I love watching craftsmanship like this...

I guess you corrected it. I see now, exclude the url part of the address and just put in the video identifier... the youtube tags take care of the rest... correct? Now all I have to do is remember that... Oh well...

 

In the early "Fine Homebuilding" magazines was coverage of a traditional Japanese house being built, I remember the detail of the posts being set on large, natural rocks and the bottom end of each post was carved to fit the surface of the rock it set on. This house was built in a mild California climate and the center was open to the sky with the rooms and their sliding walls around the outside, like a square donut. In the center was a rock garden, and the four roof vees' drained into it, each corner having a large chain instead of a gutter to control the rain water from the roof to the rocks.
Incredible detail throughout and it seemed to turn the house, earth, sky and weather into one, an almost living entity.

I'm curious about the political decision regarding The Japanese old naval carpentry, and if a joint as in the video is ancient or something that has evolved recently?

 

Hello Steve,

Thanks for providing those links. I went on looking at the other videos, because more years ago than I like to admit, I discovered that whilst my paternal grandfather was a cabinet maker & my father was a pretty decent joiner in his spare time, my skills were more akin to bodging. That is not to say that bodgers weren't skillful, it's just that they knocked out chair legs on rough & ready pole lathes in the beech woods around where I live now. Rough & ready is about my standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodging#High_Wycombe_lathe

I recall reading a book about English carpenters & the joints they used. Again, it was years ago. To my surprise I stumbled upon an on-line copy of another book published in 1905 in New York that also illustrates these joints. Chapter 5 is about scarfing joints & Fig 131 & 132 are tightened with a pair of folding wedges whilst with 135, 136 & 139 a square pin is inserted & hammered home. Almost the same solutions 12,00 miles apart.

http://toolemera.com/bkpdf/woodworkjoints1917.pdf

I spied a longer version of joint 139 at Beamish Museum in Durham. A Victorian coal drop for loading horse drawn wagons had been rebuilt as part of the museum's railway. Coal wagons would be pushed up an inclined plane into the coal drop building to stop above the carts. A lever would unlatch the bottom doors & coal would descend. The rails were not fastened to sleepers (ties), but to longitudinal timbers that spanned the space above the carts, so the coal would drop without obstruction.

Two joint 139s had been used to create the long timbers, but when they were disassembled the square pins were been drilled out. Whoever re-erected the coal drop did not understand the nature of the joint, so it was drilled through & bolted as it's only for show! http://www.beamish.org.uk/

All the best,

Perry

 

The political decision about the naval carpentry; after the XVIth century. feudal wars and the installation of the Shoguns Tokugawa, on 1635 Japan was closed by Iemitsu Tokugawa; foreigners (except Dutch merchants at Nagasaki) were forbidden, the Japanese were forbidden to travel abroad, and all the high sea boats were destroyed. The new boats were made by law without a true keel and rather small so they were unable to sail far from the coasts. Japan remained insulated until 1853. This period is called Sakoku.
So the traditional merchant and fishing boats after 1635 were rather small, the biggest merchants lacked totally of rigidity and were able only of coastal trips. All the high sea wooden boats made in Japan on the end of XIXth and beginning of XXth were made on foreign design and techniques, and later the designs were adapted to the Japanese needs and tastes.

The joint of the video is a traditional one and rather simple compared to some others as it's simply sliding on one dimension. I have a very good book on the traditional Japanese house, with all the detail (choice of the woods and materials, different styles, measures, dispositions, details like sliding doors, shutters, furniture, kitchens, roofs with all the scantlings), plus a detailed description of the technical joints (there are many!) and this one is described, plus some variants. It's a 800 pages book with thousands of drawings, a very nice gift by a Japanese friend 40 years ago. The main purpose of Japanese carpentry joinery is to conceal the joints (half joke)...

I do agree, Japanese houses (and gardens) are strikingly beautiful, but not the most comfortable for living in cold weather.

 

Pericles. Thanks for the links. The PDF book is a pleasure...The best joint for keel boats is Fig 136 (it's a variant of jupiter trait) I saw almost the same on the elm keel of a 30 meters fishing boat being built by Alexandre Tertu at Rostellec Britanny. I and my master made one similar on a medium sized fishing boat keel long time ago (I was apprentice). After we made the keels in nailed and screwed laminated iroko; far stronger. Now we have the glues...

