Japanese Carpentry

[MartinF]

Those of you who are interested in Japanese carpentry may be interested in the following video from Robin Clevett. In it, he and his 2 apprentices visit the Japanese Carpentry Exhibition at Japan House for a private guided tour of the exhibition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo1JP6IZKVk

 

[Weekend worrier]

I went to this on Friday and enjoyed it, obviously not a place for deep-dives into the finer points of Japanese Carpentry but definitely worth a visit if you’re in London

 

[AndyP]

Same I've only just found out about that. Would love to have gone. Although I feel 5 mins in that hands on area would have been enough for me to give up this hobby for good.

 

[Woodbloke]

Same I've only just found out about that. Would love to have gone. Although I feel 5 mins in that hands on area would have been enough for me to give up this hobby for good.

We always pop into JH when we're in Londres as they usually always have some sort of exhibition that's well worth seeing. We don't ever purchase anything though from the shop; it would be almost cheaper to get on an aircraft and fly to Japan to buy a similar article. The last 'hands on' exhibition we saw was on Kokeshi Dolls of which SWIMBO has a few :eusa-whistle: - Rob

Edit - all the Japanese joint work etc is for temple and shrine building (the big stuff) and as far as I can make out, there's very little in the way of 'home grown' furniture stuff (tansu excepted) that they produce. The current trend is Scandi-mod/Danish (some in the UToob clip) with an influence of big, slabby table tops from the USA

 

[AJB Temple]

It is possible to do short carpentry courses in Japan where they teach some of the simpler jointing techniques. It's hard to see a practical application for a lot of it in Europe in the modern world. Some techniques I found very difficult to get to grips with. For example, planing, which is done on the pull stroke and feels very counter intuitive to a western plane user. I brought a couple of planes home from one visit, but have never used them here as really you need to embrace the low bench system as well.

Never been to JH in London. Must try to visit.

 

[Woodbloke]

For example, planing, which is done on the pull stroke and feels very counter intuitive to a western plane user. I brought a couple of planes home from one visit, but have never used them here as really you need to embrace the low bench system as well.

Never been to JH in London. Must try to visit.

Mike Huntley, the ex-ed of F&C is a personal friend and is very much 'into' all aspects of Japanese hand toolery, to the extent of even sharpening and tuning saws, which ain't for the faint hearted. He has a pretty good selection of planes and they're quite usable on a Western style bench although he used to have access to a planing beam owned by a mutual friend. They're counter intuitive to use but not difficult once you've been shown how; the really difficult bit is honing (we won't go there) and then setting up the cutter in the dai, 'specially if it's a new plane. It's second nature to a Japanese chippy who naturally, so Mike said, think that Western style, metal bodied planes are the weirdest things on God's green earth :lol: - Rob

Edit - next time you're in 'le smoke' go to JH; you won't regret it. Just don't reach for the CC :eusa-whistle: