This qin was originally made in Kansas City, Kansas probably sometime around 1978 (?). At some point during my lapse from qin playing I gave it to my friend Dan Loewus while living in Pullman Washington and attending Washington State University. Dan ended up in Ithaca, New York, and I surfaced in Portland, Oregon. Sometime last spring (2004) or so Dan was kind enough to send it back to me. This qin was one of two qin I made in Kansas City. (The other one is lost somewhere in Seattle).
When the qin returned to me, it was obvious that I hadn't finished it. It had been finished in terms of carpentry (with some interesting mistakes). It had taken some knocks over the years. The top had been finished in terms of lacquer plus deer horn powder, but no final lacquer plus polishing had ever been done. I had brought a can of real "qi" lacquer back with me from Taiwan, and a bag of deer horn powder, and used them on the K.C. qin and its cousin, but those materials were long gone at this point. I suspect I ran out of lacquer on the second qin, and that probably explains why it wasn't finished. The bottom had no lacquer on it at all. The sides had lacquer but had been opened up at some point.
I believe that the wood for the top was spruce. The bottom may have also been spruce, although cedar is possible. The bridge may have been from Tong Kin-woon, although I'm not sure. I did make the cheng-lu (which is a bit worse for the wear at this point).
After communing with various Internet qin friends including and in particular Steve Amazeen, and Steve Dydo, I decided to finish the qin with Japanese "fake" lacquer, also known as Cashew. In particular, I thought it would be interesting to use the 'qing" color, which is obviousally blue. It was not that hard to obtain from Japan and not that expensive either. I first had to do some lacquer/deer horn powder work and put cashew + deer horn powder around the side, and on the "forehead", but did not finish the bottom with lacquer/powder. The top had some holes that needed patching.
Then I proceeded to put many coats of lacquer (no powder) on the top and the bottom. I nearly killed myself with the fumes, so note that a organic fumes respirator is a requirement. I've found that a furniture finishing pad made out of terry cloth is a reasonable way to apply the lacquer (not lacquer/powder) as I am death to brushes, the terry cloth pads are cheap, and can be thrown away. I've been using a paint spatula from an artist supplies store for lacquer/powder mix.
It isn't done yet. I have decided to stop working on it for awhile. The bottom is more or less nearly done barring touch-up. The top and side need considerably more coats of lacquer. After which the whole thing will need to be polished. I do not believe that the cashew has had any effect on the sound one way or the other, although the original coat of real qi/deer horn powder on the top was preserved of course. At this point I wanted to string it to see if there were "sha-sheng" (buzzes) and to see how I felt about the "action". I may lower the nut/bridge a bit more too. The nut is a little high yet.
I decided to put silk strings on it, as I have a few sets left over from the 70's and didn't have a qin with silk strings on it. The strings in question are "new", in the unplayed sense. They are actually older than most university students I have taught at this point. They came to Tong Kin-woon somehow in the 70's from Hangzhou and were said to be Hangzhou xuan. I decided to use the silk string qin tuning box that Steve Dydo made and graciously sent me (it is pictured below). This is a fine piece of work and has made putting the strings on much easier -- especially after I belatedly figured out that I had first put it on upside down!. Steve made it with violin pegs as you can see. It is also tapered in such a way that there is room for turning the violin pegs when it is attached to the qin feet. This is a rather important feature to note (sooner or later).
The next "new" qin (if there is one) will be green. This depends on whether or not I decided to refurbish (or destroy) my old warped qin from Taiwan.
tuning pegs on bottom
Steve Dydo silk string tuner
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