Just a short post of good will and all the rest of it to you folks out there that read my sporadic moments of literary graffiti on this little part of the interweb.
I hope your new year is the best one yet, and that I can add more useful info this year than ever before.
Thanks,
Stu.
This is one of a series of articles that will describe how to set up and use various Japanese woodworking tools in an effort to show you how they work and how you might be able to include them in your own workshop. If you already own some of the tools included in these articles, then you may find new ways in which you can use them.
When it comes to Japanese tools, there is rarely one ‘right’ way to make them work. While it is often said that you must use xyz tool in a particular, proscribed manner it is more likely a case of that way being one of several ways to use the tool. This is not a hard and fast rule, and if you find that you wish to use a tool in a way that ‘goes against the grain’, then you should go ahead and do it, provided that the method is safe and will not harm the tool.
And here we go…
Gyokucho/Razorsaw ryoba (double sided/edged) saws are one of, if not the most popular ryoba style saw in Japan simply because they offer great performance for not very much money. Combine that with their easy availability (every home centre and tool store has them) and their popularity is practically guaranteed.
These particular saws come in two distinct varieties, namely ‘Blue Cloud’ and ‘Blue Hard’.
Odd names in English, but in Japanese there is not so much strangeness. Well, maybe their is actually now that I think of it.
The ‘Blue Cloud’ is a traditional shape ryoba saw, the ‘Blue Hard’ uses a saw plate that is narrower with a slightly shorter handle in an effort to make a better balanced, easier to use saw.
What is important here is that both varieties and in all sizes use the same method of attaching the blade to the handle, and it is unique to Gyokucho. What this means is that no matter what saw you have, if you buy a different Gyokucho ryoba blade, it will fit, but no other brands of blade will in any size.
As you might expect, with there being 4 different sizes, there are different handles to suit. In this case, the 210mm and 240mm saws use a shorter, 300mm long handle, the 270 and 300mm sizes use a longer, 330mm long handle. For all handles, the metal insert is identical.
The handle-insert interface uses a special ‘cruciform’ shape cut into the blade that mates with the metal insert in the handle to provide a secure, easily changed connection between the two.
And the reason why this essay exists is because they can be a little difficult to change at times if you are unaware of a little trick…
This is one of the saws in question, in this case a #651 Blue Hard Komame (fine pitch). And what does that strange number mean in the heading there? Simply put, it means that the model number for these saws start with a ‘6′ , are 3 digits long and are all ryoba style saws.
Or to give them all names…
#605; 210mm Blue Cloud.
#610; 240mm Blue Cloud.
#611; 240mm Blue Cloud Komame.
#615; 270mm Blue Cloud.
#616; 300mm Blue Cloud.
#649; 210mm Blue Hard.
#650; 240mm Blue Hard.
#651; 240mm Blue Hard Komame.
#655; 270mm Blue Hard.
And here is our saw that will have it’s blade changed…
The Gyokucho/Razorsaw #651 240mm Komame.
(This is my own saw, well used which is why the handle is a little grubby.)
Firstly, lets get a look at that metal insert…
There it is. From the outside it looks very simple, from inside is anyone’s guess. Whatever is going on in there stops the blade from sliding out even if the screw is missing. Nifty design and one of the most secure and long lasting.
I think it’s fairly obvious that the screw needs to be loosened before anything else happens. And yet again, it is one of those screws were no screwdriver fits properly, that being no commonly available screwdriver tip fills the screw slot to ensure a tight fit.
But a Japanese 1 yen coin fits perfectly. Imagine that?
The screw uses a conventional right hand thread like most screws out there, so for now it’s lefty-loosey and undo the screw only 3-4 full turns. We do not want the screw completely removed, but if you do happen to take the screw all the way out, please don’t lose it. You will not harm the saw by removing it completely, but you wont make the blade change any easier either. Better to leave it in there so it doesn’t get lost.
There, that is about right.
Next we need to flex the blade enough to open up the metal insert just enough for it to release the blade.
The official instructions show to bend the blade significantly in one direction to remove the blade, and this does work. The problem I have with that method is that I can’t believe that apply a lot of pressure in one direction is good for the blade (they are quite thin and can be bent permanently) nor is it safe as the blades are also quite hard and may shatter if you get a little too enthusiastic. Small chunks of razor sharp steel flying about is not a safe situation, so I present another, safer method here.
