I still have a few more things to post and some more pictures from our time in Japan but was just sent a link to an article in the Japan Times. It was interesting to see how the Japanese press saw us. Rustic building fest spans two continents Traditional craftsmen come together to share their skills Back in early August,…
Did you ever see a better sharpening set up than this? The water trough has running water fed from a stream so is continually flushing away the swarf and slurry from the stones. This sharpening trough was set up on the edge of our tea house worksite in Japan and the Japanese carpenters would visit regularly to keep a perfect…
The main purpose of this post is to show off some gorgeous pictures of sumitsubo, the Japanese carpenters ink markers, equivalent to European chalk lines. I’ll also give a brief overview of the measurement system and the different way carpenters mark out their timbers. Whilst Japan went metric in 1924 carpenters the world over tend to hang on to old…
Whilst building the tea house in Japan we used a many axes and adzes. The axe that got most use was the carpenters ono, a bearded laminated axe that comes in various sizes from small one handed hatchets used for removing the waney edge of boards to large heavy versions used for squaring beams. This is Tak at work and…
Whilst in Japan I used very many saws and chisels all of which were of the finest quality and not to be confused with the cheap Japanese tools available in the UK. The saws used by Japanese carpenters typically cost £200 and chisels around £150 each. I found it quite shocking that folk would pay £150 for a single chisel…
Japanese hand planes are simply a delight to use. When well set up and sharpened by an expert they glide through wood with little resistence and leave a surface finish second to none. The thing that impressed me most about planing wood on the kesorokai tea house project however was the way the worksite was organised on a sloping site…
Having just come back from Japan I have lots of photos of our craft skills exchange to share but as a first post I thought I would share some more general thoughts answering the question everyone has asked since I got back. “What was Japan like” Like any tourist I only saw a snap shot, a brief view of a…
Computer time is very limited in the office in Japan so this is just a quick blog. Our project is progressing very nicely, I have been primarily working on building the Japanese tea house learning how to use Japanese hewing tools, pull saws, chisels and planes all of which work quite differently to European tools. We start work at 7.30am…
I am just wrapping things up here ready to fly to Japan first thing Thursday. I shall be busy hewing timber all day whilst there but Nicola will be busy recording, photographing, and hopefully blogging on the kesurokai blog here On Saturday I should be at the work site close to Mount Fuji with these folk, ready to start building…
In August Nicola and I are heading to Japan to work with traditional craftspeople there and learn about how they are working to share traditional skills. Nicola did her PhD looking at how traditional skills are exchanged in the UK and this will form part of her ongoing research, she is also doing publicity for the event and has a…
