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Hi. I have just received houhin made by Zuiho Ono. It seams heavily used. And has disgusting load of tea sediment in the spout. I am considering how to clean it without ruining it? Any suggestions welcome.
Thx.

First I recommend you pre-soak for two days (this is important as pot has been dry for a long time) and then try to loosen some of the old residue with a bottle brush. I bought these UHQ Nylon Tube Brushes on Amazon and use them often. I’ve also made my own brushes using an old piece of a green scowering pad attached to a small dowel with thread. Using baking soda to clean might help. Mixing vinegar with baking soda and letting the pot rest in this solution for a day, and or very slowly heating on a trivet in a pan on stovetop with water, baking soda, and vinegar might loosen the old tea residue.

This thread has some other advise as well, such as placing the pot in the oven; viewtopic.php?f=19&t=98

My step by step instructional, recently updated; Awakening & Resetting Unglazed Ceramics/ Yixing from Storage, Discoloration, Staining & Mold

Thanks. I let it filed with soda solution overnight and brushed ans it helped a lot. I want to avoid boiling it as hagi can get watter under the glaze a get ruined.
With vinegar i also affeaid it will get the smell. Soda seems working will post the
result when done.

lopin wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:21 am

Thanks. I let it filed with soda solution overnight and brushed ans it helped a lot. I want to avoid boiling it as hagi can get watter under the glaze a get ruined.
With vinegar i also affeaid it will get the smell. Soda seems working will post the
result when done.

Hope soda soak works well, it might be enough. So you know, vinegar smell evaporates quickly, it does not remain.

you can also try scraping with a wooden toothpick if there are really stubborn bits. maybe even with thick baking soda paste.

I continue with cleaning, did soda, wooden pick and a small toothbrush. thought I was done with cleaning but this morning, after drying overnight there were yellowish crystals of soda and sediment on inside and outside of the pot. I will repeat het watter drying till i have none of this. I think it is because it seems like extremely porous. Still thinking to bake it at the end for a couple of hours to kill any potential bacteria that could squat inside.

tbh i'd boil it instead of baking it to sanitize. if you bake it, don't go too high in temperature especially if it's as porous as you say. wouldn't want it to somehow break from thermal expansion/contraction or for bits of organic material trapped inside to burn and somehow cause off flavors.

pedant wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:26 pm

tbh i'd boil it instead of baking it to sanitize. if you bake it, don't go too high in temperature especially if it's as porous as you say. wouldn't want it to somehow break from thermal expansion/contraction or for bits of organic material trapped inside to burn and somehow cause off flavors.

Good advice, I know chip would bring water to almost a boil, just still bubbles started forming with our Hagi pieces.

I own a used Zuiho Ono Gyokuro set. One of my personal faves! Try to enjoy it!

Due to the generally porous nature of Hagi, I personally would not use anything "scented" like soda or vinegar.

To reset, I usually place a towel on the bottom of a cooking pot and fill with room temp water. I place the Hagi on the towel and turn on the burner until the water begins to form bubbles on the cooking pot ... then turn off and allow to set until once again room temp.

You can then gently attempt to scrub, may or may not come clean ... nature of porous Hagi is to of course to stain. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, the bad being someone else's stains versus your own.

So I prefer to purchase new versus preowned in the Hagi realm, but I do own ... more that a few preowned Hagi pieces, usually Gyokuro sets when I was in that collecting phase.

Here is the finished work. Lots of soda,soaking, a used toothpick do disintegrate sediment in spout

looks really good. are you pleased with the result? any lingering smell or off flavor?

happy with the result, no smell, yet still reluctant to use it, as I have another set from Zuiho that is less porous and I like better and use almost daily:

I would actually pass over this one freshly cleaned (including cooler),for 75 USD + shipping . based in Prague CZ, PM if anyone interested.