woodworking – Nothing In It

Mizuoke – Water Bucket

Posted on 2024.12.112024.12.18 by Elliott Evans

Sometimes I do woodworking demos at SCA events, and I have been wanting a less modern water source for sharpening than my plastic container. I was watching the animated film “Spirited Away” and I was like, “I need that bucket.”

I think that in Japan, this low and wide type of bucket was basically used as a basket. In the movie, she has it full of candy (konpeito, basically little bumpy sugar balls) that she’s feeding to the soot sprites. I’ve seen large ones in other movies used to transport cooked rice.

I bought about twelve feet of cedar 1by6 (sold as 4/4 S3S) and planed it down to 3/4″. Then I cut 10 6″ long bits for the staves and 2 15″ long pieces for the handle staves. I tilted the table saw blade to 15 degrees and beveled one edge, then spun each piece around to both bevel the other edge and narrow each piece down to 3+7/8″ wide (on the wider side). Switching the table saw over to a dado stack, I cut a 3/4″ wide by 3/8″ deep dado on the interior of each piece, to accept the floor of the bucket.

I used the band saw to shape the handle staves, then cut the through-mortises on the drill press and chiseled them square.

The floor of the bucket is cut from three pieces of cedar that I edge-glued together and then shaped using a circle jig on the band saw. I cut that as a 14″ circle, but I wish I had gone up at least a quarter inch more.

I dry fit all the pieces using blue tape, so I could figure out how long the handle needed to be. Once I had that length, I sketched out the curve of the handle and cut the shape on the band saw. A bit of sanding smoothed away the blade marks.

Since I already had the pieces taped up, I could apply plenty of glue, roll the bucket up around the floor (inserting the handle at the right moment), and clamp it together with elastic bands. I should have used ratchet strapspn as that would have let me get them really tight. Since I knew cleaning dry glue off the inside would be a pain, I washed the squeeze-out off the interior before it could cure. I left the whole thing to dry overnight.

The next morning I removed the elastic and tape. I scraped the squeeze-out off the exterior, then sanded the angled edges of the exterior to round it up a bit. I drilled some holes in the handle tenons so I could secure them with pegs. To finish up, I tied some palm rope around the bucket with constrictor knots.

It leaked almost as fast as the hose could fill it, so I guess it’s not the best bucket anybody ever made, but it looks good, and I learned some lessons that will help me when (if) I make another one.

Cut and shape the staves, then measure the dry fit to figure out how big the floor should be.
Cut the dado to be a tight fit for the floor.
Use ratchet clamps for a tight fit while the glue cures.

In Japan, they take pride that the joinery in their coopering (and boatmaking) is tight enough to be leakproof before it gets wet. The swelling makes it even tighter! I knew ahead of time that my joinery would not be up to Japanese level. Traditional buckets (and barrels) also have good quality hoops that keep the joinery tight as the wood swells. In Japan, making hoops by braiding strips of bamboo is a craft all on its own. I knew my rope hoops would be a little loose, and that I am not capable of metalworking at this level either, so glue it was.

I did not put any glue holding the bottom in place, because I knew that had to be free to swell. In my future tries to learn this craft, I will make the staves first, then measure to determine what size I need the floor to be. I’ll also leave the boards for the floor a little bit thicker, to match what is apparently a slightly over-width dado stack.

After a few days, I decided to seal the bottom of the bucket with clear finishing resin so that I could use it for its intended purpose. I sealed up the outside of the floor as best as I could with blue tape, then I poured in about 2 cups of mixed resin. I probably could have gotten away with only a cup of resin, since the hardened resin is pretty thick in the bucket now.

When it started to thicken, I brushed the resin up the sides of the bucket, sort of to make a plastic bucket inside. I knew the wood was porous, and I was hoping enough resign would soak in that the wood bucket and the plastic surface would be fully bonded together. One thing I did not take into account was that these pores are all full of air. Since the resin heats up as it cures, the air expanded and bubbled up through the resin. I did not get a perfectly clear layer of plastic in the bottom of the bucket, but it did seal everything up as hoped.

It looks good overall though, and I am happy with it. Once you get some water in it, you can’t really tell the difference between bubbly resin and bubbly water. I have my bucket and it really does look like the inspiration. One commentator suggested that I make two more. The theory is that by the time I make the third one, I’ll have all the problems worked out and the third one will be perfect. That will have to wait for Spring, but I just might do it.

Grocery List Holder

Posted on 2024.12.112024.12.10 by Elliott Evans

Way back in the mists of before-me time, Sharon‘s sister Megan (with Sharon’s mom’s help) made a grocery list holder as a gift for Sharon. It holds an old-fashioned roll of receipt paper (and a pencil) up on the wall so that you can quickly and easily jot down items for the next grocery trip. Sharon has used this holder for grocery lists ever since, and I dutifully started using it when I moved in with Sharon in the Spring of 1996. When you are ready to go grocery shopping, you pull down on the list until it is below the crossbar, then use the crossbar as a tearing guide to remove the list.

