Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

hey tddy

a good oil to use is linseed oil which you can find at any art supply store, it's usually located with the oil paints
which is also a good alternative to kashew lacquer if you're using it inside the bore

hope that helps

itterasshai (have a good day)

jynx

tddy934 wrote:

I've been wondering what kind of oil I should use on my hand made bamboo flutes.
Is there a oil that is permanent and that I wont have to reapply ever few months?
Also, I want to ensure that it doesn't color the sound.
It the natural hardness that you get from torching the bamboo and spreading that liquid that comes up enough?

Dear Ted,

I suggest you soak your favorite flute in this stuff:



I understand that they are giving it away for free in the Louisiana marshes and soon on the beaches of western Florida.

Then, after a good long soaking, try lighting your flute on fire. 

After you finally put out the fire you will have a thoroughly oiled and flamed shakuhachi that you will never have to worry about again.

Hope this helps.

All the best,

--X.

Jon Kypros wrote:

The quick answer is Tung oil, either 100% pure or pure polymerized. Don't use Tung finish or anything from commercial stores. You pretty much have to order online. Garet Wade has polymerized and the first site on a google search for pure tung (milk paint something) has Tung.

If you go with linseed make sure to get polymerized or Danish oil. Linseed yellows with age.

Everything you could want to know on this topic can be found at the link below.

http://www.navaching.com/shaku/oil.html

Happy flute greasing

Linseed oil smells. Like linseed oil, and for a long time. I assume here--altho it's not been explicity mentioned--that you've been talking about a bore finish/coating of some sort, and not just a 'protective' sort of thing. Danish oil is a very good finish, but it does have petroleum distillates in it, which ain't good for you.

I would recommend looking into some of the water-based finishes mentioned by a couple others here (Taldaran, I think?), such as Minwax Polycrylic. Comes in several different surface finishes (gloss, satin, semi), low odor; has some drying agents in it that ain't very good for you, but they disappear completely in 4-6 hours, max. Dries hard, can be recoated. I've used it a lot in woodwork, and it's very good stuff for a bore finish, I'd think. Actually makes a film-like surface, like urushi, rather than soaking into the wood/bamboo grain.

I like Tung oil, too. More odor, tho.

Last edited by edosan (2010-06-08 13:57:32)

I have been using walnut oil recently as an experiment. It is next in line below tung oil for hardness. It works great, and smells good!

I quit using pure tung oil because I made two flutes for a vegan friend of mine, and she said the tung oil made the flute smell like bacon...I have a flute I tungoiled a year ago and it still smells.

Walnut oil hardens pretty quickly, leaves a nice shine on the surface, and whatever smell it has dissipates very quickly.