We believe what we offer here is unique in the Western world: a broad selection of fine antique tetsubin carefully vetted and restored by tea people for tea people. These tetsubin are intended to serve as a central element of your tea practice and a multi-generational heirloom. Your tetsubin comes with a lifetime warrantee (so long as you care for it properly, as described below): we want you to treasure your tetsubin for the rest of your life. It has already lasted for centuries; well cared for it will last many more.

The tetsubin we sell are generally over a century old and often much older. We acquire them with a careful and experienced eye to their suitability for tea practice—which type of iron, condition, shape of spout, aesthetic elegance and proportionality, age, and size. The vast majority of tetsubin do not make the cut.

Almost all of the ones we do acquire still require significant and sometimes extensive restoration. We carefully clean the interior and remove rust (and often other contamination) manually and with gentle electrolysis. If needed we reshape the interior of the spout to improve the pour (the first place casting flaws show up is in the spout). We then follow the traditional practice of boiling green tea in the tetsubin to coat the interior with a natural antioxidant layer. If necessary and possible we tighten the handle so it stands up, and may also restore the surface patina. We then practice with the tetsubin for weeks to ensure the water quality is good. Where possible we research any signatures and do a microscopic analysis of the lid signature, translate any text, and contextualize any symbols and the design on your tetsubin. Each tetsubin has a story, and to practice with one is to practice with a piece of history. The energy and water enhancing qualities of tetsubin can greatly improve the brewing of aged teas and shou pu erh in particular.

We only sell tetsubins that meet our demanding standards after restoration. When we practice with each tetsubin we aim to get to know it so that we can describe it to you as we would describe a new friend, as well as carefully rate it across objective metrics as you see in each of our listings. This is a labor of love.

With such an intensive process we are only able to offer a limited number of tetsubin per year. All proceeds go to supporting Boulder Tea Hut.

We deliberately aim to offer a broad range of price points to enable tea lovers of all means to practice with a tetsubin you will love. If your price point is not particularly restricted, we offer buying services for acquiring museum-grade tetsubin as well ginbin (silver kettles). We own a handful of such kettles and in our experience you will not regret the investment: they have consistently appreciated over time and years later when it is still delighting you, you do not remember or miss the money spent.

If you have a tetsubin in need of restoration we are happy to see if we might be able to help.

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Care and maintenance of your tetsubin:

1. Tetsubin should only be heated on infrared or charcoal heat. The focused heat of gas or alcohol flames can cause them to crack or form a leak. Sand iron tetsubins (the oldest kind) are the most fragile, as well as the rarest type of tetsubin.

2. No kettle of any kind should ever be left empty on a heat source. Tetsubin are extremely durable and over the years we have done this a few times by accident without consequence but you should organize your practice around never doing this.

3. After using the tetsubin, remove it from the heat source, empty it of all water, remove the lid, and allow it to air dry. If you leave water in the tetsubin or do not remove the lid it may begin to rust.

4. Should your tetsubin begin to develop a rusty flavor boil green tea in it. Some tetsubins require this every few years even if well maintained per #3 above. Tetsubin need to be used regularly or they begin to rust.

5. If a green tea boil does not solve the flavor issue you can scrub the interior to remove rust, rinse with water (no soap!), boil with water to rinse further, and again boil gently with green tea inside. If this does not solve the problem you can send it to us for more advanced restoration.