Sunday, June 24, 2007
Problem setting your dai?
This 3 blades kanna is likely to cause you headaches. Just think about how much each blade has to protrude, so that they can still work together, think about the wave pattern on the sole: how would you set it?
And yes, it planes:
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Sumitsubo: done
I've started to make my sumitsubo in october 2006. It didn't took me 8 months of regular and sustained work I worked from time to time on the project. It took time anyway, since I refused myself to use electric tools, except for a drill press for the hole in the wheel.
It all started with a blank of rosewood, that I had noticed laying outside on a pile of wood at a milling company here in Taiwan. I didn't know the wood was rosewood until the guy cut it, but I felt the wood was tough to resist Taiwan's succession of rain, wind and heat.
At the begining, everything chiseled, sawn then shaped with rasps.
Making the wheel
Cutting the groove in the wheel
Chiseling the groove in the wheel
For the finishing, I used a scraper. The pin looks like it is molded, I shaped it so that it fits the user's fingers, somehow as when holding a pencil.
Monday, June 04, 2007
At the timber market
Nearby Nagoya, there is a rather wide area dedicated to timber: timber markets, saw mills, log market...
Hinoki (Chamaecyparis Obtusa) logs, auctioned nearby Nagoya.
Hinoki awaiting in water until it is ready for the saw mill.
Hinoki is becoming scarce in Japan, and is already forbidden to exploit in Taiwan. In Taiwan, timber is either from trees cut several years ago (generally more than 30 years) or from the dismantling of old houses. Many houses particularly in the east of Taiwan where Japanese exploited the wood used Hinoki for their structure.
Comment on the photo: the film was a positive one (slide), but the [use your imagination to put here the words you find appropriate] photo lab processed my films (2 of them) as negatives. The chemicals for treating positive and negative films are not at all the same, hence a somehow strange result and 72 pictures wasted, not counting my dissapointement and discontent.
I had took much precautions to take the pictures, using a hand held lightmeter, good quality slide film, taking my time to shoot, carefully awaiting for the best moment to capture a scene, and all remains are close to scrap.
In several years of photography, this is the first time it happens.
You probably understand my feelings.
Hinoki (Chamaecyparis Obtusa) logs, auctioned nearby Nagoya.
Hinoki awaiting in water until it is ready for the saw mill.
Hinoki is becoming scarce in Japan, and is already forbidden to exploit in Taiwan. In Taiwan, timber is either from trees cut several years ago (generally more than 30 years) or from the dismantling of old houses. Many houses particularly in the east of Taiwan where Japanese exploited the wood used Hinoki for their structure.
Comment on the photo: the film was a positive one (slide), but the [use your imagination to put here the words you find appropriate] photo lab processed my films (2 of them) as negatives. The chemicals for treating positive and negative films are not at all the same, hence a somehow strange result and 72 pictures wasted, not counting my dissapointement and discontent.
I had took much precautions to take the pictures, using a hand held lightmeter, good quality slide film, taking my time to shoot, carefully awaiting for the best moment to capture a scene, and all remains are close to scrap.
In several years of photography, this is the first time it happens.
You probably understand my feelings.
