Gateway (50)

Post 50 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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A closer look:

Closer yet:

And now a scanning electron microscope is brought to bear….

..just kidding.

Time to lay the flanking posts onto the main posts to transfer some lines, providing everything is looking copacetic:

This one has no issues that I could see:

Here’s how the upper end of the flanking post, with its twin hammerhead tenons, interfaces with the mortise cut on the main post for the kasagi beam:

This is a mock-up showing how the flanking post will look once attached to the main post:

The length difference between the two posts attributes to the fact that the main post sits on a raised plinth stone, while the flanking post sits partly on that same plinth, and partly upon the granite sill a few inches lower down.

Now the other main post and flanking post were looking fine as well, save for this one area:

A large knot hole right where one of the sliding dovetail mortises needs to be placed. Fortunately it lies entirely underneath the flanking post so it will be concealed entirely.

Time for a patching job:

It was nothing I spent much time fussing over, the umeki just needs to be soundly attached to the main post so that it will hold in place and so it can be recut later for the sliding dovetail mortise:

Some of the above parts are complete through cut out and just need final planing, while others, namely the main door stiles on the right, and the side door stiles and rails on the left, are a step away from final dimensioning.

Same pile from the other end:

Rear support posts on the bottom of the pile to the right, and wall posts in the middle of the pile.

Here are the rail and batten stock pieces for the doors, still oversize: