鋸-鉋-鑿　（Nokogiri-Kanna-Nomi）

Kezuroukai in Yoita: beside the meeting

2008-10-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Kezuroukai involves craftsmen and craftswomen (sure there are ladies holding the plane and rather well), tools and blacksmiths, wood and shavings. But outside the meeting itself there's also other things I'd like to show. Here is a photo gallery.

Inu Jinja in Nagoya

Kunia-san father and son restoring the roof, Inu Jinja, Nagoya

(I'll finish later)

Kezuroukai Yoita 2: kanna (plane) making

2008-10-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

I think I'd rather split my postings about this kezuroukai meeting in several parts, it will be easier to read compared to one long post.

Dai Making

An other interesting demonstration workshop during this meeting was dai making. More particularly, the making of special planes: kiwa kanna, daitachi kanna...

Daiya, Koyoshiya

Over all work disposition, occupied space is minimal (small workbench)

Traditional dai were made in front of the interested craftsmen. The dai maker Koyoshiya, on the photo above uses oil (in an abura tsubo, an oil pot) as well as a pencil to mark where the blade contacts the wood as the bed is being cut.

Dai maker: special dai

Daiya making use of his feet

Note the position of both dai makers, they work on the floor. The special dai maker, whom unfortunately I couldn't name, is sited in a position that can be found in some yoga posture. He makes great use of his feet to hold the piece at work.

Chisel set of Koyoshiya dai maker

You can see on the photo above that the chisel set of a dai maker (here the one of Koyoshiya) is somehow limited. No extra tool. Each has is adapted to a particular task, from the large chisel for mortising the dai to the tiny narrow ones, through a scraper for removing material only where the blade contacts the wood in its bed.

There should be more to come (on other topics related to this meeting).

Kezuroukai in Yoita 1: tatara

2008-10-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

I needed this trip to put me back on track with what I like: wood, woodworking, tools and the good craftsmen and women from the woodworking world.

Upon arrival in Nagoya a little after noon, I start helping Mr Sugimura and the copper smith Mr Kunia and son. They were still working on the Inu Jinja, and what a change since I have left 6 months ago.

This kezuroukai was held in Yoita, 与板町, a 5 hrs drive from Nagoya, my base station when I go to Japan. It is a little town of less than 8000 inhabitants, in Niigata prefecture. Yoita hosts several blacksmiths, some very famous in the Japanese woodworking community even abroad in Germany and the USA.

Tatara

Highlights during this meeting was the tatara, the traditional method to reduce sand iron into steel (it is iron with a small but not negligeable amount of carbon). The tatara was set-up by some university students of the university of Nagaoka. The furnace burnt during 36 hours, and from 18kg of sand iron and more of charcoal, about 5kg of steel was harvested.

The tatara is broken brick by brick

At the end of the demolition process (bricks of each layers are removed with a pick) the treasure iron is here, glowing at a more than 1000 degree Celsius. Demolition takes time, as one has to wait for the charcoal to burn until the level of the lower layer.

The long awaited steel

Though the process of making tamahagane, the precious material used to make high end tools and japanese swords, is the same, parameters involved are different: the heat has to be higher, and the amount of raw material much bigger. The time involved is also doubled. The yield of high grade tamahagane is much lower than the one of iron/steel or lower grade tamahagane.

The treasure iron after a cool down and some cleaning

That's it for now, please don't hesitate to leave some comments, not knowing that someone reads what I post is not encouraging me to write! An email would be nice too, and ask for more photos if you'd like.

Two natural stones under the electronic microscope

2008-06-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

What was my excitement yesterday when the first images of two natural stones powder appeared on the monitor connected to a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)!

I had had the idea (more precisely the faint hope of a possibility) to observe stone powders under an SEM soon after I joined the institute where I am currently working here in Taiwan. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) regroups many different labs specialized in domains as varied as material science, opto-electronics and medical instrumentation.

I had asked my friend Emma (more thanks to you Emma!) if she could arrange some time to observe the powder, but she had had so far a busy and tight schedule. But eventually the day came. I don't recall having seen many SEM images of stone powder, only 1 of which I am sure, in a Japanese book. And never had I had the chance to observe my own stones.

Before writing more, here is one of the image we saw. It is a black natural stone from Taiwan, which a close friend of mine estimates to be in the 10,000 to 15,000 grit when lapped with a diamond stone.

Taiwanese stone

Taiwanese black stone (grit ~10,000 to 15,000), 8000x

15000x

30000x

Japanese stone (Kyoto, honyama brand)

Japanese Stone from Kyoto (honyama brand, from Lee Valley) 4000x

8000x

15000x

60000x (notice the small holes?)

Stone powder preparation

I obtained the stone powder by simply lapping my stones with a diamond plate adding small amount of water. Both the stone and lapping plate were thoroughly rinsed with water prior to collect the slurry. The paste I got from the lapping process was then collected into a clean plastic container and left to dry.
The powder is then scrapped and deposited on a small metallic plate (which fits the SEM vacuum chamber) and covered with a thin, vapor deposited, layer of tin. The tin is necessary for non conductive material and it doesn't change the structure of the specimen.

Comments

Well I hope you can participate!
What stroke me the most is the that many particles appear like scale of a fish, as if some crystals in the stone had been cleaved. I wonder whether that is the action produced by the diamond plate. And that is what would provide the stone (particularly the Taiwan stone) a more pronounced cutting action.
Note also that on a larger scale (dimension), many natural sharpening stones can split into layers or strata. I wonder if the microscopic observation has any relationship with the mentioned property.
Further observations would be to look at the surface of the stone itself, that is flat and free from any slurry from the lapping plate. A whole stone will not fit in the SEM chamber, but I could break off a 1 or 2mm piece.
I would also be curious to observe a slurry in which metal particles are also included from a few sharpening strokes.
Also of course, I would love to observe different stones.
Now, let us make an analogy with planet exploration. If an imaginary earth observer was to point his telescope from a distant planet on the Gobi desert, he/she'd have a seriously biased idea of what earth is. Have you seen the scale of the photos? 1um to 20um... There is surely a lot more to be seen and discovered even for one particular stone.
And my friend said that a blade could also be observed...

The issue to these experiments is the cost. My friend accepted to do it for free the first time, but since her lab performs observations for other departments, it must charge the customer. The cost of using the SEM is about 80US$ per hour. An observation can be done in 30mn a the fastest, that is still some money that unfortunately I would rather spare for buying wood or for a trip to Japan.
If enough of you are interested in these observations, with each one sharing the cost, then let us decide of a stone to observe and conduct more observations.
One remark: with the SEM, we can not distinguish a chemical element from another, silicate from aluminum dioxyde...

Note on the images
I have no problem you copy these images and publish them elsewhere at the condition you mention their origin.

6 days in Japan

2008-06-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

Reflexion of the sun on a copper foil used for roof restoration of the Inu Shrine

Daily work in a Japanese workshop

During this 6 days stay in Japan I have had the chance to work in Mr Sugimura's workshop. Mr Sugimura is a temple maker, also head and creator of kezuroukai.
What stroke me in the workshop, and I believe it is the same in most if not all similar workshops around Japan, was the cohabitation of modern electric machinery with traditional tools and instruments.

Tenons, at least those I have seen being cut in front of me, on beams meant for a house structure, are not with a hand saw but with a device (which I can not name) equipped with 4 motors and 4 blades, cutting in one single pass all sides of the tenons.

