You have to admit however that these look much nicer after being washed and oiled.Īll in all, I had 183 black stones. It's a slow process and I could only do six stones at a time. Now begins the tedium of wiping the excess oils off the stones. The stones were then gently rolled about in the bag until I could see that they were all coated in the oils. I placed the mix and the black stones in a zip-lock bag. You can opt to instead use sewing machine oil as is sometimes recommended for slate stones. The scent is both pleasant and waking at the same time. I selected a scent called Pink Grapefruit which is somewhat flowery and citrusy. This mix is just an aesthetic preference of my own. My oiling mix was 6 drops of light canola oil and 6 drops of an aromatherapy oil from The Body Shop. I then repeated the process for the white stones. The black stones were laid out to dry further. I used a strainer to collect small batches of stones from the sudsy water and rinse them under the tap. One in the sink, two for drying, two to set the stones upon to dry, and one for wiping off excess oil. I used six 1x1 foot kitchen towels for the whole process. Using my hands and the corners of the towel, I scrubbed them clean. I added a generous amount of dishwashing detergent and submereged the stones in water and suds. After closing the drain, I placed a large towel in the sink and set the stones on it. The stones were all covered with powder so I needed to wash them in the kitchen sink. ![]() The bowls and board were set aside so that I could get started on washing and oiling the stones. I placed nine thick felt pads on the bottom for protection. I thought the board nicely complemented our furniture. ![]() The playing surface is smooth and almost glass-like. This goban from Yellow Mountain Imports is more like a finished piece of furniture with a satin sheen. You can compare it to a Hyuga Kaya table goban from Kuroki Goishi Ten that I had blogged about back in early November (bottom of that link). This board is not plain wood with a waxed-on coloring as I understand traditional Japanese gobans are. Here you can see the pattern of the grain. Still, I remember being told that, as long as the wood has been properly dried, the risk of warping or shrinking is minimal to non-existent. I had heard that table gobans are made from multiple pieces of wood either because (a) manufacturers need to make use of every piece they've got or (b) it reduces the risk of warping. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. Most table boards are made from 4 sections that are glued together. The board alone weighs 14 pounds and is made from one solid slab of wood. Here you can see the grain detail of the kaya board. Clicking on the images will give you a (hopefully) readable enlargement (assuming that you can read Chinese). There were no signs of scratching or scuffing.Ī Yun-Zi brochure accompanied the stones. The jujube bowls seem to have been nicely protected inside the carrying bag. I've learned that all new Yunzi stones ship this way and that they need to be cleaned before use. You'll notice that the black stones appear powdery. Here are the bowls (inside the bag) and the stones after I had lifted them out of the box. The stones were in zip-lock bags and tucked into two corners of the smaller box. The stones, bowls and carry bag were packed with styrofoam popcorn. Styrofoam popcorn was used to fill the remaining empty spaces. The goban was enclosed in large bubble-wrap plastic and sandwiched between sheets of styrofoam along the top, bottom and three sides. It was good that YMI tried to drive home the message that the content (as heavy as it was) needed careful handling. The goban box had this label on both sides. ![]() The goban box was oversized (a good sign) and both did not show any indications of rough handling (an even better sign). The shipment arrived in two boxes one for the goban and another for the stones and bowls. I'll entertain requests for additional photos if my time (and photographic skill/tools) can accomodate. Feel free to ask me any questions through the comments section. I hope they will be useful for your own evaluations. This blog entry may take longer to load since there are a lot of photos. I later will post my overall assessments of the product and the purchase experience. You can view 1200x900 enlargments of all these photos by clicking on the images. This post will cover the unpacking and stone cleaning (mostly taken with flash photography since I was pressed for time) and product detail photos (taken in natural light). The Go set that I had won at auction on eBay arrived late last week.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |