Furniture

[72gmc]

I’m enjoying this with coffee and a bit of workshop envy.

[claritycycler]

Great vid! Seeing this level of work is truly amazing; I think to truly appreciate his skills one has to have at least a basic understanding/experience/knowledge of furniture building. Come on Dan, really, only a little bit of shop envy?

[rec head]

I wasn't expecting biscuits.

[j44ke]

Ishitani is a great YouTube channel. His work with a chisel is incredible.

[claritycycler]

I wasn't expecting biscuits.

Biscuits are used for alignment purposes only, initially they were thought to strengthen joints but it is now accepted they don't, the glue used is the structural bond.

[rec head]

I understand biscuits and have one. I just didn't expect them in this case. His process and tool choices are interesting.

[j44ke]

I understand biscuits and have one. I just didn't expect them in this case. His process and tool choices are interesting.

Yes. A unique ability to move back and forth between traditional techniques and modern machinery, and he has some pretty amazing machinery - not new but restored and well cared for.



I found an article on him at one point but I can't locate it now. He went to a furniture making trade school and then apprenticed at a furniture builder. At the time of the article he was in his late 30's but that was several years ago (ah located his age - he's 49 now). Japan has a strong apprenticeship ethos obviously, but I also think a lot of the high-craft makers are aging or dying out without anyone to take up the chisel (as it were.) Hard to convince someone to put in the years of apprenticeship. There is another YouTube channel by an Australian guy who moved to Japan with his Japanese wife, and they bought and restored one of the abandoned houses now common in the Japanese countryside. Their carpenter was 70 years old and brought along his son as his apprentice. I guess when the carpenter retires at 90, the son will take over at 60 or so.

[72gmc]

Come on Dan, really, only a little bit of shop envy?

I confess to rewinding 30 seconds more than once so I could focus on the tool or machine he was using instead of the wood he was working.