At the same time, these tenons and other markings are drawn with a sumisashi dipped into the ink pot of a sumitsubo. The later is also frequently used when it comes to draw straight lines on long beams, including round ones.

Marking tenons with a sumisashi

A sumisashi. They are made from the outer part of big bamboos, sold preformed and to be finished by the craftman.

Mr Mori's selfmade sumitsubo

An interesting tool is this power plane. The blade is fixed and the piece (big, otherwise small hand plane would be used) is carried on top of it. It is impressive to see in work, the beam on the photo is grasped and accelerates significantly before reaching the blade, then it stops at the end of the table and comes back in the hands of the operator. It happened that the pressure of the upper rollers was not enough and the beam continued its course straight ahead, of the nobody was at the other end to catch the beam back.
I used the machine and it is actually fairly simple to operate.
Shavings are checked to assess the quality of the planed surface: a continuous long shaving promises a smooth surface.
For an effective and tear free surface, care must be taken to send the beam ... foot first, with the head (atama) pointing toward the operator. Foot and head refer here to the tree as if it was standing. The head is marked with the sumisashi, if it is not then one has to observe the wood grain, knots are very helpful for this purpose.

Inu Jinja (dog shrine) restoration

The Inu shrine is located in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture. It was believed that the emperor Temmu (天武天皇) was harvesting rice in the area surrounding the shrine. Temmu was the 40th emperor of Japan, where he ruled from a.d. 672 to 686.
One of the main purpose of the restoration is to remedy to a decaying roof: replacing decomposing parts, replacing macadam paper with more durable cooper sheets. Against common belief, hinoki or its Taiwanese brother kuaimu (which made parts of the shrine) does decay, if it is left in a constant humid envrionment, such as under sheets of macadam papers. It could however be kept decennies if kept in water.

Coper smiths at work on the roof on the Inu Shrine

Kiso wood market

Kiso is a town in Nagano prefecture. It is a 100km drive from Nagoya.

All the wood sold at this timber market is kiso hinoki, the place where it is harvested gave its name to the wood.

It is different from the Taiwan closest relative, chamaecyparis obtusa var formosana and chamaecyparis formosensis. The smell is different, though somehow related, the kiso hinoki smell is lighter and maybe a bit more spicy than its two Taiwan brothers. Color is pale yellow as the Taiwan's closest relative.

Kezuroukai in Takaoka

2008-06-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

This Kezuroukai meeting took place in Takaoka, under a temporary (but immense) shelf to protect a boudhist temple under renovation (more details on the temple to come).
Kezuroukai means literally planing meeting, but besides the planning contest, many activities are organized. This meeting gathered craftman from various fields related to the temple renovation: sculptors, painters, wood turners, particular, ... and other more directly related to woodworking tools: a dai maker was present, as well as a "toishi master".

It has been several months since I didn't write. I am just back from a short trip to Japan, and am bringing back a lot of material to fill up a big post.
Topics which will be developed are:

kezuroukai in Takaoka
the use of electric tool in modern japan
restoration of the Dog Shrine in Nagoyga city
some woodturning
daily life in a japanese workshop

These will probably be posted in several parts in the coming week.

Biplane

2007-12-26T04:06:00.000-08:00

I have been working on that biplane for at least two weeks, almost every nights. I gave it to my son for his second Christmas.

It is made out of the following woods:

fuselage: a branch of incense cedar (Calocedrus formosana, 梢楠 in chinese), harvested after a recent typhoon

wings: Taiwan incense cedar planks (Calocedrus formosana, 梢楠)

propeller: Taiwan fir (Taiwania cryptomerioides, 亞杉)

engine: Taiwan acacia (acacia confusa, 相思樹)

cylinders: Taiwan camphor wood (cinamomum camphora, 樟木)

wing dowels: teak

Wheels axles, support: white oak, USA

My son's surfboard

2007-12-23T20:45:00.000-08:00

It has been 5 months I didn't write anything. Explanations for my silence are to be found in my change of job 5months ago, adaptation to a new environment, and most important some changes in my family life...

This being said, I will write today about a mini surfboard I am making for my son. It will hopefully be ready for when nice weather is back here in Taiwan. I might as well give it to him tomorrow for christmas, he won't be able to use it so soon which will leave me time to complete it.

The board is made out of a wood found in Taiwan and China, called 梧桐 (wu2 tong2, wutong), scientific name: Firmiana platanifolia. It is very close to kiri wood, light but strong.
One of my japanese friend to whom I've shown a sample said it is "Taiwanese kiri".
Here are some photos, a bit dark because I worked a lot in the evening.

The raw material, a plank of wutong wood about 4cm thick, to be cleaned up and plane.
A plane with a large mouth and low angle (<40deg) is mandatory here.

The board takes shape, after a lot of spokeshave work and sawing (hand tools, no power in the evening in my community because noisy).
The plane with the sticker is a hidarikanji, set for finishing.

My dog Lemon gives another idea of the scale of the surfboard, completing previous photo with the planes as reference.

The fin is teak wood. On this photo it is just set on top, no fixation.

I have now mortised the board so that the fin can fit in, and will probably have to use a screw so that it can be easily removed for transportation.
Next steps are to oil it, many layers of tung oil and have fun!
The fin is teak wood. On this photo it is just set on top, no fixation.

Problem setting your dai?

2007-06-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

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:

Sumitsubo: done

2007-06-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

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.

At the timber market

2007-06-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Black stone, hard stone

2007-05-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, I was looking around in an old tools shop here in Taiwan, and noticed that on the floor was laying a dusty box that looked like one of a sharpening stone. I kneel down to look closer and yes, it is a stone. And a natural one. And one that I had never seen before.

No hesitation, I buy one.

I soon sprinkle it with water and put one of my blade on it. Bad. I quickly put back the stone in a box. It is hard, really hard, too hard. The blade I tried on it would jump, chatter and the feeling was bad.

That was maybe one year ago. Recently, wanting to try again the stone, I have the idea to leave the slurry created on the stone when I hone a diamond plate on it. And there it is.
The stone behaves totally differently. It is like a new stone. The slurry, though in few amounts, transforms the stone.

For chisels, even as narrow as 6mm, plane blades (I have tried so far 48 and 55mm), the stone is now one of my favorite.

I had sent one of this stone to a good friend, and he loved it from the begining. I didn't know why, but he was probably right, knowing his expertise in sharpening. Last week I went back to the store to get 3 more stones, and my friend asked for all 3 of them.

Update / complement may 31th 2007

Here are some pictures of that stone.

Hard black stone from the NanHu mountain in East Taiwan.

I have shown the stone to a temple builder. He was interested about it. After trying it, he found it very hard. However using some stone powder makes the sharpening "smooth" as he said in english. He mentioned the stone to some of his colleagues and asked me how much it costed. I gave it to him.

Interesting to note, is that my friend from America to whom I gave one of these stone, compared it with some other black stones that he has.
He graciously sent me some pictures that I post here with his permission, the comments are inspired from his own ones.

Stone from Guanxi in China. Not as hard as the one from Taiwan, can leave some scratches. Not the same "class" of stone.

Hard black stone from Japan.

My friend did an interesting side by side comparison. His conclusion is that "the stone from China are dark grey but not black. The 2 other pairs, on the left from Japan and on the right from Taiwan, are very similar in color and texture.
Taiwan being a volcanic island may have some geological similarities with Japan. Further test would be to compare the hardness, magnify the stone structure, and obviously a sharpening test on identical blades.

