at the suggestion of @Baisao and others, several posts from a TeaSwap listing were broken off into a new thread to preserve and continue a discussion about shudei and mayake.
some context:
a Yamada Sou Mayake Kyusu that was for sale by @AozoraE:
AozoraE wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 6:58 pm
Hopefully those give you a bit of an idea of what the inside looks like. You wouldn't be able to tell its shudei from looking at it on the inside. The only way you would be able to tell is from looking at the bit of red accents that you can see all over the outside of the pot that were left uncovered by natural glaze. If you're looking for shudei for its effects on tea, you ought to look for shudei that has been fired in a electric or gas kiln. Reason being is that you're not going to get see much of a different in tea brewed in a wood fired pot vs something like porcelain or glass. Wood fired pots are known for having a more neutral effect on tea and therefore are going to act a bit differently from an un-glazed pot fired in a conventional kiln.
Bok wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:10 pmI am 100% with you on that one! It took me ages to find a Shudei claypot that I liked (I wanted one for comparison purposes mostly). I found that the older Shudei (more orange) is nicer. Although it is real nice to the touch, very smooth and wet. I think what turned me off is this smoothness paired with the rough unfinished style of the later Yamadas, which in my taste doesn't go so well together – But, it is still something else if you ever hold one in your hands! Kind of almost converted my opinion, it is much nicer in person than what it often looks like on pictures.
This is another example of wood fired shudei. The red area is where oxidative gasses and carbon we’re unable to transform the clay.