If you have an interest in Japanese joinery or joinery in general, then I would like to point you to an article series by John Bullar. Mr. Bullar is writing this article series about Japanese joinery for:
Furniture & Cabinetmaking magazine.
Mr. Bullar begins the series with a look at Japanese tools as well as pointing out that a person can execute these joints with traditional western tools. Continue reading
My next project will be a “Japanese” toolbox. I know, I know Chris Schwarz is building one too. I feel like a Johnny-come-lately or a bandwagon jumper with this, but I assure you that I am not. I have been kicking this one around a while and I’m now getting to the point where I’m just about ready to start it.
If you are hoping for intricate joinery, expensive wood and custom hardware, you might as well stop reading now. There won’t be any of that. I’ll be closely adhering to the design that Toshio Odate outlined in his book and a subsequent magazine article. These style toolboxes were never intended to be Continue reading
My high hopes from yesterday for building the remaining three drawers, were quickly dashed this morning. I could have sworn that I had enough 1/2″ stock remaining for the last of the drawers. Alas, I was mistaken and a different form of swearing took place. Instead of making a trip to town I chose to use the last of the available material to build one drawer and then began work on the drawer bottoms. I also completed the sliding lid for the drawer/box. I’ll slip off to Lowes tomorrow on my lunch hour and pick up some 1/2″ stock. Continue reading
…and then there were three.
Almost every evening this week I was able to spend at least an hour or so in the shop. The sum total of that effort netted me two additional completed drawers. Not as much as I had hoped for, but progress all the same. All of these drawers are relatively small. So at first glance, small drawers should take less time. The reality is that a drawer is a drawer is a drawer. They all have four corners that require joinery and grooves for bottoms. Sure, very large drawers with additional dovetails will take more time. But average size drawers all eat up the same amount of time no matter the length or width. Continue reading
My time in the shop was short today. The onset of warm weather signals the start of grass mowing season. It takes, on average, 3hrs to mow down the grass on my property. Luckily I can now split that time with my teenage son. This weekend was the first mowing of the year so I had to first ready the mower. Which ate up a little extra time. There are few things in this world that I hate more than Continue reading
I started my day in the shop by gluing and pegging the two drawers that I had ready. I tend to build drawers one or two at a time. It’s not the most efficient way of doing them, but i have limited space in the shop. So to avoid damaging the drawers, the safest place for them is in the carcass. That’s why I build, glue and fit a drawer before starting on the next one. Anyway.
Liquid hide glue was smeared on the Continue reading
Let the drawer making commence!
Last evening I started with the drawer construction. I would have liked to cut at least one practice joint in the walnut before diving into the real deal so that I could get a feel for the compression rate. But since I used absolutely all of my walnut, save a few small cutoffs, I had no choice but to just jump in. I knew that the walnut would have little compression and just guessed at how tight to shoot for erring on the tight side. This first round of dovetails fit pretty good. There are a couple of Continue reading
I was able to slip down t the shop for about an hour after work the past couple of evenings and size, cut and fit the drawer fronts the current HB Tansu. One the aesthetic elements that originally drew me to the Japanese tansu was the asymmetric layout of drawers and doors. Maybe it is just because its different. Most western cabinetry and drawer chests favor a symmetrical layout and it is what most of expect to see. The left side mirrors the right side across a visual vertical center line. Not so much with the Japanese style and I like it. Continue reading
Today was carcass glue-up day. There are a lot of parts involved in this and its always a little unnerving. Everything needs to go together smoothly or I risk glue freeze on a joint somewhere. Wouldn’t be the end of the world, liquid hide glue is reversible, but it would be a lot of work to get everything back apart. Continue reading
Today was all about panels. I cut and fit all of the required panels for the carcass. This isn’t a difficult job, but due the small size of my shop, can be tedious. Constantly moving the assembly and the raw panel material. First to ascertain the panel size and then to cut the panel. its far too easy to either get in a hurry or become frustrated or both. So I try to make a conscious effort to slow down and be methodical in my Continue reading
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