Chapter 69: Why Is His Hand So Steady?

What is ceramic stapling?

To put it simply: drill holes in the porcelain, then use metals like gold, silver, copper, or iron to shape staples like those in a stapler, and staple the broken pieces back together.

It sounds simple, but it is truly difficult to do.

First, it is hard to drill: the glaze surface is too slippery, the porcelain is too hard, and the force is extremely difficult to control.

If the force is slightly too heavy, you will drill through the porcelain shard, making it even more broken than before. If the force is slightly off-center, the glaze will shatter; don't bother repairing it, just pay the owner for the damage.

Second, it is hard to staple: you use metal staples that must be hammered in. Porcelain is inherently brittle, and since it is already a broken piece, if the hammer is slightly too heavy, it will go "Clatter!"

Therefore, in ancient times, anyone who dared to staple porcelain was a skilled craftsman; otherwise, the proverb "If you don't have the diamond drill, don't take on the porcelain job" would not have been passed down.

And that is just the rough work; after it is stapled, it looks roughly like this:

The so-called fine work is what Lin Sicheng is preparing to do: after stapling it with staples, use the engraving technique to chisel gold foil into floral decorations and apply them to the surface of the porcelain, blending them with the cracks and staples so that, fundamentally, no traces of breakage or repair can be seen.

Moreover, this belongs to the finest of fine work, known in ancient times as "gold pasting on porcelain," commonly called gold stapling.

Likewise, it is simple to say, very difficult to do, and even harder to do well.

The most critical point is: engraving belongs to metal craftsmanship and has absolutely nothing to do with Ceramics.

Therefore, Shang Yan's graduate students truly do not know how to do it. It is also for this reason that when she heard Lin Sicheng ask for gold foil and a chisel, Shang Yan was so shocked.

Repairing porcelain in a Bronze laboratory is indeed a bit bullying, but if it is gold stapling, she really has nothing to say...

Too lazy to argue with Wang Qi Zhi again, she whispered instructions to the graduate students: "Speak less, watch more, learn more..."

The eleven graduate students nodded in unison and scattered around the workbench.

Lin Sicheng, with his hands in his pockets, gave careful instructions:

"Senior Sister Li, mix the lacquer: first, 60% raw lacquer, 30% glutinous rice flour, 10% wheat flour, stir well and set aside... second, 50% raw lacquer, 20% egg white, 30% White Porcelain Powder, prepare as a paste..."

"Wheel drill, drill bit diameter 1mm, length 3mm... staple length 8cm, diameter 1mm..."

"Teaching Assistant Feng: prepare the gold foil, thickness 5mm, length and width to be determined... furnace heating, furnace temperature 1200..."

The voice was very soft, the tone very calm, and the demeanor very relaxed, but one could not help but feel that Lin Sicheng, having changed into a white lab coat, radiated an invisible majesty.

The two nodded silently and performed their respective duties.

Lin Sicheng turned around and organized the pile of porcelain shards.

The glaze color was very white, not very bright, but very moist, giving one a frosted texture. The mark was a Flower Signature: printed with a lotus flower, one look and it was clearly a product of a Folk Kiln.

There were about twenty pieces, large and small. Lin Sicheng cleaned them while arranging them, and before long, the oil clay model was covered with porcelain shards.

One could already roughly see the vessel shape: it should be a Folk Kiln white-glazed Plum Vase from the mid-Qing period.

The advantage was that the fragments were basically complete, with very few missing parts. The disadvantage was that the vessel was too large and there were too many fragments.

If it were just stapling, the graduate students present could basically all do it, so they watched with extra care.

After all, their mentor had praised Lin Sicheng to the skies, saying how well he did Blue Pointing and how exquisite his filigree work was.

They had indeed never studied Fulang Artifact Restoration, and there were few who had even truly seen Cloisonné Cultural Relics; their skills were inferior, and there was nothing to say about that.

But when encountering a field they were proficient in, the instinct to compare would naturally arise:

Although Lin Sicheng was taught hand-in-hand by Professor Lin, we were also carefully trained by Professor Shang, so we aren't bad, are we?

Looking at the appearance of these students, Wang Qi Zhi subconsciously thought of Ye Anning from the day before yesterday: Haha, I'm afraid that tonight, many more people won't be able to eat?

