Last week I had the distinct pleasure to visit one of the great museums of the World, the Ju Ware, i.e. fine porcelain with a characteristic greenish-blue glaze. Less than 70 pieces of Ju Ware are worldwide in existence. Or how about a the equivalent to Gutenbergs Bible? The Rare Books sections host volumes such as an exegeses on the Book of Mencius, printed many hundred years before Gutenberg (Ok, I know, Mencius was not a deity and Gutenberg did not print an exegeses).
Unfortunately the NPM does not host a lot of items related to woodworking and even fewer items related to hand tools.
Worth mentioning is the Permanent Exhibit 108: Splendors of Qing Furniture. This exhibit hosts a few exquisite pieces of fine Chinese furniture. All furniture is perfectly executed and highly decorated. In contrast to so-called Ming furniture that pursues refined simplicity during a certain period during Qing Dynasty highly ornamental embellishments ad carvings were all the rage. Nevertheless, all furniture is made out of Huang Hua Li or even Zitan. Both are precious species of wood, very dense, gnarly and excruciatingly hard to carve. Zitan (aka. red sandalwood) is an extremely rare species of wood what was worth its weight in gold. One researcher argues that zitan was mentioned in the Bible [1]. In fact, recently a well-known boutique plane maker started offering certain planes with Zitan infills.
The few tools that are on exhibit at the NPM are in the paleontology section (very few images on the website). The equivalent to our own flint stone in China was apparently jade. For us Westerners Jade is just another semi-precious stone, for many Taiwanese (and Chinese and I suppose South-East Asian in general) jade is roughly the equivalent of diamonds in our own culture. In the bronze section one can admire a sword made of laminated bronze, i.e. bronze with different mixtures of constitutive elements for the cutting edges and for the sword body. Also noteworthy is the curios section. In this section on can find all sorts of trinkets, gifts to the emperor with the hope that the favor will be returned in some form or another (in modern terms lobbying and/or bribery). Many of the trinkets are of impeccable craftsmanship and come in custom fitted wooden boxes. In fact, if you ever run out of ideas on how to design yet another jewelry box, the NPM has a wealth of ideas that are rather unique. How about a hiding a hidden compartment in a hidden compartment?
The most interesting item in the curio section (and possibly in the whole museum) are the Sung Hua ink stones. The story is that in 1662 Emperor Kang Xi enjoyed the look and feel of Sung Hua stones. Sung Hua stones were used as sharpening stones. He had the Imperial Works carve Sung Hua stones into inkstones. Subsequently Sung Hua ink stones have become very popular as evidenced by a large collection of such stones in the NPM.
In my opinion it is highly implausible that the Emperor of China pokes around grungy old village carpentry shacks and somehow sees an old Sung Hua stone sitting somewhere in a dusty corner. It is much more plausible that the stone that the Emperor saw was one of the finest sharpening stones that the Empire had to offer, possibly in use in one of the cabinet shops of the Imperial Works. With exception of Hommel [2] I have never seen anything mentioning about how Chinese woodworkers sharpened their tools.
Of course that rises the question how good Sung Hua stones are for sharpening woodworking tools. Are they comparable to fine Aransas stones the finest Japanese water stones? I certainly do not recommend to beak into the NPM and sharpen your favorite plane blade on the 1737-vintage inkstone.
[1] Schafer, Edward H., Rosewood, Dragon’s Blood, and Lac. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Apr. – Jun., 1957), pp. 129-136
[2] Hommel, Rudolf P., China at Work, Jan. 1969
Edited 8/13/2009 2:11 am by chscholz
Replies
Thank you. Such a delight to see such a post. I now have whole new vistas to explore.
Pete
the bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see...
Great post. Thanks!
-Jerry
MY China Dolls.. And my new, not from China Girl, in the middle.. To me they are all the perfect woman.. PERFECT little ladies!
OK, so just the Grandfather to them.. A treasure to me... And then some..
I for one will follow the links and I am sure I will enjoy...
Grandchildren are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Neil
Your one lucky man Will George, They are as lovely as they come.
Tom.
I agree.. A child is something VERY special.. Boy or girl. I have more girls and one BOY!
I wonder why anybody would hate ANY child of any color? But then again I am a true man that likes children.. Whatever color..
