Only a few countries in the world have lacquer tree distribution, including China. China is the main producer of lacquer trees, with the largest output and the best quality. The main planting areas of lacquer trees in China include Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces. Lacquer tree is one of the oldest economic tree species in China. Its seeds can be pressed for oil, and the wood is firm. It is a multi-purpose tree species used for natural coatings, oil and wood.
- How is raw lacquer collected? There is a folk saying in Bashan (now Sichuan area of China) - "There are three hard jobs in the world: making charcoal, collecting lacquer, and selling tofu", which fully shows the difficulty of collecting raw lacquer. "A load of lacquer requires a thousand knives and blades". Collecting natural raw lacquer is extremely difficult. Every year from Summer Solstice to Cold Dew, special knives are used to cut the bark of lacquer trees, waiting for the sap to drip slowly. A lacquer tree can only secrete 10 kilograms of raw lacquer in its lifetime. The difficulty of collecting raw lacquer determines its rarity, which in turn determines the rarity of lacquerware products.
What are the applications of raw lacquer? According to historical records, "The use of lacquer began with writing on bamboo slips. Shun made tableware and painted them black; Yu made sacrificial vessels, painting the outer surface black and the inner surface red". It can be seen that as early as then, raw lacquer had been applied to bamboo slips, tableware and sacrificial vessels. With the evolution of history, the application scope of raw lacquer has gradually expanded, covering wine sets, furniture, women's jewelry boxes, crafts, works of art and other fields.
- What is raw lacquer? Raw lacquer, also known as natural lacquer, crude lacquer, etc., is a natural resin coating. It is a white viscous emulsion flowing out from the phloem after the bark of lacquer tree is cut, and is made into coating material after processing. It is a pure natural product.
- What are the characteristics of raw lacquer? When raw lacquer sap is brushed on the surface of an object, it can dry naturally in the air and form a primary color hard film. This film is tough and durable, and can resist corrosion of various chemical substances.
Raw lacquer has many characteristics such as high hardness, strong wear resistance, bright luster, strong adhesion; good heat resistance, strong durability; excellent electrical insulation performance and certain radiation protection performance; corrosion resistance, acid and alkali resistance, solvent resistance, water resistance, microorganism resistance, disinfectability, etc. After drying into a film, raw lacquer is a pollution-free and non-toxic product, which is the best choice for pursuing nature and ecological environmental protection.