tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post6197452721085432224..comments2023-11-05T06:16:56.961-05:00Comments on the Carpentry Way: A Ming-Inspired Cabinet (8)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-11307427218843992032016-01-07T19:01:15.625-05:002016-01-07T19:01:15.625-05:00Owen,
sure, send me some pictures and I'll ta...Owen,<br /><br />sure, send me some pictures and I'll take a look. At least it was a garage sale find and a therefore good and inexpensive tool to learn on whatever the outcome.<br /><br />~CAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-55448862830332047042016-01-07T15:57:22.413-05:002016-01-07T15:57:22.413-05:00Hi Chris,
Thanks for your response. I love learni...Hi Chris, <br />Thanks for your response. I love learning stuff like this... so much more beautiful than chopping everything into 2x4's and building matchstick houses :-/ <br />I bought my first Kanna over the holidays from someone who had scooped up a bunch of old tools at a garage sale - and while I was optimistic because it seems quite old and the steel seems very, very hard... good lord it's been a can of worms. Probably not a great beginner kanna as it's a 70mm blade. (I mostly only have krenov style planes I made myself, and 2" is my largest). I pulled up the "kanna help you" articles, and started nervously correcting the twist - but got into flattening the back, needing to hollow it out more, and eventually felt a little overwhelmed and just put it down. There are a few other issues I'm not too sure about. Not giving up yet, but realising it is going to take me a lot longer than I anticipated...and I didn't even have any illusions about it being easy!<br />If you are interested, I was wondering if I might send you some pictures - I fear I have made a mess of it so far, and would really like to salvage it. Or maybe you would take one look at it and tell me I have a scrub plane or wall art. <br />Thanks as always for sharing your work, it's truly inspiring!<br />OwenAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18343914204008549052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-24244212412209278292015-12-24T08:50:59.036-05:002015-12-24T08:50:59.036-05:00Owen,
appreciate the question.
When I started w...Owen,<br /><br />appreciate the question. <br /><br />When I started with the slab, I was able to tell from a look at the end grain and the faces of the board which end of the slab was towards the top of the tree and which was towards the bottom. It wasn't too hard to do since the tree trunk the slab came from was slightly tapered and the sapwood tapered out towards zero at the bottom of the slab. I then marked the ends of the cants I ripped and cross cut out of the slab to indicate which end of each piece was top. I keep an eye on this throughout the processing work so that when I am done the boards are oriented as is preferable.<br /><br />Japanese practice is to use material from a tree as it came from the tree itself. This is done not only in respect to top/bottom, but to even which portion of the log was south facing, north facing, or, if using material from many logs in a building, one would take logs from south facing slopes and put the timber from them similarly on the south side of a building, etc. Then there are practices for dealing with placing timbers in a building relative to which portion of the tree they came from and the effects that location in the log will likely have on reaction wood and future movement - placing timbers thus obtained in a structure in relation to one another so that the reaction wood or movement propensities of different sticks are cancelled out by one another. There's more to this topic yet, perhaps something to elaborate on in a future blog post.<br /><br />~C<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-6608833881584847622015-12-23T23:10:48.247-05:002015-12-23T23:10:48.247-05:00Hi Chris,
Are you able to figure out what was the ...Hi Chris,<br />Are you able to figure out what was the top of the tree in more heavily processed boards? Or is it somewhat necessary to have the giant slab to give you a good idea. I'm turning it over in my head as to possible different heart/bark/cathedral clues but I'm getting a little lost. Any tips or tricks to determining that would be appreciated! I also saw this mentioned in a japanese joinery documentary on youtube where they said door parts might be less likely to warp if left in their natural orientation. <br />Thanks,<br />OwenAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18343914204008549052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-80149864784723644622015-11-15T10:28:36.265-05:002015-11-15T10:28:36.265-05:00I'm so glad I asked -- thank you! I can see ho...I'm so glad I asked -- thank you! I can see how milling up boards from a slab makes all those design considerations possible/more straightforward. Great to see those machines in action.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11714090611641801297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-911125510826458432015-11-14T09:21:37.571-05:002015-11-14T09:21:37.571-05:00Jamie,
I've found the cants are very good lis...Jamie,<br /><br />I've found the cants are very good listeners, and never argue with me directly.<br /><br />I look at grain orientation primarily from a few different vantage points:<br /><br />-the grain orientation with minimum propensity for movement<br />-the grain orientation which will facilitate planing<br />-the grain orientation of vertical pieces will match the orientation of the pieces in the standing tree<br /><br />For these panels, I sliced cants from both the left and right flanks of an enormous slab with a centered run of grain. It was clear therefore which end of the slab was the top of the tree, and which face of the cant was towards the outside of the tree. I marked the cants accordingly before slicing them out.<br /><br />Now, each cant has been cut into four boards, and each set of 4 has fairly similar figure. Each face of each board is marked so I know which face of the board is facing towards the bark, and which end of each board is towards the top of the tree. <br /><br />Next, I will take two boards from the left set, and two boards from the right set, and combine them to form two new groups. In this step I can aim for an aesthetically pleasing pattern across the four board faces as they relate to one another. I will have pairs of boards on each side of that grouping oriented in respect to one another as if they were in the tree - i.e., the two on the left will be from the left side of the slab, and the two on the right will be from the right side of the slab. I will also end up with all the boards oriented as they stood in the tree, and facing the same direction, and this should mean all the boards plane the same direction and reflect light from their figure somewhat similarly. <br /><br />~CAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-91538026315224906182015-11-14T07:43:50.255-05:002015-11-14T07:43:50.255-05:00I'm glad you made sure the cants were clear on...I'm glad you made sure the cants were clear on what was expected of them. :) <br /><br />Looking forward to this build! Along the way, could you say a few words on how you decide to orient the panels to use the figure? I lean toward having the grain flow all the way across the surface, rather than book matching and having turn on and off depending on viewing angle... but I still don't appreciate all considerations that go into the decision, especially not with such gorgeous bulbinga!<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11714090611641801297noreply@blogger.com