Of course that rises the question how good Sung Hua stones are for sharpening woodworking tools. Are they comparable to fine Aransas stones the finest Japanese water stones?
Hi Chris
I wonder how well known Chinese waterstones are? Are they available in the US?
A few years ago I bought a Chinese natural waterstone in Perth. Every now and then I pull it out and use it, more for interest than anything since I am still trying to work out where it would fit it.
It is a dark olive green in colour and very hard. Using it does not show much wear at all. It barely acknowledges that a blade has passed over it. Philip (Marcou) also has one and, from memory, he seems to like his. Perhaps Philip will see this post and respond. However, the point is that this is the only Chinese waterstone I know and my experience is not very positive. Nevertheless I do not imagine that this stone is representative ... or is it?
Regards from Perth
Derek
In the US you can buy a (PR) Chinese natural polishing stone directly from Woodcraft. Indirectly, I would not be surprised at all if many of the artificial sharpening stones as well as a substantial amount of our diamond stones would be substantially made out of ingredients quarried/processed in China. (In my experience the term "Made in XYZ country" is nothing but an accounting game). For that reason Chinese stones (or in general abrasives) might be much more popular and well-known than we generally care to know.
Woodcraft's natural polishing stone appears to be just about the same as the natural polishing stone that you can find in pretty much any hardware store or street market in PR China. They claim these stones come from Guangxi. Sung Hua stones come from Jilin (according to the Mineapolis Institute of Art; a shoutout to Wiley at Woodcentral for posting link to the inkstone at artsmia). Jilin is in the far North, Guangxi is in the far South, just like the name says West of Guangzhou (aka. Canton).
You can find the Chinese polishing stones in many hardware stores and almost any street market in PR China (unfortunately I did not have time to look around much in Taibei, so I have no idea what's available there). In PR China there seems to be only one type of stone, this stone is rather soft. There are also rougher stones (again, all I have ever been able to find is one specific type). The rougher stones are artificial stones. I have no information about the grit size of the natural polishing stone, Woodcraft claims their stones are 12,000+ grit.
After you leave the Chinese costal regions you'll see an unbelievable amount of stones. One of the favourite hobbies of the literati class was to collect pet-rocks (and they spent most of their life doing calligraphy, painting and poetry, as well as governing the country). Today, whole mountains are being chewed up, sliced up and polished to end up in American kitchens. It would not be surprising at all if there are some outstanding sharpening stones around, but of course, like your stone, there certainly are even more pretty awful stones, too.
In any case, I never used a Sung Hua stone; that's the thing with museums (and certain other places) you can look but you can not touch...
Hey Philip, we need your wisdom here!
---
Chris Scholz
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Galoot-Tools
Chris and Derek,
I haven't got much to say on the Chinese water stone except that it is a good size and cost only $10.00. I sorted through various, some of which were chipped and had something like fault lines running through them. So I selected one of the most uniform colour and texture. People who have received blades that I have honed with it say the finish matches that of 6 micron diamond paper. It does cut quite fast for a fine stone-and doesn't "drink" water.On the hard side, if anything but for $10 it was a good experiment.
Apparently they all went like hot cakes.Philip Marcou
And can I say.. I loved this post!
Hey, thanks WillGeorge.
Stay tuned a few more articles in preparation: one more related to the NPM, a few more in the Liu Shifu series and then there are a few really old articles that right now are more than just outlines.---
Chris Scholz
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Galoot-Tools
And I found this.. Not sure if true?
http://www.nihonzashi.com/SharpenGuide.htm
My baby granddaughters have been doing Taekwondo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taekwondo
Not the same place... Just a link for what they do.
Like this since they were 5 years old.. OK, so they are Chinese and not Korean! They have so much fun! No boy will be threat to them in a few years!
They REALLY enjoy the classes! And taught to be nice ALWAYS... BUT... There are exceptions!
Edited 9/2/2009 2:04 pm by WillGeorge
Edited 9/2/2009 2:05 pm by WillGeorge
Interesting website with some fine samples of high-end swords
Take a good look at at the Han jian (jian means sword) and the Ming jian.
Swordmakers call what we generally believe to be very expensive high-end sword-steel woodworking blades anything but high-end.---
Chris Scholz
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Galoot-Tools
And those stones were used for.. InkStones...
http://www.123soho.com/artgroup/national_palace_museum/1002/np_4ex3.htm
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