• Make sure you have a bowl of water and a damp towel to help keep the rice off your fingers...you can add some rice vinegar to the bowl so you don't dilute the flavor of your rice.
• Moisten sushi maker, frame and press bar by running them under water faucet or submerging them in water and then wiping then off with a dry towel (try and create a damp or moist surface on the wood)... This will tighten any loose pieces and reduce the starch build upon the frame as you use the sushi maker, continue to moisten the inside of the frame as you check for starch after each roll... you can do this by just rubbing the inside of the frame with your wet fingers... CONTROL MOISTURE!
• Wash Your sushi maker with water and then air dry...
• To eventually eliminate the smell of the wood, try soaking the wood in a tub of rice vinegar/water mixture.
• If you notice any little wood hairs on the wood, do not pull them unless the wood is dry...it's better to just leave them alone. An occasional sanding would be nice...use fine sand paper if possible. Cedar will season, absorbing all the flavors of your sushi rice. Cedar sushi presses in Japan have been known to last for over a hundred years.

Step-By-Step Process

• To assemble the "Sushi Ki", position the smaller pieces with the grooves face up and place the two longer pieces, grooves face down, into the crossbar grooves.  The press bar, which fits in the middle, will be used both letter side up and letter side down.

Place slightly moistened "Sushi Ki" frame in the center of a vertical sheet of nori (seaweed). * Use 1/2 sheet for the small sushi maker, full sheet for the large sushi maker...		Fill the "Sushi Ki" half full with seasoned rice. * Fill 1/2 full for the small sushi maker, 1/3 full for the large sushi maker...
Place slightly moistened "Sushi Ki" press bar with the letter side up on the rice and press, creating a channel approximately 1/2" deep.		Place the ingredients you have selected in the channel.
Fill the remaining space in the "Sushi Ki" with rice.		Place the moistened press bar, letter side down on the rice..
While pushing the press bar down, lift the frame up over the press bar.		Remove the press bar.  If the bar sticks, run a moistened knife between the bar and rice.
Fold nori around rice and roll to complete.		Cut sushi roll in half; then cut each half into four pieces.  Wipe blade with wet cloth after each cut.