Joinery examples

By
Examples of a few (mostly) Japanese joints created in Jay van Arsdale's Japanese Joinery class at Laney College, Oakland, CA and some I tried on my own. Figure out the process on practice joints and scrap wood. 

 I also urge you to get a copy of this book. It contains a lot of information on joinery and and has measured drawings of many. 

2024 Update: This book appears to be out of print and the used prices are very high online. You may have to look hard to find it at a good price.   


The Complete Japanese Joinery by Hideo Sato, Yasua Nakahara and Koichi Paul Nii (1995)


And the late Chris Hall had put together some great books on Japanese joinery and the methods, measurements, and math behind them.      https://thecarpentryway.blog/author/kurisuhoru/


Haunched mortise & tenon on shoji frame. 

Bridle joint variation

Bridle joint variant from side.

Kanawa-tsugi joint (6"x6" post)

boxed and mitered mortise and tenon

boxed and mitered M&T assembly

Shitagekama joint (half-dovetail locked with wedge)

Shitagekama disassembled
Shachi-tsugi joins two horizontal beams to a post.
Top of beam. Keys not trimmed flush yet. 
Tapered keys tighten joint.

Beam ends are also partly mortised into post to support load. 
Google saoshachitsugi for details at JAANUS site.


Mitered (or secret) blind dovetail.
Widely used in Japanese tansu and sashimono.


inside the mitered blind dovetail

Female half of a kama-hozo-kumi (鎌ほぞ組) variant. 

Popular posts from this blog

Ari shakuri kanna (dovetail plane) - dai rebuild

By
Image
Ari shakuri (jyakuri) kanna  - dai rebuild: Knowing that I had many sliding dovetails to make,  I looked on eBay for a solid, undamaged, and relatively unused kanna that would suffice as a plane for sliding dovetails. I found this:  I expect old kanna dai to warp over time and this one was no exception, but at least the blades were better than expected.  You will notice this is a fixed (no adjustable fences), single purpose, skewed rabbet plane (cuts 90 degrees), not an ari-shakuri-kanna. However, I originally thought I would alter the dai and main blade to deliver 77 degrees. Once I saw the kink in the dai and the otherwise nice condition of it, I opted to just create a derivative of it and leave the original alone. 
Read more

Kyoto natural sharpening stone shop visit

By
Image
While at the Kezuroukai in Odawara, Japan last year I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of natural sharpening stone ( ten-nen-toishi) sellers there. Most were from Kyoto, the epicenter of the natural stone mining business, and where we were heading in a couple days.  Most sellers at Kezuroukai brought select stones to sell, but nobody was set up for you to actually try the stones in a meaningful way. When we spoke to a few of the more talkative sellers, they were quick to invite us out to their shops where they have their full inventory and encourage visitors bring blades and try everything. 
Read more

Product Review - Mitsukawa Juntaro saw set

By
Image
This is a bit of a departure from my usual project-driven posts but maybe it will help somebody debating a tool purchase, plus there are not many reviews out there that I could find. Mitsukawa Juntaro is a third generation sawmaker in Japan who creates a wide range of saw types. His saws span from machine sharpened semi-production up to traditionally forged, sharpened, and tuned works of blacksmithing art. This set is handmade (at least partly) but I do not know exact details. Usually this is a set of 5 saws, but the little shop in rural Japan I went to only had these 4: Flush trim, rip, crosscut, and hybrid (crosscut with raker teeth). Price for the set of 5 is approx $250 and you can get them at Hidatool.com and elsewhere. 
Read more