There is only one problem: we make two grocery trips a week because the two stores have different merchandise. Most weeks, Sharon goes to one store and I go to the other. Keeping two lists on one holder doesn’t work very well. If the “upper” list needs to be detached before the “lower” list, then the lower list winds up getting tucked into the crossbar and it is difficult to add things. Also, the detached list now has limited room. The solution was for someone (me) to make a second grocery list holder.

Two Grocery List Holders – Megan’s and Mine

I made mine from some of the pine board that I planed down to 5/8-inch for the Medium Japanese Tool Chest project. That’s why it looks a little smaller than the original. I did all of the cutting on the band saw, and smoothed all the saw marks by hand with a plane and some sandpaper. I used copper nails instead of iron nails, because I like the way that looks. Megan and Ivy used a rustic stain-only finish, which is fine and enables it to develop a patina. The pine on my list holder is finished with blonde shellac to seal it more completely for a brighter look.

Ivy says that she based the first one on a list holder that was on the wall of her parents’ house while she was growing up. When I sent a picture of these two to Megan, she said that she could really use one of these, so I will probably wind up making at least one more. Megan’s oldest offspring is now living in his own place, so he should probably have one as well. Maybe I should draw up some plans and write some instructions so that I don’t have to do all of these myself.

Medium Japanese Tool Chest

Posted on 2024.11.292024.12.02 by Elliott Evans

I decided to try to make a sort of medium-sized Japanese tool chest, according to the more modern style. The main purpose of this experiment was to try to make a chest that used less lumber, that could then be sold for less money than the full-size tool chests.

Medium-sized Japanese Tool Chest in Pine

I started with two 6-foot 1-by-10s, and I have a little bit left over for other projects. I planed the 3/4-inch lumber down to 5/8″ to decrease the bulk, and I ripped all of the skinnier pieces from the wider lumber. that’s why the sides are the height they are; rip a 9.25″ 1-by-10 in half and after planing off the saw marks you wind up sides 4.5″ tall. Deeper tool chests, I have found, result in to o much layering of tools. That is, things get buried. The box is about 2-feet long, which makes the whole thing a nice size to fit in car trunks and the like. The cost in lumber and nails is about $40, and I’m thinking of selling these for $100. What do you think?

Unpopular Braiding Equipment

Posted on 2024.09.112024.08.14 by Elliott Evans

I will be teaching a class at the sixth international braiding conference next year in Cleveland, so I have been doing a lot of experimentation and research on a braid called “shige-uchi”.

As you know, most braiding in Japan is performed on braiding stands, called “dai”. A braiding researcher in Japan clued me in to the fact that this braid was made traditionally on three different braiding stands, but only one of those pieces of equipment is used today. The two other dai are rarely seen even in Japan these days, and most braiders outside of Japan have never heard of them.

If I lived in Japan, I could probably make an appointment to travel to one of the few braiding studios that still possess them. In the USA, if I wanted to experiment with these stands I was going to have to DIY them based on some of the few photos that exist on the Internet.

The first is a stand that appears to be specialized just for the shigeuchi braid, since it is called the “shigeuchi-dai”. The unbraided strands hang down over the sides of the dai, and are wound around weighted bobbins called “tama”. The strands are passed between other strands and moved from side to side and to create the braid at the center. The completed braid passes over the “torii” at the top of the dai and is wound around the roller at the back. For scale, this stand is about 2 feet tall.

The second stand is used for several different braids, but usually with an odd number of strands. It is called a “sankaku-dai” because of its triangular (san=3, kaku=angle) top. The strands are (again) passed from side to side, but over the top instead of across a gap. This stand is smaller, at about 16 inches tall.

Both stands are made from pine to keep them affordable, and assembled with screws to keep assembly (and disassembly) simple. Learning to braid on these dai has been fun and informative. My researcher friend in Japan tells me they are most likely the only dai of their kind in North America!

Here is a sampling of sankakudai braids in various materials and colors:

9-element shigeuchi in poly-yarn, 5-set poly-yarn, 5-set poly-yarn, 7-set poly-yarn, 5-set cotton, 7-set cotton, 10-element trapezoid poly-yarn

Sawhorse Crate

Posted on 2024.08.142024.08.15 by Elliott Evans

I made four Japanese-style sawhorses several years ago, but I realized recently that I had no way to transport them except to toss the pieces into the trunk of my car or pile them in a wagon. Then, some friends of mine moved away and gifted me with a pile of lumber they had been using as storage shelving. I spent a few days at the 51st Pennsic War medieval event constructing this 26″x16″x11.25″ crate using only hand tools, as a demo of Japanese style woodworking.

