They do use CA glue directly on your body to do some bio patch work so the bulk ingredient is at least somewhat safe, though the medical grade stuff is crazy expensive and who knows what’s in the $1 tube as additives. (Like plastic, often but not always the chemicals of concern aren’t the main polymer but things added to it to improve its engineering qualities.)

I bought some Urushi online in a tube but I am hesitant to use it on tableware due to the caveats on the packacking that say you should wear gloves and eye protection. It doesn't really sound more healthy than cyanoacrylate.

The SDS would hopefully clear up or confirm your concerns, and I have no idea if the product you bought is food safe or not, but I would point out that you should definitely wear gloves to handle any strong glue, whether it's food safe or not, and that the solvents are often eye irritants. I'd discovered the hard way that the solvents in cyanoacrylate glues in particular are eye irritants. (Not a way to fix glasses, folks.)

So, for what it's worth, I personally would be neither deterred nor comforted by the information you presented.

However, "I do not understand if this is safe and don't have the time to research it to my satisfaction" is a totally solid reason for deciding not to do something on safety grounds in my book.

If you're able to email the company and ask for an SDS, they'll probably give it to you. I've had luck with this before.

I have used urushi for both kintsugi and wooden ware and while I can't speak to your urushi in particular generally do not get it on your skin. Similar to other resins, even if you have no reaction initially the more you come in contact with it, the more likely you are going to have a reaction. It's quite common for craftsmen that have worked with urushi for years to suddenly become sensitized to it. Also, some people can have severe allergic reactions to uncured urushi so care should be taken if this is your first time working with it. This is a reaction to uncured urushi however, cured urushi is quite safe.

For use on wooden tableware I would suggest.

- 1 coat of urushi diluted 1/2 with pine turpentine. Apply liberally to allow it to soak into the wood then wipe the entire surface down removing excess. Place in a closed box with (but not touching) a wet towel (make sure it doesn't dry out) for roughly 1 week. The moisture + time will cure the urushi.

- repeat 1 or 2 times (or as many times as you like) with undiluted urushi letting it cure between each coat.

To non-kana readers, "shianoakurireeto tsugi", more literally cyanoacrylate "patch".

継 is used in ideas like inheritance, succession, relief (pitcher), and relays (the thing that provides continuity between things).

To expand a bit on that for the curious, kintsugi is written as 金継ぎ. 金 is "gold" (the "kin" in kintsugi), so I replaced the "gold" part with the "cyanoacrylate" part, and glued it to the 継ぎ ending. Katakana (the symbols used for シアノアクリレート) is often used for foreign words. 金 and 継 are kanjis, characters that comes from China. They usually have different pronunciations depending on if they are alone or part of a word. ぎ is an hiragana, the hiragana for "gi". Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries that are mostly equivalent. ぎ in katakana would be ギ, and シアノアクリレート in hiragana would be しあのあくりれっと.

To expand on your comment, the ぎ after 継 is an okurigana, a suffix used to specify the pronunciation of the preceding kanji.

Anyway, your comment really made me laugh, so please take your upvote :D

> lacquer is the perfect adhesive for Japan’s humid environment because it dries or hardens by absorbing moisture from the air

What's old is new.

This reminds me of the old Roman concrete. It actually gets stronger when exposed to moisture. So far as I know, no modern concrete matches it for long term durability.

Would you kindly share a photograph of something you have made with this technique?