Sao Wood Finish Scraping Off

Building/Repair
#1

Hello all,

I’ve recently been having an issue with the sound of my strings getting scratchy and I believe it is due to the wood finish on my sao getting chipped and scraped off from the vibrating strings being held to it.
Example images here: http://imgur.com/a/lrUMW

My question is what would the best way of repair be for the wood finish. Should I sand away the current finish and reapply my own or try to re seal the finish where it needs it? Information such as what kind of finish and amount of coats would be appreciated. Thanks

-Teague

#2

I have the exact same problem.

I’ve had it fixed once by my teacher, and basically he planed it off. He didnt re-finish it saying it “looks good, a well worn shamisen is a good sign”. but i’m not in japan any more and have been reluctant to re plane it off since the only plane i have is fairly blunt despite all my attempts to sharpen it.

I met a guy who studied carpentry in japan and I was hoping to meet him and get him to plane it for me, but I haven’t had the chance yet. He did give me this tip though: Broken glass is just as sharp to do micro shavings, if you’re only doing it for small things short term.

I haven’t tried it, but something to think about. it’s basically all about psyching myself up to cut into my precious

#3

You mentioned sanding, so I also wanted to add something I saw from that same carpenter. I was hoping to find a demonstration on the internet but couldn’t find any.

You can find references to the fact Japanese carpentry doesn’t really use sanding and instead uses planes, but I didn’t in my brief search find any reason why. however I got showed the reason so I’ll pass on what I saw.

That carpenter specialises in temple building carpentry (宮大工 - Miyadaiku) where beams of wood are expected to last hundreds if not thousands of years resisting the elements, and one of the reasons for this was the planing.

The carpenter took two two identical blocks of wood. One was sanded, the other he planed right there. He then laid them on the ground and poured water on them, forming a little puddle.

Within 2 minutes the water had completely soaked into the sanded wood, but by the end of the 1.5hr lecture the puddle was still just sitting on the surface of the planed piece.

So basically if you don’t rough up the fibers with the sanding, you get a much more resistant surface, which is probably also good for the sao, where you get lots of body oils and stuff?

just a thought.

#4

Thanks for the response. It looks like planing would be a much better choice than sanding. Only I wouldn’t want to leave it unfinished. I wouldn’t like having the same thing that’s happening to the finish happen to the bare wood as well. I feel like the best option is to plane off the current finish and refinish it and continue to do this when ever the finish starts to wear down again. So new question is what kind of finish? There seems to be a kind of varnish looking finish on my sao now but I don’t want to be putting a finish on this wood that turns out to do more harm than good.

#5

Good question, Teague. That is very common for all shamisen, as they tend to lacquer the topside. I have lacquered all my shamisen, thinking that it would protect it and add some shininess. However, as of my latest shamisen I’ve decided not to do that anymore. In fact, I may scrape/sand the finish off the top of my bloodwood sao.

Basically, what has happened is that the lacquer is softer than the bare wood, so position 3 has worn down from use. Now, when I press position 3, the string buzzes against the unworn area of lacquer. If I didn’t lacquer the topside, this wouldn’t have happened.

At last, I understand why Nitta san’s father has said that good shamisen don’t have lacquered topsides.

I think a thin sealer like teak oil or camellia oil would be just fine, but I wouldn’t refinish it with anything nitrocellulose/polyurithane based

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