This is what a basis soroban looks like.  It is a series of rods and beads set in a frame.  The materials used for making soroban are wood, plastic, bamboo, and aluminium wire.

Some soroban are not just mathematical instruments, but also very beautiful pieces of art.

You may see some soroban with a button to the left at the top of the frame, and this is for re-setting the soroban to zero, so that you can begin calculating.

The best soroban are made from wood and bamboo.  The bests wood for making the beads is boxwood, which is yellow in colour, and is the most expensive.

The rod is very strong and is made from bamboo.  Some very cheap soroban have plastic rods which tend to be rather weak

The beads are like two cones stuck together at the mouth.  The cone shape helps the finger to find it quickly and grip it more securely.

The counting bar.  For any bead to be counted it must touch the counting bar, or touch another bead which is touching the counting bar

The numerals below illustrate how this works.

The upper beads are worth 5 and the lower are worth 1.

This is explained more fully on the next page, Parts of the soroban

When you do your calculations on the soroban you work from LEFT to RIGHT - The opposite of paper calculation.