Hmm, just noticed scuffs and chipping on my dou after attaching the doumaki[…I know it can be hidden by the doumaki, but is there a quick repair to be done here?
As well, does tightening the strings of the doumaki when it is attached scratch the dou as well?
The doumaki:
So this scratches were made by the doumaki??? sorry to dont have more information on you question I still dont have my shamisen 
Please wait for a luthier to chime in regarding possible repairs, however:
Doumaki (lit: body wrap)refers to the cloth or leather wrapping on an okinawan sanshin. Shamisen lack that, and instead have a stiffer doukake (lit: body cover).
Check the bottom of your doukake for sharp edges and consider adding cushioning.
Ahaha, バレたな～ Indeed, too used to Sanshin terms, and thank you! Well, funny thing is, no scratches on the bottom edges of the dou covered by the doukake, only the top…aah, luthiers are scary though
Come to think of it, pardon my remark about luthiers (very great people, though some may be scary!) But any tips for repairing the black lacquer and how to cushion the doukake’s sharp washer edges? (They didn’t feel sharp by the by, when I first got the doukake)
Hmmm, a doukake being the culprit, that would make me super upset! 
Perhaps, putting in some felt over the metal parts? But I am not sure, how much this would mess with the fitting to the dou…
Just throwing in ideas.
Indeed , and that could work! But yeah, it may make the dou hard to fit in the case if I add felt in…
I wonder if Kyle has any suggestions for this dou (he made it, love the ruby red gleam it adds to the Raven shamisen!)
This Dou seems to be coated in India Ink, most specifically archival grade India Ink, which is commonly used for Ebonizing wood quickly.
You can buy the “Fastball” brand of archival grade India Ink on Amazon, and do the delicate work of painting the deeper bump/chip-off layer by layer until it is at the same level of the rest of the wood.
You can also do full layers of ink until things are smooth again.
As for the Doukake, I’m sorry to say, but this is quite low quality, with the sharp edges of the grommits exposed, prone to scratch the wood. Good quality Doukake will have an internal layer of paper, which you can easily add by yourself, covering the metal parts and avoiding future scratches.
If you don’t want the trouble of covering the internal part of the Doukake in paper, you can easily smooth the grommits by using superglue (be careful with it!) and accelerator, to quickly build up filling around it and cover the sharp edges. Just put a little bit of (non-gel) superglue on the sharp bits, spray a little bit of accelerator, and wait for 30 seconds. Repeat the process until you are satisfied that it is smooth and won’t scratch your Dou anymore. If you accidentally put too much glue and close the hole, just use a drill bit (manually, not with an electric drill) to open it again.
Thank you, jonrz! Never knew sumi was used to stain wood black!
@Kyle_Abbott , any tips on adding a paper layer to the doukake?
Would regular paper do, washi or?
Just keep in mind that the staining penetration provided by India Ink varies by wood porosity, and in the case of Dou woods, which are usually hard, penetration can be further stymied by the fact that the wood top layer is usually made harder by the whetstone friction and pressue when applying Camelia Oil.
TL:DR India Ink provides only a very superficial layer, in most cases.
Oooofa!! 
That would appear to be the from the doukake eyelet! Geez, I’m so sorry about that! That is a (relatively) new gold eyelet I got which didn’t lay as flat to the shell as it used to, but I didn’t think it would be enough to cause any problem. 100% my mistake.
I think the culprit is that particular eyelet. The other ones (silver, bronze, gunmetal, etc) are more standard and are used in many other doukake I’ve seen. It’s only the gold type that is raised higher. If you’d like I’m happy to facilitate it being relaquered by Tokyo Wagakki.
For the doukake, felt could easily provide enough padding to prevent scratching. But I’m also happy to replace the gold eyelets with the standard kind. (I’m going to throw out that type right away.)
Please let me know what I can do. I can literally facilitate to make it good as new! 
Hi Kyle,
Thank you! Indeed, would it be possible to facilitate the relaquering by Wagakki and
eyelet replacement (I really like the red gleam of the doukake!)
Absolutely. Let me reach out to my partner and we can arrange it. (You can send both dou and doukake to me and I can ship the dou direct to Japan) I’ll cover your shipping cost as well!
Just to know, it might take a month to relacquer. Will that be okay?
@A_Tchiang My partner’s ready to receive it! I’ll PM (or DM, whatever the kids are saying these days) you my address.
Thank you so much Kyle! Very muchly appreciated :)! I’m fine with a month or more, thank you once again! Now to find packing material - to the Box store!
Excellent! We’re good to go then!
Box!! It!!
Soda Popinksy won’t know what him him! Oh right, other box 
@Kyle_Abbott
If I may suggest, you could just change the depth of the eyelet, and use the shallowest eyelet possible for the thickness of the doukake.
Since your Doukake structure is made of plastic, seemingly 2~2.3mm thick, and the eyelet seems to be entirely decorative (i.e. it doesn’t withstand any kind of pressure or tear forces), you could use a 2mm deep eyelet, flaring it just enough to deform the inner side wall of the hole to hold the eyelet in place (perhaps with the help of a smidge of slow setting industrial superglue).
By the way, I apologize for saying the doukake was low quality, but that was the impression it gave me from just looking at the inner part. Your doukake look quite cool, but it could certainly use some inner wall treatment for the superior finish it deserves. How about some paper lining? Or even easier, a coat of the longer-lasting abrasion-resistant puff paint (the ones used on t-shirt designs) you can find in the US?
Cheers,
Good point! Actually, I think the standard type of eyelet should be fine. I took a picture of a made-in-Japan doukake which normally looks the same as mine (at least, when I’ve used the standard eyelets, not the new kind shown in A_Tchiang’s doukake 
).
No worries at all! Personally, I do love the look of paper-lined doukake and it would be cool to have a similar look for mine. The only thing is, it takes more time especially as I’m not very good at paper/craft things 
Since similar made-in-Japan tsugaru doukake don’t have that lining, I figured it’d be kosher to also omit it as well. I believe the problem solely lies in those new eyelets which stand out ever so slightly higher than the standard type. From now on, I’m only using the standard type (same as the made-in-Japan doukake), so we should be good!
I have virtually 0 to add to this but to confirm our Big A’s words:
The faux tsugaru nuri doukake I have: no paper liner.
The real tsugaru nuri doukake I have: no paper liner.
These are hardshells like what Kyle makes.
On the other, softer end of things:
The fake leather tsugaru doukake I have: yes paper liner.
The bog standard fabric/paper doukake I have: paper as far as you can throw them.
