broken handle- kintsugi or... ?

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wave_code
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Sun May 30, 2021 7:31 am

my sad vintage chaozhou pot... I've been sitting on this for a minute thinking on what to do, or if it is even possible to rescue. originally I was planning to get a kintsugi kit and get a bit of practice in on some other small pieces that need easier repairs first before tacking this. I figure getting the handle back in one piece isn't the hard part here, but the fact that I was unlucky enough to have it break off part of the body with it. will kuntsugi actually hold here in the long term given how much contact there will be with high heat water combined with stress from lifting, or do I need to rethink this? I figured if I wanted to really experiment or send this out the other option would be some sort of alternative handle like @Bok did with driftwood screwing from inside of the pot. Or to just patch the hole with kintsugi and make some sort of handle that attaches in a different way, maybe more like how a french press tends to just wrap around the glass beaker than being directly attached to it, but this is probably far more work than the pot is worth.

Or, just patch the hole and now it is a shuipinghouhin- useless for me but maybe could be enjoyed by a gyokuro drinker.
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Bok
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Sun May 30, 2021 7:57 am

wave_code wrote:
Sun May 30, 2021 7:31 am
I figured if I wanted to really experiment or send this out the other option would be some sort of alternative handle like Bok did with driftwood screwing from inside of the pot.
Sadly, my construction turned out to be miscalculated... it got loose pretty quickly. Kintsugi inside the body is definitely nothing long-term, it is going to corrode sooner or later.

But for the good news, it looks that the way yours broke still leaves enough long term options. I would consider a two way repair. first glue everything back together with something like JB Weld and then cover and refine the part that touches the water with Kintsugi. That will need some refreshing from time to time – but so do the planks of your fence.
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wave_code
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Sun May 30, 2021 8:48 am

oh no- did the screw come loose, or did the whole thing just wind up flexing too much with heat expansion/contraction? maybe what you need is a second jam nut or a toothed locking washer. or some loctite on where the screw goes in to the wood.

thats a really good suggestion that had also popped into my head as I was packing the pot back up - just use epoxy glue but coat over it inside with the lacquer. I figure I can manage making it look nice enough on the outside myself since the slurry coating is already pretty rough, and then the inside won't mater so much and just re-coat it every what... 4 years or so? maybe I'll give that a go.

I have a friend who works with silver and was also thinking if she could maybe make me something that could pass in to or screw through the body, but the handle being the absolute last place I would want silver it seemed pointless to do that just to then cover it.
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Bok
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Sun May 30, 2021 8:55 am

wave_code wrote:
Sun May 30, 2021 8:48 am
oh no- did the screw come loose, or did the whole thing just wind up flexing too much with heat expansion/contraction?
Not quite sure. I think the metal core was maybe not thick or long enough.
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mbanu
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Sun May 30, 2021 9:30 am

wave_code wrote:
Sun May 30, 2021 8:48 am
I have a friend who works with silver and was also thinking if she could maybe make me something that could pass in to or screw through the body, but the handle being the absolute last place I would want silver it seemed pointless to do that just to then cover it.
The handle doesn't have to be silver, just the setting. You can use a wooden handle, for example: http://blog.andrewbaseman.com/?p=8554
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debunix
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Sun May 30, 2021 10:17 am

Bok wrote:
Sun May 30, 2021 7:57 am
Kintsugi inside the body is definitely nothing long-term, it is going to corrode sooner or later.

But for the good news, it looks that the way yours broke still leaves enough long term options. I would consider a two way repair. first glue everything back together with something like JB Weld and then cover and refine the part that touches the water with Kintsugi. That will need some refreshing from time to time – but so do the planks of your fence.
Kintsugi is not a permanent repair? Is it that the gold leaf wears off, or the lacquer dissolves and needs renewal?

I have a sad collection of two pieces that definitely need repair, and several items with currently minor cracks I was thinking of sending with them. It's been a month now since I sent an inquiry to Nissan Haque at knijtea.com, and since I haven't heard back yet, I was going to ask my friend in Japan to find me someone to work on them. If it needs to be refreshed often, then it may not be worth it for the spout of my sencha pot that gets daily use.....or I need to bite the bullet and learn it myself so I can do the proper upkeep. International shipping every few years for a touch up seems a bit unreasonable.
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Bok
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Sun May 30, 2021 10:27 am

@debunix nothing is permanent : > )

Some repairs seem to hold better than others. From all my repairs, which I use frequently, they remain unchanged. I’ve heard of others who had items with old Kintsugi and those came off pretty fast after using them again.

There are many ways of doing traditional Kintsugi so the individual method and ingredients recipe matter as well.

The more lasting methods are metal caps and rims, staples etc.
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debunix
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Sun May 30, 2021 3:54 pm

Hmm....I'll take that as encouraging hope for my beloved Petr-yaki sencha pot.
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