The trick is to gently flex the blade alternately in both direction while applying a gentle pull on the blade.
As so…
And voila!
That easy.
I have exaggerated the amount of flexing required to show the process, and to allow it to be photographed step by step. In reality, the action is little more than a flick in either direction and the blade pops out.
To replace the blade, simply slide in the new blade and a little gentle jiggling will allow it to seat all the way home, then tighten the screw and you are off and running again.
The whole process takes less than a minute from loosening the screw to tightening it again, provided you have everything on hand.
If you find that the blade does not let go so easily, flex the blade a little more until it does release. The key is to be gentle and you should have few problems.
I hope that helps those of you (and there are a lot of you out there) that own one of these saws change the blade safely and without risking damage to the handle, blade or yourself.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time,
Stu.
Hi all,
Just a very quick message to all you out there who make the effort to read my singularly poor effort at blogging that you have a merry Christmas (or whichever celebration you do at this time of year) and thanks for dropping in when you all do.
Regrettably Koko is not well, a follow on from the junk she has had for quite a while. Annoying, since I think it should have been cleared up by now. I won’t go into the medical system here, it’s too close to home…
Our day was ok. The kids were very happy with what Santa Claus brought them, the roast dinner turned out as well as can be expected from the box we call “our oven” and while I am still awake, the kids are not and are sleeping soundly. Not too much to be upset with there. 
Thanks again, and if I can somehow manage it, I’ll get something up here that might be actually worth a few minutes of your time to read.
Stu (and Tom, Koko and Akiko.)
Hi Faithful reader again,
I would like to let you all know that Tom is home, and has been home the last few days. They kept him in hospital for 4 night, the last one being just a precaution.
He is still not well though, having picked up a cough that is slowly going the way of the dodo, but begrudgingly.
Koko, his little sister is a different story. She is complaining of a sore throat, sore ears and her nose (while she is awake) rivals the Amazon for flow. She too is getting better, but it is taking a looong time, helped none by the weather.
The weather in question is dry, ridiculously dry. I sit here with cracked fingertips and cracked lips. Lips because I am most certainly not a girl and don’t wear lipstick (but it is looking like an attractive proposition) and fingertips a combination of wind abrasion and electrical arcing.
I am one of those folks who can generate huge static charges, big enough to make a visible ‘zap’ on occasion. With the high winds we have been getting, combined with the dry air, I am surprised I have not killed something or someone yet.
And it’s cold. The first snow of this winter came down today. Not much, just enough for effect. Fortunately snow means the air is dry and the low temperature is at least bearable.
When the air becomes wet, it’s something you need to experience to realise how dangerous it can be. The temperature of the air might be only dancing about the freezing temperature of water, and the wind might be slight, but because the air is wet, it sucks the heat out of you at a frightening rate. More than once I have heard of folks from rather cold places (Like Finland, Russia, Canada?) tell me “it’s cold!” here, and yet the thermometer does not agree with them.
I’m kinda used to it, but not by choice…
Anyway, that’s the update. Everyone is on the mend and it looks like we shall all be fighting fit in time for Christmas.
It also looks like I shall have some proper time to spend doing ’stuff’ which includes some work in this here web-log.
Thanks for reading and your well wishes, it is as always(!) appreciated.
Stu.
Hi faithful reader.
I don’t know how many of you are out there, but thanks for coming back again and again to my mad flurries of activity interspersed with dearths of silence.
It must be trying…
I just want to apologise for not getting some things up here that I had hoped would be done and dusted by now. Specifically, some tool set up stuff and a commentary on Japanese work benches (or lack thereof).
I had planned to get them all done by now, but a spanner got thrown in the works. One small, petite spanner useful for toys and small items, one big enough to change mining truck lug nuts.
The small one was the arrival of a new computer here. It’s really nothing special, just a NOS thing. It’s an AMD 3.0GHz single core doohickey with enough bits attached to make it sing a lively tune.
I had hoped to be able to buy a copy of the new Windows when we finally (after nearly 4 years) updated the computer, but alas we have only enough cash (and barely even that) to buy the basic computer.
Since I run Linux on this computer (which is mine, and is largely responsible for all the store operations) I figured I would just download the latest version of the Linux I like, known as Ubuntu, burn a disc and install it and see how it turned out.
This computer uses 8.04LTS which means it is an April 2008 release, but with 3 years of scheduled updates. It’s not super slick, but it is reliable, secure and will keep functioning for another year and a half before I need to update it.