Side by side comparison:
-pair on the left are from Japan
-pair on the right from Taiwan
-bottom from China
Stones from Japan and Taiwan are similar in color and texture

I have found out that a small black nagura (from Japan) seems to "fit" well on the black stone from Taiwan. By "fitting well" I mean it produces a slurry that makes the sharpening smooth. Other method of use of that stone was to create a slurry with a diamond plate. This last method gives very good results.

On sumitsubo and kanna

2007-03-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

Following my previous post "digital camera broken": but I didn't stop woodwroking, far from it...

I pursue here with a new post.

Actually my views on Japanese woodworking tools is somehow broaden, when looking at it from a Taiwanese perspective. Take the sumitsubo from example, the ink pot with a string, used to lay-out straight lines. The tool has become a piece of art in Japan: one can see sumitsubo with finely carved turtles, dragons or cranes, and of various harmonious shapes.
The interesting fact I came accross, is that a native Taiwanese has a collection of several dozens of sumitsubo, that he made himself. I wonder where this native Taiwanese (thus not of Chinese origin) found about the tool... Was it during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan? Probably.
The sumitsubo origins are maybe to be found in China, but this will need to be confirmed by some historical or archeological research (for which I'm not equiped in terms of time).

Now let's compare the appearance of the carved sumitsubo with the so simple shape of the japanese plane. It is a big difference isn't it? The japanese plane's body is just a rectangular piece of red or white oak with no noticeable features (but which result in a tool with high performances). What is noticeable in the kanna is the blade. There, in some cases, goes the artistic part of the tool. I am not diminishing the craftmanship of the dai maker far from it, because the performances of a kanna are intimately related to the quality of the dai and its conditioning. But I want to highlight the difference between the visual impact of the two tools.

I wonder whether the sumitsubo became such a highly worked piece because its usage became rarer... Ancient sumitsubo had a rather "raw" aspect, without much if any carved features as can be found on later sumitsubo. Users of the tool were then considering it for its primary usage, not for its visual aspect. In comparison, the kanna is still widely used, no time is spend to provide its body with carvings or harmonious shapes. However great time can be spent by the bladesmith to forge blades with more and more features, such as the texture of the blade, its shape...But the everyday used kanna, the one for the timber frame builder, the temple builder or cabinet maker has rarely such art-like blade. And this takes us back to Taiwan, where the highest quality blade are of the dogyu brand, a middle range tool in Japan, the white phoenix being the reference against each other plane are compared. The kanna in its simplest form, where usage primes.

I was recently reading a book which features exquisit pictures of ancient tools from France, dating back to the 18th century: the planes were then carved: a heart with 2 letters in it (inviting the reader to think the craftman was then in love), a bird, a sheep, they were of various shapes.

The tool has this particular ambivalance: it is an instument to help accomplishing a manual task (hear: a task where hands are involved), and it is also a piece of art. And this dual aspect of the tool is mayby what gives it its soul.

Camera broken

2007-03-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

The LCD screen of my digital camera is broken rendering the whole camera very impractical to use. This is not a woodworking topic but my digital camera is the instrument which helps me to illustrate my posts.
Without it, I tend not to write...
And lately I have been preoccupied by a possible job change, which could result in an important life change, another reason why my posts became rare.

But I didn't stoped woodworking. Far from it...

To come soon

2007-01-29T00:46:00.000-08:00

Work of this past weekend:

- 45/60degree shooting board
- first forged marking knife (yet to finish and sharpen)
- planing difficult wood

I will developp these topics soon, hopefully.

If you own a 10" band saw (rexon type, I believe the same as Delta), I invite you to visit Manabe-san's web page, he shows a lot of interesting modifications to improve the machine:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/manasan/english/diy/tool/bandsaw.htm

Mini-forge

2007-01-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

This past sunday was mainly dedicated to blacksmithing.

My forge and other set-up need a lot of improvements.

Here is what needs to be changed:

The blower is attached to a tin can and the flow of air directed through first, 2 plastic pipes, then 2 metal pipes. But the plastic pipes could melt from the radiated heat 9not conduction through the metal pipe). I remedied that by placing 2 bricks to isolate the plastic, but metal pipes should be longer, or I should use all metal connections.
When connected to the pipes, the blowers debit of air is significantly reduced: this is due to the reduction in diameter of the pipe, and that the blower is not powerfull enough (this is not a complain, and I am very gratefull to Jens from the Oakwood forge who gave it to me). What I could do would be to add a third pipe.
Maybe improve the walls of the forge. Add a top?
Install my railtrack anvil on a solid stable stab of wood, or other stand.

Dai making explained in Taiwan

2007-01-15T16:18:00.002-08:00

Virtually all the hand plane blades used in Taiwan are from Japan. Among the most famous are white phoenix by Yamaguchi-san from Miki city, some other are from the dogyu company also in Miki. Some white phoenix blades and complete plane can still be found in Taiwan.

But while the main blade was important (and still is), the dai are made locally. The red oak used is of excellent quality and the one found nowadays has been left drying for several years, up to more than 10 years.
The dai made in Taiwan had followed the Japanese way, that is it has grooves allowing the main blade to be secured in place even without a subblade. But then the dai began to be cut without the grooves, requiring a subblade to hold the blade. This is the way it is done in China for example, in Europe also and in the USA for wooden planes.
A Taiwanese dai maker explained me that the pin maintaining the subblade began to be much thicker and tougher. He also said that the Japanese way was more challenging to make.

During the grand opening of a woodworking school, where I am a part time student (class on saturdays), I decided to finish the dai I had started few time ago. It would be a good occasion to explain where are the differences between Taiwan planes and Japanese planes.

This dai has a 66degree blade angle. I chose a high angle because the wood found in Taiwan ranges from hinoki (chamaecyparis obtusa formosana, ch. formosensis) to acacia (acacia confusa), and the later is very difficult to plane. The grain goes in all directions, and when dry, the wood is tough and relatively hard (harder than oak for heart wood).
The main plane is a "miki" blade from Tsunesaburo. The steel is hap40, a particular HSS steel and should be tough and hard enough for this intended use (high angle and hard wood). It has good resistance to wear. Hap40 is made by hitachi and has equivalents from other manufacturers. Its indicative content is:

C: 1.28 mass%, Cr: 4.21 mass%, W: 6.63 mass%, Mo: 4.57 mass%, V: 3.03 mass% and Co: 7.5

Miki blades or complete planes are available from Japanese tools Iida.

Dai making explained to Taiwanese amateur woodworkers

Reflections on hand woodworking

2007-01-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

Few years back, I have sold all my electric tools (no big machines, only protative tools: circular saw, jig saw, planer, belt sander, ...) and bought hand saws, planes and chisels. I decided I'd do all by hand. I didn't want to use any machine, and living in an appartement, it wasn't approriate neither.
When I say all by hand, I really mean it. From the tree to the little chair or toy for my son.

After a typhoon, I'd go around town see if I could harvest some timber. I'd remove the bark, let the wood dry, rip cut it, resaw it, plane it, square it.

It takes a long long time to do this. It teaches a lot, but it is not productive, even for the hobbyist.

