Applying lacquer, bonding the lacquer film, touching up the colors.
Shen Le had practically turned himself into a busy chef. The lacquer-ash layer was mainly composed of raw lacquer and various additives. Among them, clay and hydroxyapatite particles were the primary fillers:
The clay needed to be washed and refined, while the hydroxyapatite had to be run through a pulverizer, crushing the raw materials on hand before sifting them through screens of specified mesh sizes;
For the lacquer-ash layer, gelatinized starch was added. The gelatinization temperature was roughly 60–80°C, and the heating time was generally kept within thirty minutes. He had to watch the Water Bath Pot and sense it bit by bit;
The red, black, and white lacquers were all made by mixing Tung Oil into raw lacquer, then adding pigments. Cinnabar for red, carbon powder for black, and silver powder for white.
Moreover, Shen Le found extremely fine quartz sand in the black lacquer film. The largest particles measured 0.06 mm in diameter, while most ranged from 0.02 to 0.04 mm—
Well then. An ordinary pulverizer or grinder would not do. He needed something like a jet mill, vibration mill, or sand mill to handle it—
Following the conclusions he had reached through extensive prior research and analysis of the lacquer film, Shen Le prepared the materials one by one in advance, then mixed them one by one.
Throughout the process, seven bowls and eight plates covered the workbench, much like a chef preparing ingredients before lighting the stove—
Once the base material was ready, Shen Le held the dish containing the primer in one hand and sat before the lacquer chest.
Focusing slightly, a tiny drop of flowing primer rose at his will, twisting and turning through countless bends before seeping into a crack beneath the lacquer