 

Ilan Voyager,

O/T, have you seen Louis Sauzedde scarf a plank with a chainsaw?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox93snKVuaM

Here is a Japanese craftsman with the longest chainsaw I have yet seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq55Q6GLZf0

Regards,

Perry

 

Perry, many thanks for the links!

I didn't know Mr Sauzedde, and his YT chain is very interesting. Excellent technique to get rid of butt planks (I also hate them, as they make a hard point) and to replace planking. The modified power planer is very clever. All the intelligent old guys have their tricks. I love the fact he is has hands in perfect shape, that shows he is a wise guy when using power tools...
Mr Sauzedde is very practical for fast accurate results as he gets the best from the power tools.
Scarfing planks with a chainsaw has been done since a long time, it's a fast approach and the final planning is a breeze. That needs a high quality saw.

The Japanese master is very skilled and I laughed when I remarked he was using a German Stihl saw. For chain saws Stihl and Huskvarna are the best. To master such a saw in this kind of cuts you need a lot of practise!.
As I said before the Japanese have the woods, straight, easy to work and very stable. Although being monoxyle the piece of wood has not split after cutting...most of the woods would have cracked in a few days at the "final" drying after the cut even with the round shape. It's impossible to dry completely a such enormous piece of wood before cutting it.
These cuts are impossible to make on a very hard wood like the African doussier or the Mexican chechen, as the chain and the engine will die in minutes.

Regards Ilan

 

Japanese again with white gloves building a house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-IvWKkisRQ

 

Not too far from the farm I grew up on,was a log home building company.
Typical for fitting the logs together: place the logs a top each other,scribe the outline,then chainsaw the shape. Chisel out the remains,and caulking will make up the 1/2" gaps.

They had two Japanese guys learning there,and though they'd take a bit longer-no caulking between the logs was needed and you couldn't slide in a piece of paper the whole length of the log nor anywhere in the joints.

 

Not as precise, but wonderful nevertheless.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=g...jpg;http%3A%2F%2Fcarpenteroak.com%2F;1024;768

I too saw the Stihl. It's probably because of the length of the blade. See comment below.

"My $0.02 cents worth.

Chainsaw speaking, Stihl is to chainsaws that Honda is to small generators, in my opinion.

I would go further in saying that if Stihl made a small generator comparable to the Honda, I would have a Stihl generator."

http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/looking-for-japanese-made-chain-saws.80695/

Regards,

Perry

 

Europeans have nothing less than Japanese in traditional wooden building. It's simply different as using mainly oak, chesnut and some pines (generally heavy with coarse grain), not as easy to work as Japanese spruces, pines and cedars. European carpentry design is based on triangles for the roofs, a very different approach from the Japanese one, which is rather orthogonal. Modern building carpentry uses more pines and laminated woods (the first laminated beams for roofs were designed and made by Philibert Delorme, a French architect on 1550 - no there is no mistake on the year 1550- using wood nails for laminating). Glued laminated beams began around 1850-1870 in England, France and Germany.
Another superb traditional technique is the arched roof which permits large spans -I joined 2 pics from Wiki of the roof of the "Salle des Pôvres" of the Hospice de Beaune Bourgogne France made around 1450 14 meters span- using relatively little material. These roofs are traditional for the farms in Lozere France. That looks like a boat hull. I add also a pic of roofs in the Bourguignon style, that's also craftsmanship.
About the chain saw; not so much for the length of the blade (a few brands have blades as long for logging and field mills) but because Stihl has the best blade guides and chains which are of superior quality, easy to sharpen and long lived.

 

Moroccan bow lathe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnv0DAR_gWA

The smell of the Atlas cedar is delicious and the artisans are incredible. The Medina of Marrakech is a very interesting place with mountains of handicraft (silver jewelry, copper work etc...). Look at the video and you'll be surprised.

 

With a chainsaw yet!

this


to this...









done by Jonathan Archer

 

Sorry about the picture size... comes from another site.

 

A delicate touch with a fast moving blade. Yea verily, you have opened the flood gates. With ice however, the sculptor has the opportunity to replace parts lopped off in error.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=i...sch&q=ice sculptures with chain saws&imgdii=_

It's wonderful how the artist sees a stump & releases the beast within.