Recently, I have got access to some planer, band saw, thicknesser and table saw. I realized that these tools, though very noisy and potentially dangerous are extreemly usefull, particularly if you harvest your wood yourself.
For me, hand woodworking went together with the desire to reproduce the method used before machines came in, back close to 100years before. But obviously I was sometimes led to buy precut and premilled stock, and that meant some machine did the job before. So seen from that angle, articles made from this kind of stock could be argued to be 100% hand made using hand tools. Or one should specify from where was the hand tool work process started.

Does hand made means made exclusively with hand tools? I don't think so, I'd define hand made as being made by one craftman or craftwoman, and not made by a robot in chain production. To say something has been made without machine, one should say hand tool made. And does one really want to trace back to the way the tree was cut, ripped and milled?

So I'm just coming to the conclusion that I'll probably buy a small band saw, to help me resaw small stock I harvest.
Just make a clever use of machines and don't abuse it, so that hand tools retain there central position.

But I'm still stubborn with my hand tools, as illustrated on the recent post where I am talking ripping an about 120cm (4ft) and 39cm (15") diameter camphor tree! It's just another feeling to cut the wood outside in nature being able to hear the birds singing around compare to the noise of a workshop.

Long time no post

2007-01-11T00:13:00.000-08:00

Isn't it? But I wasn't idle.

I did a dai for a blade called miki, which steel is hap40 and is said to be harder that HSS. The blade is set at 66degree, and now I can plane acacia confusa, one variety of acacia found in Taiwan. The grain of that wood goes in all direction, up, down, forward, backward! The 66 degree plane provides satisfying result. Acacia confusa is a hard wood, relatively dense and it is tough. It is not particularly rare, many trees can be found, but it is very rarely found as timber for fine woodworking (cabinet making and else), because hard to work with.

Otherwise, I have started a sumitsubo, which is now well advanced. Both dai and sumitsubo will be the subject of new posts.

Sorry for those of you who came to this blogg and saw nothing new since several weeks. I will do better.

Rip cut some camphor

2007-01-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

Some timber men left about 50cm (20") of camphor tree and didn't bother to uproot it.

I decided to give it a try.

Uprooting that tree wasn't easy. Camphor wood has many roots and it is well anchored (my stepfather gave a hand)

The job done, remained to move the tree to a proper place, and since I want to rip cut it on site, it had to be well maintained.

I started by removing the bark with a drawknife so that the remaining mud wouldn't harm the saw and it would be easier anyway if no mud goes into the kerf.

The first cut on a well stabilized piece.
My 2 years old son gives the scale here.

Sunday jan 14th, trying another saw (Izaemon maebiki).

I have no idea yet what I will do with the planks I'll get, and the rip is just begining. It is a tough task, and fortunately the tree is not very hard. The sharpened maebiki works nicely here.

After 2 mornings of effort, about half has been cut. The remaining will be cut with the tree laying on its side.

KezurouKai Sanjo

2006-10-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

This september 2006 Kezuroukai was held in Sanjo city, Niigata prefecture. A 2 days event, which was attended by even more woodworker amateur, blacksmith, and other curious than the previous meetings I have been to. An international meeting too: people from Germany, Taiwan / Canada, France, the USA, and maybe other countries were present.

Blacksmsith lesson

The activities started for me with a one morning introduction to heat treatement of a kitchen knife. The knife's blade was already premade, we had to power-hammer it to relieve the stress of the steel, temper it, dress the edge and sharpen it.

Kit for the blacksmith introductory course

It was an interesting basic course.

Blacksmsith

One great attraction was the blacksmith stand, with a traditional box bellows called fuigo as a blower. Chisels and plane blades were forged during the show.

The forging was done entirely with traditional methods.

Big planes

The big plane stand always attracts folks. Here is Kamijo-san, one of the expert in big planes.

Kamijo-san, all concentrated on his shaving

Axe

The axe is for sure an old tool. It came much earlier than the kanna we see today. But it is still present at almost each kezuroukai meeting, and has its adepts all the way to Germany.

The following pictures show how to manipulate the axe. It is quiet a heavy tool, thus a particular serie of movements based on balance helps greatly. I should say that it not only helps, it is necessary for long sequence of chopping.

On the pictures, you can see how the handle is used to act as a lever to move the head of the axe up. The left hand is the pivot, and the right hand pushes down. Then the left hand goes down to join the other and gravity do almost all the job.

I am greatful to Hanesse, from Kezuroukai Germany, for his explanations.

Kanna mi (plane blades)

Tsunesaburo

These plane blades are from the Tsunesaburo factory. They are made from different metals: white, blue steel, swedish steel, tougou reigo steel, ... They range in price from 30000 to 130000yens (about 250 to 1100$ or 200 to 860Euros). They are all unsigned.

Set of unsigned blades, Tsunesaburo

Uchihashi-san

Uchihashi-san is a young blacksmith that was apprentice to Shiyozuru. I met him in Sanjo, and though we can't exchange much due to my poor skills in Japanese, I report here about the blades he makes. See also my previous post, Young blacksmith.

They are all swedish steel, and range in price from 30000yens to 60000yens (250 to 500$), depending on size, type of oak for the dai,...

The blades are shown here are they were exposed during the meeting.

Uchihashi-san's blades

80mm blade

Tomo osae subblade

A new shooting board

2006-09-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

I had a shooting board but was not satisfied with it. I had designed it for western planes, for which the front sole (part of the sole before the cuting edge) is shorter than for Japanese planes. So I decided to make a new one, longer, thicker, hopefully better.

This is from where I started. A piece of african teak (not at all of the same familly as the Asian teak), covered with mold and in bad shape on one side.

The shooting board, raw material (african teak)

The first job was to clean the board from the mildew, flatten it, and get rid of the rotten part on the side.

The plane is a 48mm jointer, set a 49degrees. Probably a lower angle would have made the job also, since the wood is not that hard. The plane was set to take thick shavings, and note it doesn't have its subblade. If you do the same (remove the subblade), you might have to also remove the pin, or the shavings won't evacuate correctly and will gather against the pin. Well, that is what happened for me on that wood.

Flattening one side:

After some cleaning, note the pin is removed to avoid gathering of shavings against it.

Rip cutting the damaged part of the board.

Once the board is clean, squared and roughly flat I attempt a perilous exercise: the board being quite thick (5cm), I thought I could cut one side so that the plane will glide at an angle compared to the surface where lays the piece to work. I don't have a sumitsubo so laying out the trace with my longest straight edge being to short was not easy.

Then let's cut. Not easy to cut an an equal depth so that the 2 cuts (one from the top of the board, one from the side, at an angle) will meet perfectly. My first cut (the one from the side) was too deep by 3mm so I relayed out the cut from the top of the board.

The result was accpetable, and that is where I am now (7th sept 06).

Rip cut on the side face, note the angle with the top face of the board.

The result, near the saw is the wedged piece from the cut. Not yet planned.

Remains to place the stop on which the piece to work will sit against, and since this is the left hand side part, I will probably cut the opposit side for right hand work.

Update (13th oct 2006): I have finished my shooting board. The stop piece of wood had been put into place (mortise/tenon join). Carefull marking at a right angle with the side of the board is of course very important. The top of the board has been planed flat. I think I will oil the board, though the wood contains already a significant amount of oil (your fingers get oily when you rub the wood).

Here is a picture of it (26th oct 2006).

Wood sawyer

2006-08-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

I like to rip- and cross- cut wood myself, and by hand. It probably dates back from my childhood when I saw a TV program showing an attachement for a chainsaw, allowing anyone at home to easily produce his/her own planks. That was really interesting.
Years later (maybe 20), I see for the first time a maebiki, the bell ringed in my head. That big saw was used by Japanese to rip cut trunks. I had to get one. It was not easy, but here was I, with my first maebiki. An impressive tool. It is an old one, but I have been able to use it. Since then I have also get other smaller saws and spend sometimes hours sawing the wood I gather myself (eucalyptus, pine, orange tree...).

Maebiki saw. Ripping a log of pine. With that setting, the log is stable on each pull stroke.

An example of rip cut.

A shaving, produced by a rip saw. An excellent illustration showing that each teeth of the ripsaw act as a little chisel.

Japanese in Taiwan: hinoki

2006-07-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

I have recently had the opportunity to travel to the east of Taiwan, more precisely to Hualien. The place is located on the center east coast of Taiwan, and is surrounded by mountains.

This place is famous for its forests of Taiwanese Cypress . The tree is of the cupressaceae familly, genus chamaecyparis. There are 5 species in that genus:

for the japanese, hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa Endl.) and sawana (Ch. Pisifera)
for the taiwanese, bian3bo2 (Ch. obtusa var formosana) and hong2kuai4 (Ch formosensis), commonly confused as being simply kuai4 mu4
for the north americans it is Port-Orford cedar (Ch. lawsonia).

Cypress being left in water for 25yrs,
ready to be milled

The forests have been largely exploited by the japanese until 1945. The mountain of "lin tien shan" was a major center for harvesting the precious hinoki, widely used by the japanese for building their temples.
It was a moving moment to walk in the streets of this tiny village, where one can still catch a glimpse on some old face, Taiwanese workers who used to participate to the effort. Moving also to imagine those big saws taking life in the agile hands of japanese workers.

A small museum had few tools for display: big saws, few chisels,...

Tools and artifacts from japanese (estimated 1945)

Saws used for harvesting the Taiwanese cypress (hinoki)

Back in the city of Hualien, I met one of the boss of a lumber company. The company still has some 25years old trunks of Hinoki soaking in water (see also the first picture at the top of the article). Some of the trunks have vegetation on it, and how surprising it is to know that they will still yield to marvelously odorant planks of an excellent quality.

Trunk of Taiwanese Cypress soaking in water (awaiting for 25years)

I have also met a local Taiwanese indian, whose hobby, among others, is to harvest trunks of hinoki which have been uprooted after a typhoon, transported onto overflown streams, and eventually landing on the nearby beaches.

Another witness of the Japanese presence, though not related to woodworking, is this house, a place where japanese used to smoke what I understood to be opium. The house is of the Osaka style.

2 shaku vs 22" (or Japan vs USA)

2006-06-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

I have a 2.4m long beam, that I have been waiting to prepare for months before the wheather allow me to. Preparation of the beam means rough planing for removing the superficial low quality wood (the beam had been in contact with water) and of course having it as flat as possible.

This weekend was the day at last.

For this operation, I wanted to compare the performances of the Lie-Nielsen low angle jointer (22" long = 55cm), and a 2 shaku long (60cm) white oak japanese jointer, named watetsu.

The 2shaku watetsu facing the 22" low-angle jointer, a standard sized 70mm kanna gives the scale.

Before any planing comparison, the 2 planes had to be prepared.

Lie-Nielsen low angle jointer:
The low angle jointer had only the blade to sharpen. This was not that an easy task compare to the watetsu. The A2 blade is much harder than the watetsu, and getting a keen edge on my sharpening equipment mainly dedicated to japanese tools took some time.

2 shaku watetsu
I have another watetsu, and know the blade. It takes a very good edge relatively easily.
But conditioning a 2 shaku oak dai, is not what I do everyday. However the use of the 70cm long 12mm thick glass plate helped a lot. Quicker and more easily that I thought, I got the first shavings out of the watetsu.

The low-angle jointer is heavier than the 2 shaku watetsu, and if pushed with enough initial velocity, won't stop when it encounters a high spot. Also it's narrower blade (2.25" = 57mm) compared to the 70mm watetsu allowed a better productivity for the initial stock removal. Surprisingly, the 37degrees angle did pretty well on this rather hard wood.

I had set the watetsu to take fine shavings. The mouth opening was quite narrow and since I didn't work on it, that was my only choice: fine shavings. The blade angle (not bed angle) is 49degrees.
Will you think: 70mm plus 49degrees, plus 2 shaku and hard wood, must be hard to pull. Well, not that much. The white oak was gliding on the african rosewood (I tell a bit more about the wood).

After maybe 2 hours of preparation, I was able to put the beam at use, to support the wood I will use to make a cabinet.

Note that the setting is not ideal, but it is stable given the weight of the beam. Further improvement will be to install trestles, and to have a better "dog" (bench-dog).

About the wood.

I've found this beam in Taiwan, and had it for about 85US$ (exactly 2600NT$). It fit just in our car, with the seats laid down, and me sitting on it while my wife was driving. Tougher was to carry it myself from the basement to the 1st floor, in a rather narrow staircase.
Now what wood is it? That is more interesting.
In chinese, the name is fei1 zhou3 hua1 li3 mu4 (for those who read roma pinyin).
This mean African Rosewood.
Fine, it's rosewood.
But I'm not satisfied at all to know it's rosewood, because this familly is so vast that it tells us almost nothing. But the pity is that I do not know more. In Taiwan, the guys at the milling or lumber companies do not know any scientific name. If I'd go there and ask for chamaecyparis obtusa of the cupressaceae familly, they'd look at me and say they don't have that here in Taiwan. But they'd be wrong, since the wood is the famous hinoki, that you will find in a good number of Japanese temples (the cypress used in many Japanese temples comes from Taiwan).

My first dai

2006-05-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

It had to happen some day: I had to try to make my own dai. The occasion presented itself after I've visited one of the few remaining dai maker in Taiwan. The man still has some stock of 20 to 30 years old red oak blank and I've bought one to seet a 60mm blade in it.

Comparing the red oak from Taiwan with red oak dais I have from Japan, I can tell that the former is of very good quality. It is noticeably dense. I told to myself I would precisely measure this density but haven't done it so far.
The only concern I have is that the remaining stock is only mainly masame (straight grain), and very few pieces are oimasame (quarter sawn stock, more stable for a dai).

Drilling holes will be of great help in this hard wood.

Start chopping.

Chopping in progress

Checking the blade width and marking it

Mouth chopping, a critical operation where it's so easy to ruin previous job. Mouth opeing is done after about 2/3rd of the chopping have been done on the other face.

Side cleaning (chopping at that stage looks like a mess, doesn't it?)

Sawing the side grooves

The cutting is finished, now remains to tune the sole.

For dai making, I recommend Jay Van Arsdale's detailed step by step explanation on dai making:
http://daikudojo.org/Classes/20060401/
I've seen it after my first attempt... Thanks Bob for the link!

Reading wood

2006-05-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

I've recently been given a piece of Taiwanese Juniper (the famous wood that has been used by Japanese temple maker for building shrines, temples...).
It was in a really bad shape and had been probably in contact with water. The picture shows part of it in its original state.

Original condition of the Taiwanese Juniper.

But I decided to try to give the piece a new life.

I used a block plane, with a rather large mounth opening to first get rid of the outer surface, completely fibrous as if it had been teared appart, and to clean the brownish parts.
After this cleanup, I switched to a smoother plane, set to take fine shavings, as my experience in planing this wood indicates it may be unfriendly depending on the grain. And that is the topic of my post: how to find out about the grain, and what to expect when planing. I don't mean to write anything new, and I know you will easily understand. But I just want to make you aware of that fact so that you know how to work with the wood, and anticipate its behaviour under your blade.
So let's read, directly from the picture. It will be straightforward.

