Feb 15th, '16, 06:15
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Joined: Jul 10th, '13, 01:38
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Location: Japan.
Re: Old clay, modern clay
Curiosity, but do you have a weight on your qing zhuni pot (along with volume?)? I am curious what other old zhuni pots weigh? My 100cc ROC SP weighs in at a feather 64.6g. And I agree, lao zhuni is more porous than modern zhuni.
Re: Old clay, modern clay
The volume for both pots is around 180ml. The Qing zhuni is heavier - the walls are slightly thicker, but especially the clay is extremely fine and dense so I think that even if they were equally thick the Qing zhuni would still be heavier. I don't have any ROC zhuni so I'd be curious to know about differences between the zhuni clay used during Qing and ROC.
Re: Old clay, modern clay
I was at the thrift store and found a little scale. I figured when I tell people I'm weighing my pot, they'll look at me funny. You guys, maybe not so much.steanze wrote:The volume for both pots is around 180ml. The Qing zhuni is heavier - the walls are slightly thicker, but especially the clay is extremely fine and dense so I think that even if they were equally thick the Qing zhuni would still be heavier. I don't have any ROC zhuni so I'd be curious to know about differences between the zhuni clay used during Qing and ROC.
Assuming AT3333 reads this thread, I do want to say that this zhuni pot is basically as thin as they come and was fully handmade and not molded. So, how they manage to shape a pot so thinly, I have no idea. But it's cool.
I have 3 100cc pots including this one. The weight of a 90s zini is 113g, 60s hong ni, 109g. Just so people have an idea of just how much less material is used in this teapot.
Here is an updated and better photograph of it by itself and on the scale reporting its weight.
I'd like to add one more thing: The reward in using old clay vs. new clay is how fast the old clay can season and appear more beautiful. The way it changes over use is wowzers in comparison to something modern. I've been using a pot made in 2011 of hongni for the last two years and already, old clay looks more beautiful after only a few months, than say the modern hong ni pot that has had tens of gallons of more tea through it.
Re: Old clay, modern clay
Nice pot! There is quite some variability in thickness in '60s hongni shui pings. I have one around 80ml which weighs 69 grams - still a little bit heavier than your larger zhuni.
In terms of seasoning speed, that also depends on the quality of modern clay. Some modern clays season really fast too.
In terms of seasoning speed, that also depends on the quality of modern clay. Some modern clays season really fast too.
Re: Old clay, modern clay
The underlying question of the experiment is indeed one that many of us are interested in having an answer to.
While, scientifically speaking, the experiment is not ideally set up, it probably can never be. Ideally, we have only one variable (i.e. old clay vs modern clay). However, there are other variables that cannot be determined (e.g. firing). To make matters worse, if the clays are different zhuni clays, it could well be that they require slightly different firing to reach their best potential (if there's any). This is to say that it *may* not be a fair experiment to keep everything the same except the clays.
If nothing else, I hope that the experiment(s) can make me better at distinguishing between older and newer clays.
While, scientifically speaking, the experiment is not ideally set up, it probably can never be. Ideally, we have only one variable (i.e. old clay vs modern clay). However, there are other variables that cannot be determined (e.g. firing). To make matters worse, if the clays are different zhuni clays, it could well be that they require slightly different firing to reach their best potential (if there's any). This is to say that it *may* not be a fair experiment to keep everything the same except the clays.
If nothing else, I hope that the experiment(s) can make me better at distinguishing between older and newer clays.