it is now 706 pesos. It's crazy but at least this is nowhere near the US$30 list price at Amazon. But on some places in the internet, I saw this is just JPY300. I could get more colors if this is the price here.

I'm excited to get this thing going.

April 17, 2021

I managed to get more Preppies to wreck. Good thing Scribe SM Aura is open.

Testing out my make shift Furo I made this morning. It's a small cardboard box that is lined with plastic tape. I just thought that if I made a waterproof barrier, the cardboard won't sip in the moisture and the humidity will be consistent.

I used my old thermometer hygrometer combo for the furo. I used this for my camera dry box before.

To test it out, first I put a damp tissue paper. Humidity never went past 60%. Same reading even if I double it. I then tried a damp towelette and it got to 89-90%, which should be ideal. Probably not so ideal if I have wood as substrate. 

Satisfied with the results, I carried on sanding my last crystal Preppy and building my painting stand.

April 18, 2021

I used chopsticks to hold the barrel and cap for handling and as a stand for curing inside the Furo. Chopsticks are too long for my Furo box so I have to cut it and give a little shave for the stand.

Good thing my trusty Izula is here to help. It's like bushcraft but on the desk. Kind of like desk diving for dive watch fans that are not divers.

Basically I have the Urushi from Toho, a glass surface to put the Urushi, a paint brush, a bottle of Turpentine to thin the Urushi and my custom stand. The silicon mat you see is just to hold the glass in place. It also serves as the maintenance mat for my knives.

After all of these has been set, I did my first take on actual painting on the pen.

Looking great. The "Tea" color is what I would describe as in between red and brown. I have sort of expected it to be a lighter brown or a deeper tan but whatever, this is awesome.

The Urushi is so thick. It dries so fast on the glass surface. If you leave it for a few minutes, it gets hard to pick it up by brush.

I have yet to know if this is the typical behavior of a real deal raw Urushi lacquer, so please bear with me and my findings. I don't even know why this Urushi is meant for the Fishing crowd. On some Amazon listings, this Urushi has some mixed reviews, most of them disappointed that they can't use this for Kintsugi as Toho indicated this as not for tableware use.

After giving my pen barrel and cap one coat (with one barrel having 50% Turpentine because experiment) it is time to store it inside my Furo.

That's the Furo. It was a humid afternoon. 72% is a good start for Urushi but bad for us humans.  Well, not bad more of uncomfortable. Moisture is consistent at 89% with the damp cloth after 6 hours of checking. Hopefully they are cured by Monday evening, which will be about 32 hours of curing time.

April 19, 2021

Once I took them out of the make-shift Furo, the Urushi feels smooth to the touch and glossy but the surface is uneven. This is kind of embarrassing to be posting this online.

Time to sand these babies. I have noticed that in some areas, the Urushi is quickly thinning out and the plastic parts can be seen. If I look through them, lights kind of leaks in. I was considering giving another coating a go but then I decided to just go with it and start with the Honji Primer process.

Locally sourced Diatomaceous Earth for my Jinoko. Hopefully I get my mixture right or else this would definitely suck.

April 20, 2021

At this point I could say that the Toho Urushi is the real deal. I had a tiny dab of Urushi on the side of my index finger and was only able to take it out when I was cleaning up. The entire morning it has a burning sensation that is also tender that I don't want anything touching it.

I've spent so much time sanding all the pens that I've no more time to apply a sealer layer.

So now, my pens look nothing like what I see on the internet. I might have hasten my mixing of the DE.

April 21, 2021

Time to put on a sealer layer on the first layer of Primer.

I have discovered that this Toho Urushi is very workable when thinned. Now my pens are sort of smooth now and hopefully they will cure smooth.

April 24, 2021

Today is sanding and sealing day. I've sanded my 2nd layer of Base Layer and applied a sealer layer on it.

I have learned how to maximize my Urushi by thinning it and using the spatula. I might have to go easy on the sanding after this as my layers are nnot as thick now as when I started.

April 25, 2021

Another base layer. This must be my third layer with diatomaceous earth. I'm thinking of having another layer after this and hopefully I'll get to apply a bit smoother this time.

April 27, 2021

I realize that my Toho Urushi tube will run out sooner than I think. I'm about down to 45% now and it probably won't last till the last coat.

Lazada prices for the same tube is higher now so I looked around the internet where I could get some with more color variety. I found fishingshop.kiwi website where they sell the same 10g tube for US$1.80. This is around Php87.18 each. Fishingshop.kiwi is a Japan based shop named Hatori Sangyo. 

If I get from Lazada now, it will cost me a little over Php700 for that 10g tube. Crazy. The only logical thing to do is to stock up from Hatori Sangyo.

This is probably excessive, but painting with urushi is really enjoyable. 

To compare costs, this order is a total of 140g of Urushi for Php1,625 (shipping included). That's Php116 per 10 grams, which is a good deal when you put it up against the Php700 10-gram tube via lazada. 

The only downside to this is that the shop can only send it via sea cargo because it is liquid. Kirill from Hatori Sangyo warned me that it may take about 1.5-2 months to get to me. Totally understandable. My first Toho Urushi via Lazada took me about 20 days to get delivered, which I assume was brought in here via sea cargo. I can only hope that my package would take around the same time.

Look at all those affordable Urushi tubes I just ordered lol.