What is Japanese wood joinery called?
What is Japanese wood joinery called?
Sashimono
Japanese Wood Joinery “Sashimono” is a technique for assembling furniture and other wooden items without nails, using both simple and highly complex wood joints. Mortises or grooves called ‘hozo’ are carved into the wood in order to join two boards in a blind joint that’s not visible from the surface.
Are Japanese wood joints strong?
A Japanese chisel is designed to produce strong joints just as a nail is designed to produce strong joints. The difference is that a nail is mean; it cracks through wood and harms it. Splinters fly when a nail is driven. No splinters are produced by a razor-sharp chisel, just a clean cut.
What is special about Japanese wood joinery techniques?
Traditional Japanese joinery is made entirely without the use of metal fasteners or adhesives. While building without the use of nails or other fasteners is not at all unique to Japan, the types of joints used, the durability of the structures created, and the complete absence of iron makes Japanese joinery stand out.
What is Kumiki?
Kumiki is a wooden building technology where grooved wood pieces are joined together to form sturdy three-dimensional objects, and making it possible to produce longer pieces. Its history goes back as far as the Heian Period.
What kind of wood is Hinoki?
Hinoki is a common coniferous tree in Japan. Its wood has long been used as building material for shrines and temples such as in the Horyuji Temple, which is one of the oldest wooden structures in Japan. Even today, Hinoki wood is used for building interiors such as floors and walls.
Is Japanese joinery the best?
The Japanese poured time into their joinery with the result that its elegance is still relevant to this day. Japanese joinery is highly esteemed. This is not to say that any one joinery method is the best, but Japanese joinery is certainly worth studying and appreciating.
Are Japanese good carpenters?
Japanese carpenters are true artists, and their joinery techniques and soulful appreciation of strong woods like the hinoki make them special within their craft. Their craft is one that has been honed and perfected over more than a millennium, and it shows.
Is Japanese joinery stronger?
Japanese steel used in woodworking tools is of a certain mix that makes it much harder, typically Rockwell 62 and up. This means a finer edge can be honed on cutting blades of saws, chisels, and planes than is typically possible outside Japan.
What wood is used for Kumiko?
basswood
The most known wood for Kumiko right now is basswood. It scores well on all the three factors above, is a great wood for hand carving and is relatively cheap compared to other hardwoods. Another good choice can be white pine which is similar to basswood. My favorite species for Kumiko is whitewood (yellow popular).
Is Kumiko glued?
As you can see in the video above from Shiraishi Mokki, the construction of kumiko involves no nails, screws, or glue, only the slotting together of wood pieces in geometric shapes, held firmly together by equally dispersed amounts of pressure.