How about that grain?

Ideal grain orientation

This grain is friendly, if you take it in the correct direction of course.
The grain on the foregound runs in a same direction (see the yellow lines I've added). The perpendicular surface planed easily and took a nice smooth finish.

On the following surface, on the other hand, observe the grain. Do you see it changing direction? Well, the corresponding perpendicular surface was a pain to plane. Even with very fine shavings setting, well sharpened blade, I've got tiny tearouts. I had to plane with an angle, and I know that my subblade setting was not optimum.

Unfriendly grain orientation

Someone who is fluent in wood reading, will probably be able to see right away from which part of the tree this piece of wood came from. He will know which part should be exposed, either for the beauty of its grain, or because it will plane well and thus will feature a very nice finish.

Please note that I do not mean to act as a teacher here, this is not my goal neither my position. My writings here are just to illustrate what I figure out during my woodworking experiences. I may be wrong, and in that case, please let me know!

Japan and Taiwan: wood and tools

2006-04-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

日本と台湾：木と大工道具

Spring time in Taiwan is made of rainy and sunny weather, particularly the month of april. On saturdays my 15months old son and I are supposed to work outside. Well in fact he plays and runs everywhere, and I can't do anything but bits of planing or sawing. But the pouring rain forced us to change our plans.
So we decided to go out, and check out the local hardware and tool shops, I mean old store and not hardware supermarket. The first one we entered had a shelf in the back just behind the counter with lots of wooden planes.

My eyes open and I start asking the shop owner if I can have a look at his planes. At the back of the shelf, behind many other planes, I recognize the white phoenix blade that I own.

Tools

White phoenix jointer, Yamaguchi-san.
Produced about 20 to 30 years ago (together with a red phoenix). Some were exported to Taiwan.

白鳳鉋。三木市の山口さん作。台湾の職人の鉋。

The first thing I did after I got back home with the white phoenix was to sharpen the slightly chiped blade. It took a very keen edge. Steel is blue steel, and for old white phoenix iron is rentetsu. I haven't had the opportunity to test its edge retention over the long run: the jointer is set at a low angle, suitable for soft wood which I do not have much. It was used by a local (Taiwan) craftman on Taiwanese Juniper.

I decided to talk about this plane as an introduction, because it illustrates the intricate relationship that happened between Taiwanese and Japanese history as far as woodworking was concerned. A lot more could be said on other topics related to the occupation but I am not historian and lack the documentations to sustain a solid report.

The interesting thing about the white phoenix, is that, as I mention in the intorduction, it is still sold in Taiwan. The shop owner explained me that these blades were the eldest in his shop, and that his father was the dai maker. It is worth noting also that this Taiwanese dai maker used red oak.
I asked if other old blades were available, and when he crawled under the shelf and took back a big can with many blades, I was like a kid discovering a new interesting article. All the blades were made in Japan 30 to 40 years ago. The guy couldn't answer my questions regarding the type of steel or the name of the maker.
I will undoubtly pay other visits to this shop, and will probably make few purchases. This time I've only bought a blank of 20 years old red oak and an unusual type (because of its size) of spokeshave.

Taiwanese spokeshave, red oak. Length about 22cm (8.6").

台湾の南京鉋

Wood

Taiwanese Juniper was praised by Japanese craftmen, particularly temple builder. A famous railroad track was build in the Ali mountain in central Taiwan for the purpose of exploiting the precious wood. The Yakushiji shrine for example, was rebuilt in the 1980s (achieved 1992) with Taiwanese Juniper.

Small stool in Taiwanese Juniper. I chipped one of my chisel while making this.

台湾の桧木（ひのき）。

The wood is now rare, and only to be found in rather small planks. It's not allowed to cut standing trees, but when a strong typhoon strikes the island, fallen trees are sought after in the mountain areas.

As I made an allusion in the "tool" section above, oak was used to make dais in Taiwan. It seems that only red oak was abailable, and it is now also a protected species of wood.

20 to 30 years old Taiwanese red oak (247/72/34mm or 9.7"/2.8"/1.3"), 564g (1.2lb)

台湾の赤樫。

日本の友達：
http://recreate.forest.gov.tw/01-4.php?char=japan&forest=1

これは台湾の面白いホムペです。日本語です。国家森林公園についてです.
(web page about Taiwan's national park, in Japanese)

KezurouKai Inuyama (削ろう会犬山)

2006-04-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

Inuyama Castle

For the 10th anniversary of Kezuroukai, the main theme was to built a Dashi （山車）。Dashi is a kind of car made of wood, pulled and push by several personns. It is crafted with skills and can take up to one year to be completed by a small team.
The one build for this kezuroukai benefited from the help of 70 craftmen, all members of Kezuroukai.
A small team from the USA, Jay Van Arsdale and his fellow craftmen, also participated to an element of the dashi. I recommend the visit of the daiku dojo web site (see links).
The building was directed by Mr Sugimura （杉村さん）, temple builder and head of Kezuroukai.

Workshop where parts of the Dashi were built:here are the main axis and frame structure.
(nikon S2, no flash, 35mm)

Morning before the first day meeting (18th of march 2006): assembly of the wheels and chassis.

Bringing the roof.

Dashi completed! march 19th 3pm

Other activities were also presented, such as the planing competition (with not only the goal to produce the finest shaving, but also to set the plane blade as fast as possible), metate (saw sharpener), using adze。。。

Skilled craftman using his ax, fearing not for his feet

Blacksmith:Tsunesaburo

2006-03-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

Tsunesaburo (常三郎) is actually not the name of a blacksmith, it names 3 generations of blacksmiths: Tsunezo, Akio and the third generation Toru Uozumi (魚住常三（初代）、昭男（二代）、徹（三代）). But by common usage, Tsunesaburo is used to qualify any of the maker. Sometimes the generation will add precision: Gojyunen made by "Tsunesaburo II", Koshodai made by Tsunesaburo first generation..
The first generation's picture is in the book of Mr Odate's Japanese tools.
Their workshop is located in Miki city.

Their website is full of interesting information (unfortunately for us, me included, only in Japanese). A wide range of choice is available and can be ordered directly from them or from Mr Iida (see links).

The workshop is quite big, compared to those I have seen so far. It is interesting to note that Tsunesaburo have bought a big power hammer together with other blacksmiths, so that the tool is shared among craftmen of Miki.

Steel blanks. On the rightmost handside, one of the last blanks of Togo Reigo, from the UK.

Stamps used to mark the blades.

Tsunesaburo produces a wide range of planes, offering more than 10 differents steel for the blade: HSS, white and blue steel, Togo Reigo, Tamahagane... The 2 later ones being highly looked after, and highly priced. You won't find any tamahagane plane on their catalog, these are custom made and show-up extreemly rarely.
Some of there famous planes includes:
shodai （初代）,
gatsurin　（月輪）,
gojyunen（五壽年）,
wako（和鋼）
asuka（飛鳥）
I was also surprised to see a stanley laminated blade... Would you believe this: a laminated blade for your stanley number 5 (not sure... providing the size of the blade, some of our fellow woodworker would probably identify the corresponding plane). If I understood well it was custom made in a small serie.