The new computer is running 9.10 which translates as an October 2009 release, ie; 2 months old right now.
I’ll keep my feelings simple in describing this new release.
I am deeply and incredibly impressed.
The computer is not cutting edge, and yet everything happens instantly. It has newer versions of everything already there. It is pretty and very nicely polished and for the most part, it just plain works.
The problem is that because it is open source, it is lacking some features that need to be manually installed and that chewed up a little time. Stuff like Flash 10 64 bit, so the little people here can watch Youtube. DVD stuff so they can watch some movies. Nothing special, but it needed to be done.
It’s working now, and it’s great.
And I now have zero desire to install any further version of Windows in the future. I’ll just have to ‘live’ without what Windows 7 offers, which in essence is nothing more than I have now, and in some areas significantly less.
That was the small, dainty little spanner.
The big, angry and downright scary spanner is that Tom, my 3 1/2 year old little man spent last night in hospital with a mystery bacterial infection.
We have all been sick in one way or another for the past 6 weeks, give or take a few days respite in between. I am currently in good shape (except for a lump in my chest, probably caused by stress over Tom), Mum is also in fighting form, Koko has been running a mild fever for a few days, but Tom, something else entirely.
For those of you who understand these numbers (as I do by default, having nurses for parents) I’ll give you the two big numbers that caused the doctor to admit him instantly.
His temperature was 40.5°C (105°F) and his leukocyte count was 30,000.
If you don’t know how scary those numbers are, look them up. They don’t get much more worrying than that.
Fortunately, he is responding to medicine in typical Tom form, you can’t tell he is sick by looking at him, and he has no fever any more.
What’s taking up most of my time at the moment is that while Mum is in hospital with Tom, I need to take care of Koko (who just turned 2 last week!) by myself for a lot of the time. She has never been away from mum before, and she is doing ok but still, it’s all on me.
So that’s about it really. I have much bigger and more important things to worry about than a few words here.
I hope Tom will be home tomorrow (if they will let him go home that is) because he is going nuts being stuck in the hospital and if so, I may be able to eke out a few spare moments to do what I want/need to get done.
But throw in a few important things I need time for regarding the store, plus extraneous stuff, and the chances of getting it all done in a timely manner is pretty slim.
Sorry.
I should be able to give it all a good hard shove in the near future, but right now I need 27 hours a day to get the essentials done. Somehow I manage to make it all work most of the time with the scant 24 hours I am given every day.
Now if you will excuse me, I need to go make sure Koko is sleeping well. Which means I have to get some shut eye as well.
Thanks for understanding, and I hope I will be back to normal (which is decidedly abnormal when you think about it!) soon.
Stu.
P.S; please don’t spare any prayers for us if you that’s your thing. We will be fine, and there are plenty of others out there in the world who would benefit more than we would. 
Just a short, sharp little blog-let about bench musings.
Recently I was asked about Japanese work benches, and I quote…
“I have seen very few Japanese benches online. Mostly photos, but no descriptions, or the use of same. I know there are a variety, and not easily described. I feel there lots of interest out there.”
(Sorry Paul, I just thought it easier to copy and paste your question.)
I’ll be completely and openly honest here and tell you, faithful reader, that I am not as familiar with Japanese work benches as I might like.
It’s not through lack of trying nor lack of interest, it’s because it is exceptionally difficult to learn about something new and exciting when there is little material around from which to learn from.
Traditionally speaking, benches were a luxury afforded to those craftsmen who had a solid, bankable reputation and could afford to have a fixed workshop in which to work. This was limited to larger cities, and in particular places where there was no lack of money for such craftsmen to market and sell their wares.
Predominantly, most craftsmen of all types would roam with whatever they could carry (wheels were banned until about 160 years ago, and they took a little while to catch on…) and do whatever work was required of them at any given opportunity.
This extreme minimalist approach to woodworking, and to all mechanical trades meant that any type of bench was something that was not just impractical, but impossible.
Yes, work benches did exist, but they were so rare and used by those craftsmen who so jealously guarded their skills that there is little or no information about traditional benches.
Fast forward to the early 20th century, and massive change in how work was done. Lots of influences from the outside, lots of new materials and plenty of them.
Of course, this extended to workbenches as well, but tradition has a heavy influence here in Japan as well, so benches were glaringly missing from some of these workshops. Many may have had work tables, but benches they were not.
