New Inlay on Kazan Shakuhachi

Hi all,
Today's repair (among 3 others and a plastic horse) is a Kazan that needs a new Utaguchi inlay.


I've seen some Kazan flutes before and know that the maker likes to use Ivory.


The back of the utaguchi. You can get an idea of the craftsmanship of Japanese made flutes.


A proper fitting can be extremely tedious and time consuming.


I've been doing inlays for over 13 years...so I'm not as slow as I was in 1996!


After the cut and careful filing so as not to change the angle of the front facet. It works fine as is, but I need to play it thoroughly to make some critical decisions on how much to lower it.

Stay tuned :)