Post 78 in an ongoing series describing the design and construction of a kabukimon, a type of Japanese gate. This is a project for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Post 1 in this series can be found here if you'd like to start at the beginning. Each post links to the next at the bottom of the page. Recent installments also to be found in the 'Blog archive' index to the right of the page.
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Today was characterized by an early start and a late finish. I completed the list of tasks I had set out for myself to follow.
First off was fitting the kusabi, or wedges, to secure the nuki to the main posts:
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Kusabi and wasabi sound kinda similar, but best not to mix them up when trying to have a conversation with a Japanese person.
Another kusabi fitted - could be straighter for the pic but no big deal to align:
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And that led to the fitting on the nuki to the rear support posts, and then the fitting of wedges to those joints as well, which are cogged laps, or watari ago tsugi. Wedges are fitted to both sides and it makes for a strong joint. These wedges are all left long and will be trimmed to length after final fitting on site:
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By the way, I'm not dropping the Japanese language terms in some effort to impress anybody. They are the correct terms for the parts, and, in in some cases, perhaps out of keyboard fatigue I don't know, I would prefer to write the four short letters of nuki instead of 'penetrating tie'. And since 'penetrating tie' is not a standard sort of framing connection in western practice, it isn't really any more informative than the Japanese term. So I'm sticking with my infernal ferin' language stuff, and I hope y'all will give me a pass in that regard.
The main crossbeam was parked on the sawhorses, and I decided it should be finish planed before it went anywhere:
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I think it came out fairly well:
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Then the kabuki was moved out of the dock, covered with some protective foam, and I set up the framing for the side door on the sawhorses:
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I was pleased to find the door fitting the framing exactly.
Another view:
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One last bit of fitting work was required to get to the above stage, and that was letting in the stub tongues on the door header, which are housed in both connecting posts. At the flanking post, the header's stub tongue is 1/4" proud of the surface, as you can see in the above photo.
Here's a look down the other edge of the door, resting above the wall post:
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Notice here that the stub tenon on the door header is 1/8" proud of the wall post.
I'll be fabricating a door lock receiver piece tomorrow. That shouldn't take too long to do.
Today's task was to fit the hinges to the flanking post:
![]()
Because the bottom of the door meets the granite sill, which is proud of the posts by 1/4", the door is 1/4" higher than the adjacent (flanking) post. The wall post is 1/4" fatter in section than the flanking post, so there the offset for the door from the post face is 1/8". The header, where the upper end of the door meets, is 1/4" proud of the flanking post and 1/8" proud of the wall post. All looks kind of simple when it is together, but this assembly is full of pitfalls if you're not paying attention to the relationships between the parts. Very easy to make mistakes at this juncture, and very hard to recover from them given that I have three days of fabrication left before delivery.
A closer look at one of the hinges after fitting:
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And here's the other:
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These hinge leaves will also have escutcheons and fastening pins with decorative escutcheons. Those don't take too much time to fit, and that will be one of the first things I'll tackle tomorrow.
I finished the day by coating the exposed ends of the nuki with white tinted epoxy paint.
All for now, look for another post in about 24 hours. Thanks for visiting.
Today was characterized by an early start and a late finish. I completed the list of tasks I had set out for myself to follow.
First off was fitting the kusabi, or wedges, to secure the nuki to the main posts:
Kusabi and wasabi sound kinda similar, but best not to mix them up when trying to have a conversation with a Japanese person.
Another kusabi fitted - could be straighter for the pic but no big deal to align:
And that led to the fitting on the nuki to the rear support posts, and then the fitting of wedges to those joints as well, which are cogged laps, or watari ago tsugi. Wedges are fitted to both sides and it makes for a strong joint. These wedges are all left long and will be trimmed to length after final fitting on site:
By the way, I'm not dropping the Japanese language terms in some effort to impress anybody. They are the correct terms for the parts, and, in in some cases, perhaps out of keyboard fatigue I don't know, I would prefer to write the four short letters of nuki instead of 'penetrating tie'. And since 'penetrating tie' is not a standard sort of framing connection in western practice, it isn't really any more informative than the Japanese term. So I'm sticking with my infernal ferin' language stuff, and I hope y'all will give me a pass in that regard.
The main crossbeam was parked on the sawhorses, and I decided it should be finish planed before it went anywhere:
I think it came out fairly well:
Then the kabuki was moved out of the dock, covered with some protective foam, and I set up the framing for the side door on the sawhorses:
I was pleased to find the door fitting the framing exactly.
Another view:
One last bit of fitting work was required to get to the above stage, and that was letting in the stub tongues on the door header, which are housed in both connecting posts. At the flanking post, the header's stub tongue is 1/4" proud of the surface, as you can see in the above photo.
Here's a look down the other edge of the door, resting above the wall post:
Notice here that the stub tenon on the door header is 1/8" proud of the wall post.
I'll be fabricating a door lock receiver piece tomorrow. That shouldn't take too long to do.
Today's task was to fit the hinges to the flanking post:
Because the bottom of the door meets the granite sill, which is proud of the posts by 1/4", the door is 1/4" higher than the adjacent (flanking) post. The wall post is 1/4" fatter in section than the flanking post, so there the offset for the door from the post face is 1/8". The header, where the upper end of the door meets, is 1/4" proud of the flanking post and 1/8" proud of the wall post. All looks kind of simple when it is together, but this assembly is full of pitfalls if you're not paying attention to the relationships between the parts. Very easy to make mistakes at this juncture, and very hard to recover from them given that I have three days of fabrication left before delivery.
A closer look at one of the hinges after fitting:
And here's the other:
These hinge leaves will also have escutcheons and fastening pins with decorative escutcheons. Those don't take too much time to fit, and that will be one of the first things I'll tackle tomorrow.
I finished the day by coating the exposed ends of the nuki with white tinted epoxy paint.
All for now, look for another post in about 24 hours. Thanks for visiting.