Where benches were prevalent, they would often resemble a fairly normal European or American style bench because the work being done was European or American!
After all, Japanese style cabinets and furniture don’t need a slick workbench, the way in which these pieces are made simply don’t require the work holding that a proper bench permits.
Ever seen dovetailed drawers in traditional Japanese furniture? Yes? Sorry, but please take the consolation prize of this rancid meat tray with our compliments.
And there lies the crux of the problem.
Japanese furniture does not need a workbench, but it does need something to allow the wood to be kept out of the dirt and held securely enough to be cut, planed and drilled (yes, drilled) to get the job done.
And that is a Japanese work bench.
It might not look like one, but that’s what it is.
What’s that you say? You can’t see anything?
Oh, that will have to wait for another time.
And why I am I bringing all this up now?
Well it would seem that I should build myself a small bench so that I can do some useful work here at home instead of travelling to the workshop.
Because I have no space to leave it set up permanently it must break down.
Because I have no space to store it, it must be very small and compact and be able to deal with some unsavoury climatic conditions.
Because I am not Japanese and do not do Japanese style work, but I do use Japanese tools (Hey, I live here and use what I can get!) the bench will need to be able to work with pushed AND pulled tools effectively.
All that, and I have a new tool that a kind soul sent me.
It makes wooden threads.
Really BIG wooden threads…
I didn’t get it to just look at it, and what better opportunity than to build workbench bits with it?
Oh, it looks like the new computer is ready for a test drive. It’s not really ‘new’ per se, but since the old box has effectively given up the ghost, we needed to update things a little.
So there is a smaller black box sitting on top of the big, old white box in the corner, and the black box is saying “I’m ready!” and I don’t want to keep it waiting.
Until next time,
Stu.
This is one of a series of articles that will describe how to set up and use various Japanese woodworking tools in an effort to show you how they work and how you might be able to include them in your own workshop. If you already own some of the tools included in these articles, then you may find new ways in which you can use them.
When it comes to Japanese tools, there is rarely one ‘right’ way to make them work. While it is often said that you must use xyz tool in a particular, proscribed manner it is more likely a case of that way being one of several ways to use the tool. This is not a hard and fast rule, and if you find that you wish to use a tool in a way that ‘goes against the grain’, then you should go ahead and do it, provided that the method is safe and will not harm the tool.
Without further ado…
The ‘hook’ method of fixing a replaceable blade to a handle is largely dominated by Z Saw, who happened to patent this particular method. Since the patent has now expired, there are several manufacturers offering this style of handle/blade connection.
Why?
One simple, elegant reason more than any other, replacing the blade requires no tools which is a useful feature. The connection is also simple, light in weight and very secure.
If you happen to own one of these saws, then you will no doubt have seen that on the sleeve it demonstrates how to change the blade by using a cloth to cover the teeth and tapping the handle on a solid surface to dislodge the blade.
Is it just me, or does that make a mockery of the ‘no tools required’ benefit of this handle style? Not to mention that the teeth on a new blade are razor sharp and it is possible for them cut the cloth like, well, a razor!
I’m not so sure I want a hand full of razor sharp teeth when I am busy trying to smack the handle like a hammer into something solid.
Henceforth, here is a SAFE method of changing the blades not requiring a cloth, nor that you even come close to touching the teeth.
The trick here is to grasp the blade from the side with no teeth on it.
Like this.
If you keep all flesh away from the teeth, you will keep all your flesh!
To remove, sharply tap the handle against something solid, allowing the blade and handle to hinge around the large ‘pin’ that resides inside the steel handle insert. The direction in which to tap the handle is with the closed side of the insert toward your solid object.
I am using a large cedar beam here.
Sharp taps will do the job, soft taps won’t accomplish very much. Heavy bashes will send the handle flying, so short, sharp taps are the order of the day.
And there you have it! The blade is no longer solidly attached to the handle, and will simply swing away allowing you to replace the worn blade with a nice, fresh blade.
Inserting a new blade is largely a reverse of the removal. You hold the blade in the same way, but you tap the handle against your solid object in a different direction, that being with the open side of the insert facing your solid object.
The trick here is getting the handle and blade to remain together until the crimping action of the steel insert begins to hold the blade.
Start with the blade loose in the insert, as shown.
