La Menuiserie Study (I)
Menuiserie is a term which translates into English as 'joiner's work', an almost meaningless term in the US these days, or as (finish) carpentry, or cabinetmaking, and furniture making. Like finish...
View ArticleLa Menuiserie Study (II)
Post 2 of a series.--------After working my way through the first 70 pages of the French text La Menuiserie, I at last arrived at the keenly-anticipated first meaty exercise to be detailed, on Plate 1,...
View ArticleLa Menuiserie Study (III)
In the last post, I introduced Plate 1 in the text La Menuiserie, specifically volume 3 of aa multi-volume encyclopedia on the topic. Plate 1 detailed the first significant exercise in a chapter...
View ArticleBCM Maker Faire
I'll be at the Boston Children's Museum this coming Saturday to participate in the Maker Faire.As part of the preparation for that, I have made a few joinery models, including these two splicing...
View ArticleBCM Maker Faire (follow up)
I spent 10~5 yesterday on the boardwalk in front of the Boston Children's Museum with a table presenting samples of Japanese joinery and my woodwork, most of which could easily be assembled and...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (67)
Work has slowed to a crawl on the cabinets of late. With a newborn, spare time tends to be more limited. In fact it passes most peculiarly at times!Our son is now a month old:Getting to the point where...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (68)
Snippets and snatches, moments here and there, now and again, characterize my shop time of late. I'm still working on drawers and thought I'd share a few more pics of the process than in the previous...
View ArticleFall Carpentry Classes
I'm pleased to offer a couple of carpentry classes this fall, in October. The courses are as follows:Course 1. Japanese Joinery (II): Corner Joints. October 13~16th.A 4-day course where we will look at...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (69)
The drawers needed some further minor work - trimming the rear floor edges, a process which began on the sliding saw:A piece of MDF locates the drawer position for the cut and protects the lower arris...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (70)
Holy cow! 70 posts. How many months have passed? Ocean-going ships have been built and launched in the same time frame I'm sure, probably entire subdivisions of houses stapled together. Yes, this is a...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (71)
I got a couple of good sessions in over the weekend and moved the bonnet for the second cabinet ahead to the same point as shown in the previous post.Today's task was to fabricate the stub posts,...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (72)
With the bonnets largely complete (see previous post), save for their upper panels, I turned my attention to the means by which the bonnets will attach to the main cabinet carcases. This might seem...
View ArticleBCM Tansu Repair
The Boston Children's Museum commissioned me to repair a couple of old tansu that are located within the Kyo No Machiya, a 19th century Machi-ya, originally from Kyoto, and now located within the...
View ArticleBCM Tansu Repair (II)
While I had the lower section of the mizuya-dansu laying on its back for purposes of repairing the front sill and attendant sliding track, or shiki-i, I noticed a small piece of wood loose inside the...
View ArticleBCM Tansu Repair (III)
Here's something new on my blog, as we near the 1000-post mark, namely hammer meets nail:Hah! The above photo shows how the POC panels came out with the stain applied.The trick I use to prevent any...
View ArticleBCM Tansu Repair (IV)
Working now on the upper section (cabinet) of the mizuya-dansu:My main task on this cabinet is to repair the sliding doors and track on the large compartment. However, issues abounded in other areas....
View ArticleBCM Tansu Repair (V)
Continuing work on the repair of a couple of tansu, each composed of two equal-sized halves, for the Boston Children's Museum.The new track is now installed in the main compartment:The lower rail has...
View ArticleBCM Tansu Repair (VI)
Wrapping up my work on the two tansu from the Boston Children's Museum. Here, I am taking a look at one of the large drawers:I had been checking it out and noticed a few odd things, so I got my framing...
View ArticleLa Menuiserie Study (IV)
Back by popular request - well, by one reader at least. I'm convinced that there are all of a dozen people on earth interested in carpentry drawing, but as long as there is a glimmer of interest I will...
View ArticleA Ming-Inspired Cabinet (73)
While working on the BCM tansu for the past few weeks, I have also been chipping away at the cabinet project I have been engaged upon for some months now. Been doing some finishing, some hardware...
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