Yoneda Project

Mike McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly – The Full Set (RTÉ) Part 2

Davey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:27:28 +0000

Mike McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly – The Full Set (RTÉ) Part 1 Old tunes that can crack a heart of stone:...
Mr. Dave & Mr. Weisenborn I been rocking Mr. Dave ever since my man C...
Sharon Shannon’s “Neck Belly Reel” I can posit no reason this should be called The...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Another Kutsubako

Davey — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:43:51 +0000

We’ve got shoes. Not Imelda Marcos level shoeage, but, yeah, plenty of shoes. This being Japan and all, they don’t get to come in and sleep in the closet. Nope, they have to live by the front door in the genkan. A couple of years ago, I measured and figured and drafted up a kutsubako (shoe cabinet) for the Yoneda house genkan. I was able to piece the case together from some of the leftover red pine and scavenged an old piece of pine furniture for the doors.

Unfortunately, it was a bit too crowded in there, and Mika decided she needed a separate cabinet for her shoes. She bought some antique cabinet online and it works well enough… except… except there’s this odd odor coming from the cabinet. And it’s not stinky shoe smell. It’s more like dried bonito –katsuobushi–that is used to season various dishes.

Well, I mean. This won’t do.

So I’m building another shoe cabinet, this one, the mother of all shoe cabinets, with plenty of room for new shoes and built in air-circulation to boot. (Sorry.) I drew and drew and drew, at odd moments over the first semester, till I had something that should fit with the general look of the genkan. I took my drawings and measurements out to Kitazoe-san’s place and he ushered us into his office. I had figured I would get the chance to paw through his stacks, but he, as I am finding out, has his own agenda that we must follow:

He chooses what wood I should use. Oh, I tell him what species–hinoki and sugi–and he decides which goes where. I tell him the various dimensions and he rough cuts everything. I sit in his air conditioned office drinking ice coffee and looking at his aquarium and he runs around in the mill ordering his workers about while the band saws scream and he gets soaked in sweat. Eventually the whole package is assembled, I approve it and pay for it. Next, he decides if it’s too much to carry in our car (it is) so he drives it in and delivers it to my shop for free. Hmm. All in all, not a bad deal.

Since I’m doing most of this by hand (except for using a router table and a cope and stick set), final milling of stock is taking time. I’ve had to construct a temporary planing bench (thanks, Odate, for the inspiration). Hard, finicky work to keep tearout at bay (blade sharpening starts every day), but things are moving along.

A Save The kitchen in this house has been remodeled at least...
Pickles & after awhile, you mostly get fed up Accommodating surprise!...
Alan Peters Documentary Just received “The Maker’s Maker”, a DVD I purchased about...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Evolving into Handtools

Davey — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:46:08 +0000

As I have written before, I am in the process of unplugging my work. The reasons for this are many. First off is a desire not to chop my fingers off, lose all my hearing and have my alveoli fill up with sawdust. In addition, I’ve hit a wall in my work because machines will take you only so far. Finally, working with hand tools is just all around a more satisfying and pleasant experience for me. Will thinks I’m nuts, but when I’m no longer physically able to drive a joiner plane down a length of keyaki and get good results, it will be time to sell off the tools and turn to something else.

Well…, and plus, how many table saws does a guy need to buy? On the other hand, so to speak, buying saws from Mark Harrell at Bad Axe and planes from Lie Nielsen is something I can enjoy on a regular basis. Recent additions include a 14″ Sash / Tenon and a reconditioned 28″ Disston #8 rip from Mark, and a No 9 miter and a low angle block plane from Lie Nielsen.

To use the Disston #8 comfortably, I needed a sawbench. I found bench plans that Christopher Schwarz designed and using recycled scraps left over from Grandpa days, built this sawbench using only handtools. Took a long time, but, dang! Turned out well.

Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine… My first serious commitment to working by hand was to...
A Coarse Correction Ever since I saw the first video of the Saw...
Butsudan Stand Finished This was a joy to build, for many different reasons,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Milling keyaki

Davey — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:13:05 +0000

Keyaki, (“zelkova”) is a member of the elm family and grows well in Kochi. When quartersawn, it has some of the same visual properties of oak. It’s prone to chipping and tearout, but worked carefully, it’s a rich, obedient wood that finishes up like a jewel.

I am courting a relationship with a local sawyer who runs a small mill not 30 minutes drive from our home. While he cuts a variety of hardwoods, his specialty is keyaki, and he ships large timbers around the country for use in temple maintenance and repair. But he also seems happy to deal with me and my piddly little requests. A couple of months ago, I took him a sketch of a free standing book cabinet I’ve designed for Mika. I wanted wood with grain that had a strong linear look. I was willing to consider any variety of wood, even cypress, but he took one look at my sketch and led me directly to a couple of boards. Beautiful!

They’ve been sitting stickered in my shop since then, not so much for acclimatizing to my shop but because I’ve been way too busy to give them any attention. Last weekend, though, was a three-dayer which coincided with the end of our rainy season. Off to work I went.

The boards tapered in thickness between 5 ~ 2 cm and are about 27 cm wide. Too wide for re-sawing on the bandsaw, and with my thickness planer out of action for who knows how long, I set to with a trusty trio of German scrub plane, Australian try plane, and Chinese knock-off no. 3. Hard, sweaty work, liters upon liters of sports drink, and rivers of chips and shavings flowing out of the planes.

Not done, but well on the way.

Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine… My first serious commitment to working by hand was to...
Butsudan Stand I’m stymied with my kotatsu table because I haven’t bitten...
A Coarse Correction Ever since I saw the first video of the Saw...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Mike McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly – The Full Set (RTÉ) Part 1

Davey — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:08:07 +0000

Old tunes that can crack a heart of stone:

Sharon Shannon’s “Neck Belly Reel” I can posit no reason this should be called The...
Long Gone Cannibal — Chapter 2ish It was always my job to say grace. “Dear Heavenly...
Long Gone Cannibal Blues Lord, I miss her. After all these years, why should...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.