Young blacksmith

2006-03-26T23:06:00.000-08:00

"This a real crisis of Japan" was telling me a friend from Osaka, he was mentioning that very few blacksmiths are taking over the work of the previous generations.

But hopefully there are some accross Japan, few, but some.

Mr Uchihashi (内橋さん)is one of them. He is less than 30 years old. I visited him in March 2006 in his workshop, located in the countryside about 40 minutes drive south of Miki city.

I have only seen his work available on stands at the Inuyama kezuroukai meeting, but hopefully his planes will sell well so that it gives him encouragement for the future. I know his planes are sold in Tokyo.

Uchihashi-san in his workshop. 20march 2006.

big planes

2006-03-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

This blog is called "okanna" which literally means big plane in Japanese. So it was high time I show some pictures of big planes, and mention few words about them.

While it is already not easy to pull one of those big planes,　Mr Masaru Kamijo (上條勝) pulls 2.

Those big planes are so well tuned that even a first timer can try. It just requires a little power.

Mr Masaru Kamijo (上條勝) has created an original 5 blades plane. He tried it during the KezurouKai meeting in Inuyama.

Sharpening thoughts

2006-02-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

Woodworking is actually a multidisciplinary activity, there is:

basic maths (when you compute compound angles for example)
physics and chemistry (relating to metalurgy, grain of sharpening stones, measure of the degree of humidity degree in the wood, wood composition, ...),
mechanics (if you want to study how the plane blade interacts with the wood, ...),
biology and ecology,
history (when studying the origins of tools,...),
design,
and of course manual work.

Well yes, after all, woodworking is still a matter of creating and making cabinets, toys, furnitures, houses and so on.

But no matter how much you study wood properties or design, whatever how long you have been practicing planing or sawing or chopping, one thing is primordial: sharp tools.

Planing with a dull blade is like riding a formula one race with worn out tires. I'm not an F1 specialist but I know how important tires are, and they are changed a significant number of times during a race.

I remember one of my relative who was using the side of a cement wall to sharpen his kitchen knife. The cement was smooth after repeating sharpening over many years. But the surface was not flat at all, and still presenting sand grains or other particles. Now compare this cement wall with a 15000grit shapton stone...
Fortunately we have a wide choice when it comes to sharpening media: from natural to man made stones, compound to diamond paste, leather strops, mechanical tools...
The sharpening media goes by pair with the tool. Some time ago I spend hours on a blade, that wouldn't take any edge. I gave up. Then I went to Japan and shown the blade to Mr Sugimura (who has an impressive sharpening corner). After sharpening another blade I had also brought him, he started to work on the one I thought difficult. He spent 3 mn on it and said: "veeerrry difficult sharpen". It was a revelation for me: though I new by readings that some blade are hard to sharpen, I didn't know I had had the experimence myself. I just thought I was doing something wrong.

Sharpening is the art of feeling (the blade contact with the stone, its sharpness), listening (the scratch noise produced on the stone of a given grit) and looking (the blade dullness, because when an edge is sharp, you don't see it). And through experience, you'll know which stone you have to use for which blade (i.e which steel).

Books have been written on the subject, some are excellent. So the purpose of my writings here are just to share my thoughts on the matter, I won't reach the level of specialists.

I hope however to gather enough material from my own experience to provide basic guidelines and show what I do with what I have.

Kanna blade setting and dai tuning

2006-02-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

NOTE: I am now writing a skeleton about japanese blade and dai setting. Please come back in a while to read more details and look at pictures.

Most of the time the kanna you buy new will come unfinished at a certain degree. You may only need to scrap a little bit the blade bed to have the edge protruding from the mouth, but you may also have a more significant job to do.

I have had various experiences with dais.

Some were nicely cut, and the dai was a pleasure to tune.
In another one, the blade was just lose in the dai, even before I did anything.
Another one had the blade slightly angled (the blade edge wasn't perpendicular with the length of the dai)

The tasks you may have to perform, assuming you have already flattened the back of the blade are:

Bed scrapping or adjusting
Mouth opening, adjusting
Pin adjusting (together with subblade adjusting)

I shall detail this operation in a near future, with the help of some pictures or sketches.

Once the blade sits correctly, another important task is to tune the plane's sole. Japanese planes have a kind of hilly sole, with only 2 or 3 contact strips with the wood. The pattern depends on the type of work to be performed by the plane: trying, smoothing, finishing will define the height of the hills and depth of the valleys as well as the number of contact strips.

Now... How to create the pattern?

There are different approaches, depending on your equipment. I'll start with what I think is the most efficient and visual, but I haven't been able to try it since it requires a flat metalic surface, such as a thicknesser top, where graphite could adhear. If you have a surface plate in graphite, this may work as well.

What you do is to rub some graphite on the table, then rub your plane a couple of time on the flat surface. Look at the sole, and you will see that all high spots are darkened by the graphite. Nice, isn't it? You then just need to scrap these high spots until you get one strip at the front of the plane, one just BEFORE the edge, and optionally one at the back of the plane.

The other method is to use a straight edge. Japanese make some in steel dedicated for the purpose, but you can make your own as well. Mr Toshio Odate describe the method in his excellent and well written book. I find this to require some practice, and I used it in conjunction with the following.

This is the third method, which makes use of a straight edge but requires first a preliminary flattening of the sole. For this I am using a flat glass plate, mine being rather long since I have some long dai planes to tune.

Glass plate, sandpaper and double sidedtape

All you need for kanna tuning: your plane, glass plate, straightedge and a scrapper plane (a simple card scrapper would do also).
Note that the glass plate is locked in place.

After tuning, and rubbing on the graphite.

Old tools from Taiwan

2006-02-06T16:49:00.000-08:00

Those pages made by the Taiwan government are worth having a look at:

Chisels
http://www.tyccc.gov.tw/fur/Be5/001.htm

Planes
http://www.tyccc.gov.tw/fur/Be5/002.htm

Saws
http://www.tyccc.gov.tw/fur/Be5/003.htm

Laying out, sharpening, striking...
http://www.tyccc.gov.tw/fur/Be5/004.htm

A small workbench

2006-02-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to give this workbench to my son for his first birthday last january 23rd, but was quite late. I have just finished it yesterday (feb the 5th). It is made mainly with Japanese tools (saws, chisels and planes), but I have also used some spokeshaves and drawknife.

The base is in chinese juniper (juniperus chinensis), which was very common in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation (up to until 50 years ago). This material was exported in large quantities to Japan, and is now protected in Taiwan. Old pieces can still be found here and there for an acceptable price. It has a very pleasant smell and planes well... if the grain is working with you. Otherwise you get tear outs, no matter how well your plane is tuned. Even with a scraper I got some tearouts.

The top is laminated pine.

The vise screw is in eucalyptus, found on a sidewalk after a typhoon hit Taiwan last september.

Ripping the juniper (I am here using a ryoba)

Tenons and mortises

Screw cutting from eucalyptus (diameter of screws 13mm or 1/2")

The top is screwed to the base with wooden screws. The screws holes is the only place where I've used an electric tool (drill press), mainly for the flat bottom holes.

Partial result: I still need to oil the top, and chamfer the clamp leg.

Happy chinese new year (of the dog)

2006-02-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

In Taiwan it is very common that during the lunar new year period, all businesses are closed or at least running at a slow rythm. I didn't have vacation during christmas and our western new year period, so this one week break was welcome.

