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Satou applying his urushi (lacquer) finish
Satou-san puts five thin coats of a special lacquer mixture on his pipes. Each treatment takes a week to dry. Here, he's working on four pipes that are at different stages in the process. Each pipe is marked with the number of coats applied. (Satou-san is wearing gloves in the above picture because the finish makes the briar slippery, not because he is allergic to the uncured lacquer, as many people are.)
Unpolished tsuishu
On many of his pipes, Satou-san makes use of another form of lacquer material, tsuishu, made by a painstaking process of laying down layer after layer of colored lacquers and eventually building up a thick plate of striped colors. The uncoated tsuishu has a dull matte finish similar to finely-sanded wood. The belt-sander in the closet ...
Satou-san sets up his sanding disk or small belt sander next to a sink. He has a fan in the window of this small cubicle - his only method of dust control.
Custom tools Satou-san has developed his own special chuck which allows him to drill both the tobacco chamber and the air hole with one setup. (Visiting pipe-maker Kei Gotoh was very impressed.)
Danish Mentor Jörn Larsen
Young Smio Satou accompanied Tsuge's senior carver, Fukuda-san, to Denmark in the late 1970's to learn from Sixten Ivarsson. Satou wound up spending most of his time with Jörn Larsen, whose photo sits on a shelf overlooking the workshop. |
