I’ve got a presentation coming up in Boston next weekend for the Japan Society of Boston, and need to spend time in the next few days preparing for that. I’m hoping for a good turn out and that the audience will find my material interesting.
A few more pictures to present today of the closing stages in my design-build of a Japanese freestanding screen, or tsuitate. It’s been a most enjoyable and challenging project so far.
I’ve managed to oil the frame pieces – here they are sitting outside, out of the sun, drying:
Another view:
I’ll give them another inspection and going over tomorrow and then I should be able to move on.
The peg mortising for the tenons on the frame uprights has been completed:
Here’s a view of the assembled grilles, leaning next to the wall one against the other:
The ‘peculiar’ thing about these grilles, I might point out, is that each 0.5″ square bar weaves over/under each adjacent bar. Over-under-over-under — you get the idea. If you think there’s nothing weird about that, give it a try.
There are two types of intersections in the grille that I have come up with, as I am doing this unique type of Japanese joinery with an ‘improvement’ (IMO), by using mitered abutments. These abutments allow for a stronger construction and make chamfering more seamless.
One type of intersection looks like this:
That form of intersection has to use mason’s miters, but it is fortunately in the minority, and due to the small size of the chamfers, pretty innocuous.
And the other type, the more numerous version, looks like this:
The backside of the joints, in case you were wondering, looks identical to the faces, save for the chamfering which is absent of course – here’s the backside of one of the joins, one of the ones which has a mason’s miter on the frontside:
There’s also a hexagonal form of fully-woven lattice, like the above version, though the joinery method is slightly different.
Next step is the final assembly. I’ll be using no glue, just the two pegs for the feet, and the four shachi-sen to lock it all together.
Well, thanks for dropping by the Carpentry Way today. –> go to post 29
Interesting weave of the bars! I guess they are flexable enough to bend into place, but the join would tighten with bending so it could be tricky to fit!
Far superior look to see it woven like this. I pass by a door on a chinese restaurant carved in a weave like this with no gaps.
Gordon,
thanks for your comment. The bars are NOT flexible enough to bend into place – this is a trick joint. Try taking some 1/2″ square stock, cut half laps into it and see if you can weave them together and produce a flat result – you'll find it impossible.
~Chris
I am thinking hard about this trick joint Chris!4 types of long bars, all different! When assembled, they look like they have been woven! I think the answer to your riddle lies in this line “That form of intersection has to use mason's miters, but it is fortunately in the minority”
This joint would allow one bar to slide in this joint, where as the mitre lap joint will not allow sliding. But what does this all mean?
Mmmmmmm
Gordon,
thanks for the comment. As for the 'woven' bars, I do drop a few hints…
~Chris