I used a ryoba nokogiri saw to do all the cutting of the pieces from the boards, and some of the joinery. I used oire nomi chisels and a mawashibiki saw to cut the remainder of the joinery and the handle cut-outs. A yotsume kiri gimlet came in handy for pilot holes so that the wood didn’t split when I drove in the nails with a genno tsuchi hammer.

Contrary to common belief, Japanese carpenters would not have used fancy joinery without nails to construct such a simple workman’s item. That kind of specialty carpentry was mostly used for devotional items or religious buildings. They probably would have used forged nails instead of wire nails, but I don’t have any of those handy. The big chunky box joints are seen a lot in shipping and storage boxes.

The linen bag holds the wedges and pegs that hold the horses together when assembled. I wrapped the handle cut-outs with some of this great palm rope from Hida Tools. I call it a crate instead of a box because there’s actually an opening in the floor because I just used two pieces of 1-by-12, leaving a 2-inch gap in the middle. This should let the sawdust and shavings out.

The completed box plus sawhorse parts is pretty heavy, so I have to store it on a lower shelf instead of storing the loose pieces on the highest shelf in the garage. I might try to figure out a packing pattern for only one horse’s worth of pieces, then make 2 of those for the other 2 horses.

Pennsic Gate for Debatable Lands

Posted on 2024.07.302024.08.14 by Elliott Evans

Due to a confluence of funds and enthusiasm, I came up with the idea of making a new entry gate for the Debatable Lands camp at Pennsic. The camp had a gate, and there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, , but given that the Debatable Lands just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of it’s founding, I felt a shiny new gate was in order. It has actually been more than ten years since I made a camp gate, so I was able to apply what I have learned regarding complexity of design and total project weight, and minimize those vital factors.

Pennsic Camp Gate for the Debatable Lands

The vertical posts are four 8-foot pine 4by4s. They are untrimmed, but they have 3.5-inch slots cut in them to mate with the horizontal members. The horizontal members are 4-foot lengths of pine 2by4, and they have 3.5-inch notches cut at each end to mate with the slots in the vertical posts. The simple joinery increases rigidity and makes sure each horizontal member is in the right place. The lower members are at a good height for use as hand rails or butt rests.

The front top panel is an 8-foot 1by12 that has been crenelated using 5 pieces cut from a 6-foot 1by10. Battens on the reverse secure the crenelations and assure that the panel is aligned properly to the vertical posts. I painted the “Debatable Lands” part myself. The back top panel is an 8-foot 1by10. It is currently not decorated, but that’s plenty of room for an inspirational motto. “Salve Accolens” would be reasonable, but I decided to let others decide what goes there. The two top panels are really the only thing connecting the sides, but they are tall (wide) enough that I’m hoping that will be fine.

The two decorative side panels in the front are 6-foot 1by10s. Owen Tegg painted the lettering, and it is amazing. They say “Fifty Years” in honor of our anniversary, but they can be replaced or repainted easily in the future. It will be a shame to see all that ornate lettering go, though. I wanted to leave a lot of room for creativity from year to year. Since they are just flat panels, anybody can make new ones if they want, and attach them to the gate once it is up.

There is another 4-foot long piece of 2by4 that runs from front to back between the top panels. This provides a little more stability, but its real purpose is to serve as a peak for the awning. The awning is just a long canvas drop cloth from the hardware store. It should provide a little shade from the midday sun and a little shelter from light weather, but I don’t imagine it is waterproof.

All the wood pieces are stained and polyurethaned. A quart of polyurethane was just enough to coat all the pieces and seal the ends. The gate is assembled using regular 3-inch long construction screws.

Given the current price of construction lumber, this whole project (including hardware) cost around $400. I had a lot of help cutting, decorating, and assembling this gate. Thank you Brandubh, Turleough, Aaron, Catalina, Niall, Owen, Forveleth (who would have helped but did not get a chance), and to the officers of the Barony for approving this passion project in the first place. I hope the Barony likes our new gate!

The funding for this and other passion projects was available because a member of our local group passed away suddenly at the age of 33, and his family asked that memorial donations be made in his name to the Barony. Ronan took tremendous pride in the Barony and loved spending time in the Pennsic camp with his friends. He would have loved helping with this project, and I hope having it up at the front of camp would have made him happy.

Small Boxes from Surplus Wood

Posted on 2024.07.022024.07.02 by Elliott Evans

I picked up some small-ish thin pieces of mystery tropical wood from a friend, and I had a pile of surplus from the Storage Trays for Tama project, so I decided to make some small lidded boxes to give away. I started this back last fall, but they sat in the garage waiting for another slice of time I could devote to completing them. The largest of these has an 8″ by 8″ lid on a 5″ tall body, so they are mostly too small for storage but a great size for gifts.

