A weekend passes – another couple of days of work accomplished on the main doors. Probably not going to have any time off for the rest of the month, and shop days are going to get longer.
The parts for the doors are pretty much cut out to completion, and it’s the fitting that now eats up the hours:
A sliding dovetail trench after cut out, and a batten before the dovetail is formed:
The panel sub-assembly for the right side door sits awaiting its turn:
The panels have been trenched and the dovetails completed, but I have room only to work on one door at a time. Right now it is the left door.
Here, the vertical upright between the middle two battens has been cut out, tenoned, and fitted:
I just have to trim the ends back slightly yet. The generic term for this upright, which carries a portion of the door draw bar, is tatezan (縦桟).
A look at one of the male sliding dovetails on a batten:
The battens on the left door are all now a good fit to the panel dovetails.
The middle two battens for the right side door have also had the housings and tenons cut for their tatezan, and have been chamfered:
I think it likely I will be able to assemble the left side door tomorrow, and the right side the day after that. A challenge at this time is simply moving these large and heavy doors around without damaging the delicate wood. Its a central challenge on this project actually.
All for now – thanks for visiting. Post 70 to follow.
Wonderful work, I hope your clients are following your blog 🙂
I'm curious since POC is a traditional wood for Japanese carpentry, how the wood ages with time in harsh outdoor/seasonal/gate-traffic conditions?
Siavosh,
the wood will weather, turning silvery grey eventually. This type of gate has most of its parts exposed directly to the weather, with only a bit of copper here and there, so it's not the sort of structure likely to last beyond 50 years, though regular maintenance will surely help out in that regard. There really needs to be a roof if you want long term durability.
~C
Interesting, the wedge markings on the Tenons. I made a few hardwood doors for my conservatory and could not get detailed info on how to layout the Wedge cut, on the Tenon. I tried different cuts with a hole to stop splitting, sometimes the wood cracked because the wedge bent it to far. It seems quite an intricate ballence to get right. The type of wood the length of tenon, the shape of the wedge, distance from the edge.
Enjoying the process immensely, Chris.