I've done a lot of woordworking and was glad to finish my son's workbench. I will post more details about its construction.

I have spent a lot of time to fine tune some of my planes, and I still need a lot of practice. Also worked on the sharpening of my plane blades.

Old tools

2006-01-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

I would define an old tool as having been used, not just tried, and it would have a particular feeling, like patina, worm holes, rust...

I have old planes (from France, the US and Japan), marking gages and saws (Japan).

It's a pleasure to give a new life to an old tool. I did it for a plow plane.
I took appart the plane and used steelwool to remove rust, and a small metal wheel on a mini-drill to clean other metalic parts. I sharpened the 2 knifes and the blade, and oiled them right after. As for the body, I used a scrapper to clean it.

The plow plane in pieces, before cleaning

After cleaning and light oiling with camelia oil

Some of my work

2006-01-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is a part of what I have done so far.

Everything have been sawn by hand, choped by hand and 90% drilled with a brace. No nails.

Cradle for my son

Bow saw.
Made from zitan, pterocarpus indicus (precious wood, intensivelly used in antique China for furniture) and stretcher is in guava (harvested in log form and resawn).
Rop in hemp.
Blade: turbo blade from Japan.

Camel, Lion and Bear.
Gifts for my son's first christmas.
Bear in camphor wood
Lion is made from a burl (but I don't know from which wood)
Camel is made from a hard exotic wood, with a very particular odor (I know the chinese name but not the common or scientific name)

Steam roller, gift for my son.
Wheels are in acacia (log formed with drawknife, rasp and spokeshave). Hole were made with the help of a drill press.

My son sitting on the small chair.
Chinese Juniper (very pleasant smell)
Top planed with a spoon bottom plane, finished with a scrapper

削ろう会　Kezurou-kai

2006-01-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Kezurou-kai Gotemba, september 2005

The gild of shaving gentlemen... Kezurou-kai is a group famous in Japan for its contests: the goal is to achieve the thinnest possible shaving. But it is much more than competition: it gathers two times a year woodworkers, craft -men and -women, blacksmith, temple builders and teachers.

My meeting with Kezurou-kai

Thanks to the web, I got in touch with the secretary of Kezurou-kai Japan, Sachiko. This was in october 2004. She wrote me I could go to their meeting that was happening just 3 days later. This was too short a notice for my first trip to Japan, but I had at least a contact from Japan.
Then at the end of february 2005, Sachiko let me know there is another meeting on the 5th of march in Miki city. I decide to go... though I didn't know where is Miki, didn't know any Japanese except few tools names, and new nothing about where to sleep and go to the meeting place. Well, that's fine, I was so happy I could go to Japan that I forgot about the unknowns.

Kezuroukai quaterly

Kezuroukai publishes a quaterly magazine. Sachiko and Mr Sugimura have been very kind to send it to me after my first meeting. It contains a lot of information on various subjects such as comparison test of planes, meeting minutes, interviews...

Miki-city (march 2005)

My first kezurou-kai meeting was to be the begining of my profound interest in Japanese tools and a deep sympathy with the Japanese people I have met. I hadn't heard about such kind people and hadn't met any.

I landed in Nagoya and was about to meet Sachiko for the first time. I had no idea how she looked, she only told me she was going to wear a red coat. I've found her no problem waiting for me. We drove to Mr Sugimura's workshop where I was going to spend the night. It was a bit cold in Japan in march. The next morning, Mr Sugimura and I drove to Miki. Sachiko couldn't join us.

Mr Takashima （高島さん）using a pump drill on a dai during a dai maiking workshop.

From left to right: Mr Ouchi, Mr Myiamoto, Mr Yamaguchi and Mr Sugimura.

Highlights of my trip was actually after the meeting, when Mr Sugimura and I visited some blacksmiths.

宮本さん高島さん横山さん仁村さん all gave me one hand plane while I and Mr Sugimura was visiting them to Miki-city.

Gotemba (september 2005)

My second trip to Japan and Kezuroukai meeting was also a great experience. This meeting was a "biiigg meeting" as Mr Sugimura said. It was indeed. It took place in Gotemba city, near the mount Fuji. Kezurou-kai America members were also present and it was nice to meet them.

There were a lot of activities: using an ax, forging a plane blade, workshops on how to use a saw, some metate (saw sharpeners), dai (plane body) makers, you could make your own marking knife... A lot of tools were also for sale.

Mr Hayashi （林さん） sharpening his Maebiki.

Mr Hayashi wrote a book about sawing. A Taiwanese friend of mine helped to buy it. I can't read what's written, but can recognize few words and it is interesting anyway to look at the few pictures and drawings.

I was very surprised to see him at the meeting. One of the highlight of the meeting was to try one of his maebiki.

Blade smith workshop.

Mr Yamaguchi (sitting) giving direction to Mr Sugimura, Mr Kendo (saw maker) carefully observing.

Using an adze (choona)

Kanna 鉋　かんな　Planes

2006-01-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

My first high end tools were planes, and metal ones. I ordered from a well known maker in the US. I was extreemly happy to receive them and the pleasure to use a hand plane for the first time was immense. As Mr Charlesworth says, "planing is therapeutic".

Right now I can't recall how I happen to be interested in Japanese tools, but the first one I got was given to me by a Taiwanese craftman (it happens that I will later have the chance to meet the maker of that plane, Mr Yamaguchi).

So... why Japanese versus others? It for sure has to do with my first visit to Japan. From Sachiko and Mr Sugimura to Mr Yamaguchi, the people I have met are sincerally good hearted. The tools I have been given have a soul for me. I have met there maker and talked to them. They symbolize the sympathy I've received from these Japanese woodworkers, craftmen, bladesmiths and students.
I was conforted in my orientation when a retired civil engineer asked me how I liked the Asuka (飛鳥) plane I had just ordered from an auction site. We have been regularly corresponding with each other since almost a year, sometimes on a daily basis. I wish I could meet him in person, either in Japan or anywhere else, because he appears to inspire the same Japanese sympathy as I've seen among Japanese woordworkers.

Here are pictures of some of my planes:

This is the Magatama mokume　（勾玉木目）, made by Tesshinsai Houraku （鉄心斎芳楽）

常三郎の五壽年
Gojyunen, from Tsunesaburo

山口さんの白鳳
White Phoenix, from Yamaguchi-san
This is an old plane, given to me by a Taiwanese carpenter from Toufen, Miaoli. Red oak long dai.

Rakusan
I won the blade and subblade (more exactly, Sachiko from Kezuroukai gave me a wining ticket. Thank you Sachiko! 幸子：ありがとうございます）

Hand work: Japanese tools and other interests!

2006-01-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

こんにちは！大家好! Hello! Salut!

Welcome to my humble blog. I hope you'll find something interesting to read, learn or share!

The picture above is the one of my first Japanese tool. It's name is "White Phoenix", and was given to me by a Taiwanese craftman from Toufen city, Miaoli county, Taiwan. It is in red oak, and long body. The blacksmith is Yamaguchi (山口さん) from Miki city.
It was the spark that triggered my interests for handtools and Japanese tools in particular (note that the powder was ready to be ignited!).

As I have the opportunity, I will post about my other tools, my work, and why hand work matters.

I hope to write about how to use, set and care for hand tools, and Japanese tools in particular. I hope to tell about why I like Nikon Rangfinder cameras... and maybe a lot more!

鋸-鉋-鑿 （Nokogiri-Kanna-Nomi）