After seeing a wider need for a “how to”- on conditioning  a new yugake  or just reapplying resin to an old glove. I translated this guide already in the making guide to English to give  a little back to the always helpful  Kyudo Community

Sometimes if you buy the glove in a store in Japan, they will do it for you the first time, but often they don’t, and this is when you need to DIY.

The Resin you use for the glove is the same kind that is used on hemp Tsuru, difference being that resin for bowstrings (kuresune) is heated up, and mixed with oil

Any comments, or advice to improve it are welcome.

How to prepare a new yugake or recondition a used one.

You will need

• Heat source
• Spoon
• Small knife
• Lump of resin/kuresune

 

First break off a small piece of the resin (the resin is very brittle), you need no more than the size of a pea, to do one yugake. You can buy it from any kyuguten.- Melt it in a spoon, over a candle light.

 

 

Once melted,  heat the knife up, (if you don’t the resin will just set on the knife)  take some of the resin onto the harakawa area of your glove, put it aprox on the middle and above the tsuru-makura (grove where the string rest) and work it out with the warm knife to a half-moon shape starting at the tsuru-makura.

Never use too mutch at a time, this pine resin is very messy stuff. – Work slowly.

 

The first time you put it on the resin will look shiny like a bonbon or caramel glazing,  but by setting the hot knife flat  on the leather, and pressing it on, while working slowly around the roundness of the thumb, the ressin will absorb into the leather, and become matt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resin absorbed into the leather.

 

Once happy with the look of it, take the warm knife and hold it against the halfmoon shape area. Your job now is to get the leather to absorb the resin. – (Reheat the knife as needed)-  If you skip this step the resin will just break off the first time you shoot.

Once it starts looking matt, and absorbed into the leather, instead of just looking like a glazing, your done.

Notes:

The main object of doing this is to protect your glove from wear.

If you use a candle as heat source, remember to wipe the knife clean every now and then with some paper, to make sure there is no candle soot, to blacken your glove.