Then using your index finger, press down on the insert with enough pressure to prevent the blade and insert rotating. With lightweight wood handles, the amount of pressure is slight. With the heavier, rubber blade aluminium handles you will need to apply more pressure, but this should be possible by anyone with enough strength to successfully use the saw.
Once you are confident you have a sure grasp on the situation, a light tap with the open side of the insert toward your solid object should be enough to get the blade started into the insert and prevent the handle and blade moving relative to each other.
A few more sharp taps and the job is done, all in relative safety and with nothing more than a fresh blade and a single hand required.
Back to square one.
This is a very easy and safe operation, and I cannot say why it is not proscribed by Z Saw (and others) as the correct method. It can even be done safely with one hand tied behind your back.
In this essay, I used what is known as a ‘Decora Saw’ which is a small, simple and very cheap saw designed to be abused to death. It uses standard cross cut teeth on a shallow 0.60mm saw plate and is rated for all construction materials, as well as solid wood and synthetic marble (corian).
As supplied, it is a very handy saw for general cutting work.
With some of the tooth set removed by a few swipes on a sharpening stone, it becomes one of the finest joinery saws available.
Currently it is not listed in the store, and oversight that will be very soon corrected.
It goes without saying that this method will not work for saws that have a long spine to help keep the blade straight and true. These saws have a steel spine that extends almost the full length of the blade, stopping short by just enough to allow you to tap the blade directly to assist in replacement.
I hope this will prove helpful to you who own saw with hook style blades, and if it saves even one drop of blood, it has been worth the effort.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time…
Stu.
As part of the series of essays about Japanese woodworking tools, the next step is replaceable blade saws. In order to understand the hows and whys of their development and why “they are what they are”, I’ll give you a quick explanation of how they came about and why they are so popular here and abroad.
Traditionally, Japanese saws were all hand made, able to be sharpened and not too dissimilar to their Western brethren in use. Yes, they were used in different ways and looked very different, but the idea of buying a saw, using it and maintaining it was common to all saw styles.
After WWII, significant changes to Japan occurred. This is not news, but the depth of change was so great that very few of the old ways were left untouched, and this affected every part of Japan as a country, culture and people.
In regard to woodworking tools, a significant change in saw construction took place, more than for any other woodworking tool. Due in part to the new abundance of steel, in part to the requirement that any tool should be used more than maintained and also that the highly skilled metate (Saw blade repairer/sharpener) and saw makers were not up to the task of producing and maintaining the huge number of saws that would be required to rebuild and rehouse the nation of Japan.
The influx of ideas and materials from outside of Japan as well as specialised machinery for milling and preparing wood also reduced the market for traditional saws to those that would be used by carpenters and cabinet makers, effectively wiping out a significant segment of the market. To add to the problem, many highly skilled craftsmen simply did not live through the war, or were unable to return to their original trade.
In short, the traditional Japanese saw’s days were numbered through no fault of it’s own other than being a very complicated piece of equipment that could be replaced with something a little more pedestrian.
Something that was easily mass produced, worked effectively and could be ‘maintained’ with minimum effort was sorely needed.
Make the saw more durable or make it easier to dispose of?
I think that the ultimate answer is fairly obvious…
Initially, the entire saw was considered expendable once it no longer worked. Simply making a saw in the traditional manner from less expensive materials and with less attention to detail was ‘the easy way out’. It should be obvious that a cheaply made saw is exactly that, and these saws were not really ‘effective’.
These saws can still be found today, and I can tell you from experience that I am not surprised they did not really take off. Whether made entirely by machine or partially by hand, the fact they are made to a price is glaringly obvious.
Demand required that a better solution be found, and the idea of making the blade and handle into separate units, independently replaceable was born. Obvious to us now, but at the time a king’s ransom awaited the person who could make this simple idea into a reality.
Making the saw blade easily replaceable was not such a simple task. Because the friction method of joining blade to handle added no weight and was inherently simple, a method of making this joint easily broken without affecting the long term integrity of the joint meant that the joint had to be simple, light in weight and long lasting.
Now that one of the major problems had been solved, that of connecting blade to handle, the other big task was to mass produce blades of a quality and price that could best take advantage of the new idea.
The problems of making a high quality, yet low priced blade are that the steel must be up to the task, the teeth in the saw should be correctly shaped to allow cuts similar to a high grade saw but can be made by machine and the blades must be consistent.
