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.
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- Close up of keyaki grain
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- The trusty trio
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