Three small lidded boxes from mystery wood

The mystery wood boxes are finished with salad bowl oil finish, so you could use them as bento boxes, but since I can’t guarantee that they are water-tight or that the wood is not poisonous, I would not recommend it. This wood is only about quarter-inch thick, so the proportions are attractive. I decided how to use the pieces by stacking up all the wood by size and then moving down through the stack making lids and then boxes to match. All the cutting was on the band saw, then glued and pinned together. Unless the pin deflects inside the wood and pokes out, this method is fast.

These are all made from half-inch pine, and finished with a variety of shellac techniques that I wanted to try. I think my favorite one is the rightmost one in the photo. I started with a really dilute cut of light amber shellac to give the wood a little more color, then top-coated with a thin coat of blonde shellac.

Anyway, I already have plans to fill one of the boxes with braids and add it to a gift basket that our SCA Kingdom is putting together for another Kingdom. In any case, the pile of surplus wood is a little bit smaller than it was, so success.

An Archery Stool for Urho

Posted on 2024.06.20 by Elliott Evans

A friend of mine wanted a sturdy stool for shooting archery while seated. Another friend of mine gifted me with some surplus curly maple. I wanted to have fun making another stool, but I don’t really need more seating in the house. I love it when a plan comes together.

I glued up three pieces of the maple. then cut the round top on a band saw using my circle jig. Then, I cut the round through-mortises using a forstner bit.

From the remaining maple, I cut three legs using the band saw, then sawed off the corners to make octagonal legs. I roughed out the tenons on the band saw, then rounded them down by hand with a microplane rasp.

I rounded over the edges of the seat with a router, then all four pieces went through several stages of sanding. Once assembled, I wedged the legs in place. Then, I trimmed off the tops of the tenons using a ryoba hand saw. More sanding, then a few coats of General Finishes “Salad Bowl” finish which I wanted to try out.

Bamboo Satchel

Posted on 2024.04.052024.04.02 by Elliott Evans

More than ten years ago, I made a couple of small “boxes” (box1 box2) by wrapping bamboo sushi rolling mats around blocks of wood. Those two little boxes are still in use, and still going strong, so when I saw the RÖDEBY bamboo “armrest tray”, I knew just what I wanted to do.

The Roedeby comprises thirty bamboo slats that are bonded to a flexible canvas backer. I cut two 7.5 inch disks from pine board, and combined it with some hardware to make this satchel-

The bamboo is both glued and nailed to the pine disks, so it should be pretty sturdy. I attached the sling cord by drilling through the disks and then inserting the ends of the rope and tying stopper knots inside. the “latch” is a couple of brass cotter pins that are secured to the inner layer of bamboo and project through a couple of holes drilled in the outer layer of bamboo. In the above photo, the latch is secured with a small brass “lock” that I acquired at Pennsic a couple of years ago. Here it is open-

Bamboo Satchel Open, with Sake for Scale

You can see that there is quite a lot of space inside. I haven’t tried stuffing it, but I bet you could actually get 3 full-size bottles in there. It should be big enough for a small selection of tools, or a big lunch. I didn’t base it on anything I’ve seen anywhere, so I wouldn’t call it a medieval or Japanese woodworking project, but it’s a handy object that won’t be too disruptive if I carry it to an SCA event.

Mini Oseberg Loom

Posted on 2024.04.032024.12.24 by Elliott Evans

A while back, a friend and fellow fiber artist asked me if I could make a tabletop-sized “Oseberg Loom” that she could use in displays and demonstrations. An Oseberg Loom is a medieval style of loom for weaving narrow bands, and it is often used for tablet weaving (aka: card weaving). My friend is an experienced and enthusiastic tablet weaver who often displays work at SCA events.

I started looking around on the Internet, and found that a “real” Oseberg loom is about 2 meters long and about a meter tall. (Thanks, Ulf!) Now I understood why my friend wanted a “mini” version. Drawings enabled me to scale the pieces down, and get to work in wood.

My completed mini-loom is about 21 inches long and 12 inches tall. It is made of pine, with a blonde shellac finish. The feet join to the horizontal beam with dovetails, the stretcher bar joins to the verticals with a pinned through-mortise, and the verticals attach to the base with long screws. I thought about using more joinery, but I realized that screws would be more rigid, more durable, and much easier. The screws also make it possible to disassemble the loom if necessary for travel or repairs. There is no glue, though the shellac may of course make the pieces stick to each other..

I was able to do almost all of the cutting on the band saw, except for some of the detail work. The beveling on the base pieces (and the rounding on the verticals) was done using a router. I have a small router table that uses a handheld trim router, which is very handy for this kind of small project. The through mortises were drilled and then squared up with a chisel.