With the influx of new technologies as well as home grown metallurgical knowledge, a suitable steel was a fairly simple task. Simply put, a steel that was tough but would retain it’s edge for a goodly time was required.
A steel already existed, that being plain carbon steel.
Now that the steel problem was addressed, how do you make saw blades quickly and cheaply?
This is where the rapid evolution of Japanese manufacturing prowess came to the rescue.
A saw blade, regardless of what style it is, is little more than an amalgamation of angles on the edge of a steel plate, which for a machine is a fairly easy task. All you need to do is make a machine that will cut each facet of each tooth, and a way to move the saw along so that your tooth cutting machine can do what it does again and again and again.
Originally, the machines made to perform this task were rather crude, but they did produce blades that worked well enough and were cheap to produce. Better saws were ‘touched up’ by a craftsman before being sent out to work, which added to the cost of production, but yielded a superior saw.
Over time, the quality of the blades the machines produced became better, and the number of saws fine tuned by hand decreased, as did the number of saws produced entirely by hand.
But the machine made saws still had an Achilles heel, and that was that the machines were expensive, could usually only make a few different types of saw and they were producing something that worked well, but were still not as good as a ‘proper’ saw and stayed sharp for no longer than a regular, resharpenable saw.
The machine made saw folks went back to work, dreaming up ways to improve their product, and this is where the wide range of saw manufacturers begin to diverge in their principles.
Some sought to reduce the cost of the saws, and succeeded to some extent, except those who chose this path and stuck to it’s principles fiercely no longer exist.
Others took the old idea of improving the saw by hand and made it new again, by offering a saw that offered improved performance for a price. Of those who chose this route, many still exist today and offer more choices than ever before.
Of those manufacturers left, they chose to improve the product AND reduce the costs. Those who chose this way, now own the market to a certain extent.
While the outright performance of the saws was not significantly improved, the longevity of the saws was. By making the tips of the tooth extremely hard, the life of the saws were greatly increased. By treating the blade with a protective coating, the possibility of rust was reduced, which was attractive to those who did not take great care of their tools.
The price attached to these improvements was relatively low, which in turn made the saws even cheaper.
Over time, these treatments filtered down and became even cheaper to implement, so now it is very difficult to find a replaceable blade saw that does not have one or both (or more treatments) applied to it.
This regimen of continual improvement also allowed a certain freedom to those manufacturers at the leading edge of the field. They had the capital to explore new areas where they could offer more in their products, with more features, more choices or new products never before conceived and impossible to implement without these new technologies.
Technologies borrowed from other fields that could be applied to saws also helped to allow manufacturers offer more products or control costs.
Things like new coatings, new steel materials, new treatments for rust resistance or improved longevity. More accurate and flexible machines allowing for increasingly complex saws, and fine tuned to a particular task.
The catalogues from companies that produce saws vary from a page or two into thick catalogues with dozens of variants for cutting all manner of materials in all manner of sizes. There would seem to be little left to improve upon, and even less left to invent.
But new saws still appear, with varying success.
What is most true now that there is a replaceable blade saw for any budget, for cutting any material and with features to appeal to almost any craftsperson (or even weekend hack!).
But what about the traditional saw?
They are still alive and well offering saws that still offer 100% of the performance of the old saws, giving an element of truth to the old saying “You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear”.
Yes, these economical saws are good to use and easy to maintain, but there is something about using a hand made saw that is difficult to describe, but easy to feel. To simply say “Hand made saws cut better” would be too much, and yet not enough of an explanation. These high priced pieces of woodworking artistry are not for everyone, but if you have the opportunity to try one, it is something you will appreciate.
(Unless it needs sharpening, then they are just a blunt tool. Which is no fun.)
I hope that makes for some interesting reading for some of you out there, it has taken a very long time for me to type it all out.
This essay is what I perceive to be the evolution of how the replaceable blade saw came about in Japan. An unusual tool for an unusual situation, and the amount of tradition crushed and abandoned to bring them to the point that they are now is simply mind boggling. Today, such a thing would be unlikely to happen in the same way. The truth may (and probably is) something different to what I have described above.
But having lived here in Japan for quite some time, I have picked up a feel for how things have changed over the years, and while it might not be something worthy of publication, it does give an idea of what happened over the years with regard to Japanese saws.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, and the next time you pick up a Japanese saw, that you think of how it came to be in your hand.
Next, a practical article on how to safely change saw blades.