Nine times out of ten, Professor Shang will have to be added to that list...

Just as he was enjoying himself, someone whispered: "His speed, so fast?"

Wang Qi Zhi looked closely: Lin Sicheng had already assembled the Plum Vase and was using a marker to mark the positions for the staples.

Roughly calculating, it had only been about ten minutes. But looking at Shang Yan's expression, she didn't seem too surprised. She even took the time to glare at the student who was making a fuss.

It seems the speed is limited after all?

While he was secretly thinking, Lin Sicheng threw down the pen and picked up the electric drill.

There was finally some brilliance in Shang Yan's eyes, and the group of graduate students watched without blinking.

Just hearing a "Whoosh," there was a pit.

Then the second, the third... it felt like his hand was exceptionally steady and also exceptionally fast. With a "Buzz," it touched and pulled away, and a small pit slightly larger than a needle eye would appear on the porcelain shard.

Just like that, with a "Buzz, buzz, buzz" sound, in less than half an hour, Lin Sicheng put down the electric drill. Looking at the Plum Vase again, it was covered in dense pits, at least over a hundred of them.

He picked up the tweezers and the already-shaped staples; Li Zhen followed behind him, holding a wooden hammer in her hand.

With a twist of the tweezers, and another twist, it became a small copper staple. The tips of the needle were aimed at the small hole; he pressed down first, then took the hammer from Li Zhen's hand, and with a "Thump," the copper needle was hammered in.

Then the second, the third... each one was hammered once, never repeating a second time. Looking closely, every single one was hammered in tightly.

As more and more porcelain shards were stapled, Shang Yan's expression gradually became solemn.

The dozen or so graduate students looked at one another.

Having just argued, it wasn't easy to ask; Wang Qi Zhi prepared to ask Hao Jun, but before his mouth opened, he was stunned for a moment.

Hao Jun was making faces, looking like he had a toothache.

He leaned closer: "Secretary-General Hao, what's wrong?"

Hao Jun bared his teeth, not knowing how to say it.

Rong Bao Zhai also repairs porcelain; for example, porcelain brush pots, Brush Washers, brush racks, and brush mountains also use the technique of ceramic stapling.

But like Lin Sicheng, so sloppy... oh no, it should be casual... hiss, that doesn't seem right either?

Anyway, he was definitely never this nimble.

Assembling and marking being fast is one thing, but like Lin Sicheng, drilling over a hundred holes in a row—the most skilled master would need at least two days.

The reason is simple: fear of a slip of the hand; one "whoosh" and there would be a deep groove on the glaze surface.

Then what's the point of repairing it?

But looking at Lin Sicheng, what he held in his hand didn't seem to be a drill, but a pen: if you point it wrong, you can just wipe it off and point again.

Then "whoosh" one, "whoosh" another. The strange thing is, not only did his hand not slip, but he drilled with extreme precision; wherever he pointed, the pit was right there.

Then, when it comes to the stapling, the master is definitely more careful than when drilling the holes: because the porcelain body behind the pit is at most only 2 millimeters thick, and in places where the glaze or body is uneven, it might only be 1, which is equivalent to just a single layer of skin.

If the force is slightly too heavy, it will pierce through; if it were just piercing a hole, it would be easy to handle, but the fear is triggering an expansion reaction. A "Crack!" and it blooms like a flower.

There is no other way, one can only work slowly to produce fine results: align the staple with the hole, align the hole with the staple, and then gently tap it in. If anything feels wrong, stop immediately, and repeatedly check and correct.

Therefore, to staple these hundred-plus holes, even for an old master, it basically takes four to five days.

Look at Lin Sicheng again, one hammer per staple, one hammer per staple... In the span of ten minutes or so, he had already stapled nearly half of them.

Of course, he didn't pierce through, and certainly didn't cause it to bloom like a flower, otherwise Lin Sicheng would have stopped long ago.

Hao Jun just couldn't quite figure it out: even if this Plum Vase was produced by a Folk Kiln, it was still an item from "Xinglin Chuntang," one of the best during the Kangxi period. Just this pile of porcelain shards cost Lin Sicheng over sixty thousand.

How is his hand so steady?

Apologies, a bit late. Searched for images for most of the day, but couldn't find any that were suitable!