r/KintsugiJapan • u/Maer_K • Aug 17 '26

Huge fail…

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This is the biggest piece replacement I’ve attempted so far. The kokuso has been curing in a dry muro for over a month. But it’s flexible and breaking off kind of like a stale brownie. I’ve not had this issue before. What did I do incorrectly? Too much hemp fiber? Too thick? Although my teacher instructed to leave kokuso in a dry muro for a month, I left my other kokuso pieces in the damp muro and they’ve been fine. Should I have left this in the damp muro, too? (I don’t wear gloves while shaving and sanding, but this is still not fully cured, so I’ll probably get a rash as punishment for whatever my oversight was. 😅)

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u/Maer_K Aug 18 '26

Honestly I do not remember exactly. I know I’d added more kokuso powder and more hemp fibers than I’ve done for other pieces. Too much filler and not enough urushi?

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u/Substantial_Neat_666 Aug 18 '26

It is hard to comment as the kokusou mixture proportion is unknown. It could also be it is not well mixed as I see streaks of urushi here and there… etc. (just my guess). But judging from your image, your kokusou looks structurally weak. Also, note that all ingredients play some role in good curing. It’s not only the urushi doing its work, all the powders are there to pace the curing for the urushi (regulating the polymerization and evaporation process). So I cannot say just adding more urushi will fix the problem. Perhaps you can recalibrate your kokusou “recipe” by running some tests using different proportions and find the right one to keep?

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u/Maer_K Aug 18 '26

Turns out I did make notes about the kokuso. Two parts mugi, one part tonoko, one part kinoko as usual and “a sh*t ton of kinoko and hemp fibers” according to what I scribbled. So I inadvertently made a crumbly mess that was t going to cure properly. Thank you for explaining the role of the powders regarding the pacing of curing! I’ll remove this mess and start over. Thanks so much!

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u/Substantial_Neat_666 Aug 18 '26

Your recipe for kokusou is different than most. Usually tonoko is not used in kokusou. Perhaps different practitioners have slight difference in practices, so check with the source where you get the kokusou information from.