Thanks for reading,
Stu.
Hi all,
I am currently working through a kinda largish article about how saws have ‘evolved’ in the last 100 years or so, and it’s taking longer than I would like.
Reasons being that I have been assaulted by two distinctly different viruses in the last few weeks, which has greatly reduced my ability to do anything constructive. That and doing a lot of tidying up in the store that was sorely needed. You might or might not have noticed the small changes happening in there, mostly to do with descriptions, pictures and sustainable pricing. The theory and reality of running a small, internet based store are completely different from each other, and with a little proper experience under my belt, I have learned where many of the difference between the ‘dream’ and the ‘do’ really are.
Just thought I should poke my head up here, since plenty of you guys out there have been poking your head in here and finding not very much.
And yes, I think I am back to full strength or at least a reasonable facsimile of it.
(As an aside to that, have you heard the joke about a guy with a chronic cough where the doctor prescribes laxatives? The reason being the guy will be too scared to cough?
It’s true…)
Maybe too much info there, but I hope that gives you all an idea of how pleasant my existence has been the last few weeks.
Stu.
This is not another one of the recent articles that I have been writing of late, this is simply an observation I have made recently, with regard to the two sumitsubo/ink line articles.
For a long time, I have seen and avoided sumitsubo. I never really had much use for them, preferring to stick with methods I knew thanks to my non-Japanese heritage. I couldn’t quite understand why the silly things were so popular and why EVERYONE has one. Well, folks who need to make straight lines use them at least.
I did some reading, and still came away unimpressed.
Then along came a bunch of rough sawn timber I needed to make straight and true , starting with slicing in a straight line. Hmm, maybe that silly looking ink thingy doesn’t look quite so silly now…
So, according to my own unwritten creed, I made one!
What a disaster it was…
The main problem was that I used the wrong type of line (told you they all looked silly) and the line would not hold ink properly. The ink itself was great, and line I made was fine, just the darn line thwarted me.
Fast forward a whole year, and I find myself with an online store and a bunch of sumitsubo. I need to do something about this don’t I? Especially when to the uninitiated, they still look pretty silly.
(I must also warn you at this point I did not go in half cocked. I had been shown how to use a modern sumitsubo several times before, and I got good results. I had also been shown how to use a traditional version, and got the same good results. I just couldn’t see where they held any advantage for my own work, so I never bothered with them.)
So I grabbed a couple of them, got them up and running (as you have already seen) and that was that. I am now, maybe not quite hooked, but at least I will keep one handy. If you do any kind of ripping without using a fence, then you really should have a sumitsubo on hand, somewhere. Fast, simple, effective, fast, accurate, easy to use, fast, reliable and above all, fast. There is nothing in the Western world of woodworking that can touch a sumitsubo for accurate speed, except maybe an ink line.
But there is another tool that goes, literally, hand in hand with the sumitsubo.
The sumisashi.
Nothing more than a piece of bamboo, cut to a shape and a few slits in one end to form a ‘brush’ of sorts.
About the most simple tool you can imagine, but actually using one at the right time will change your ideas about using a mark rather than a cut or scribe.
Firstly, if you are busy using a sumitsubo, you have the ink right there ready to use.
The things are very inexpensive (an oversight in the store, I will correct that soon!) and I include at least one with every sumitsubo, just because I feel they go hand in hand so well.
What is not so apparent is how well they work.
The bottom left picture shows the mark, and that line is finer than the line used to mark with.
It uses more like a marking knife than a marker or pencil, which promotes accuracy.
And to back up the sumitsubo speed, they are really fast to use. A simple swipe takes care of small lines, a long drag for bigger lines and you rarely run out of ink if the thing is loaded up before marking a long line with one.
I bet that joinery could be marked out really nicely with one, and because the line is so easy to see, they really work well with Japanese saws that often foul the cutting line with sawdust.
(See how things work together here?)
I guess it’s kind of like the first time you get a plane to cut a nice, smooth shaving the very first time. Or the first time you use a genuinely sharp chisel or saw, they just make cutting wood a little more pleasurable.
For me, coming to grips with the sumisashi was like that. One of those “why didn’t I use this before!” moments. And amazing thing to let oneself get excited about a cheap chunk of bamboo, but when you try one, you won’t be able look at a sumisashi the same way ever again.
Odd little creatures they are….
Thanks for letting me bend your ear,
Stu.
