Yixing

[Bok]

To all concerned, merry Christmas - for all others, be happy as well!

[DailyTX]

To all concerned, merry Christmas - for all others, be happy as well!

Lovely photo
Is that a brick stove behind?

[Bok]

To all concerned, merry Christmas - for all others, be happy as well!

Lovely photo
Is that a brick stove behind?

Thanks!

It's a DIY-Mini-Version of a traditional Taiwanese cooking stove.

[alejandro2high]

Any advise?

I would go at it with a diamond file. Definitely not the best idea, but I've found this is an area where I like to take the risk.

Did you end up doing anything?

[Sleepy]

Any advise?

I would go at it with a diamond file. Definitely not the best idea, but I've found this is an area where I like to take the risk.

Did you end up doing anything?

I did and I did get it better, but I want the holes even bigger. This is a julunzhu and I feel like something with "cannon" spout should be faster.

But that is not my biggest concern with this pot at the moment. I'm currently fighting the incense smell that refuses to leave it. I'm not a fan of incense at all and the last place I want that smell is in my tea. I have done what feels like everything yet the smell persists.

I feel really bad for this pot as it clearly has never been used for tea. It seems to have been made by a summer intern, discarded to reject pile and then used as an incense holder for 100 years... But at the same time, I paid a lot of money for it so I'm getting a bit frustrated that I have yet to even brew tea in it.

Well, lesson learned at least. Always ask before buying if pot was used as incense holder.

[Victoria]

I'm currently fighting the incense smell that refuses to leave it. I'm not a fan of incense at all and the last place I want that smell is in my tea. I have done what feels like everything yet the smell persists.

@Sleepy
I recommend you first try the baking soda / white vinegar cleanse if you haven’t tried that yet, otherwise sodium percarbonate cleanse described in step D Cleaning: Awakening & Resetting Unglazed Ceramics / Yixing should fix your issue. It did the trick for my smelling teapot issue described in intro.

[Sleepy]

I'm currently fighting the incense smell that refuses to leave it. I'm not a fan of incense at all and the last place I want that smell is in my tea. I have done what feels like everything yet the smell persists.

Sleepy
I recommend you first try the baking soda / white vinegar cleanse if you haven’t tried that yet, otherwise sodium percarbonate cleanse described in step D Cleaning: Awakening & Resetting Unglazed Ceramics / Yixing should fix your issue. It did the trick for my smelling teapot issue described in intro.

I have done baking soda, citric acid, vinegar, boiling/drying/soaking and soaked in tea leaves. I have rubbed, scrubbed and begged. I have even attempted strong alcohol to lift the smell.

I have not done percarbonate and that will have to be next attempt. I have avoided it, or hoped I could clean without it but at this point I don't think anything else will work.

And thank you for the instructions, I will follow them

[alejandro2high]

@Sleepy

I can't beleive it was sold to you with that smell. What did ZAG say?

[Sleepy]

Sleepy

I can't beleive it was sold to you with that smell. What did ZAG say?

I did not contact them about it. I did smell the pot when I got it but I did not expect the smell to put up such a fight, so didn't think it would be an issue. Other than the smell the pot is in perfect condition, as was advertised.

And by the time I realised the smell was going to be an issue I had already filed the holes bigger. Not that it would necessarily be noticeable but I feel like my chances of complaints went with that.

[Vinski]

A few days of sunlight and fresh air are also often mentioned to remove odors from clayware. Now just not the best conditions, at least for sunlight in Finland.

[polezaivsani]

@Sleepy, I'd heed the @Vinski's advice and incorporate a bathing routing into one's day. Submerge it in a pot of hot water whenever you're having a shower yourself and then take it out afterwards and let it dry naturally. Don't rush it, the bonding process takes time and consideration. I'd be surprised if after a month you won't be posting shots of it filled with tea .

I used to mar a pot with thick vinegar once which took me couple weeks to air it out thoroughly.

[wave_code]

For stubborn pot smells I have tried vinegar, baking soda, citric acid soaks and boiling all with pretty limited success - nothing has worked as well for me as sodium percarbonate for any kind of cleaning.

[Victoria]

For stubborn pot smells I have tried vinegar, baking soda, citric acid soaks and boiling all with pretty limited success - nothing has worked as well for me as sodium percarbonate for any kind of cleaning.

Yes, for my stinky smelly yixing the only thing that did the trick was sodium percarbonate after trying for several years milder options.

[Baisao]

For stubborn pot smells I have tried vinegar, baking soda, citric acid soaks and boiling all with pretty limited success - nothing has worked as well for me as sodium percarbonate for any kind of cleaning.

Agreed! Sodium percarbonate has worked the best at cleaning for me too.

I did receive a piece of newly fired pottery recently from Mexico that had the worst smell. To be specific it smells like vomit.

I tried soaks in baking soda, strong Assam, vinegar, sodium percarbonate, soap and water, ethyl alcohol but it still smells like puke. Vinegar was the worst because it then smelled like puke AND vinegar.

Fortunately it isn't for tea or cooking so it will sit on the mantel and slowly release its noxious odor to the Universe.

But, it was a reminder how badly pottery can smell, even new pottery, and just how tenacious these odors can be.

[filipes]

Hi, let me share this little fellow with you. 60 ml in volume, HongNi possibly late 70s. It brews a very nice cup of yancha, hongcha or even balhyocha.