Displaying japanese chisels

Re: Displaying japanese chisels

Charles

>Wow, you have time to display your chisels? Mine are usually in my hand or in the tool well.

Re: Displaying japanese chisels

Todd Stock

>Check FWW #160 (2002-2003 Tools and Shops Issue), pg. 95, for a shrine to Japanese spokeshaves made by Les Cizek; might inspire you to greater things.

Also - if memory serves, check the Canadian Journal of Abnormal Psychology � around May of 1998 - for an article titled �Tool Worship � Perversion or Just Another Life Style Choice?� � there were a few good shots of temples and that sort of thing.

Hope this helps.

You're bad!

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>

LOL! Thanks, Todd, needed that laugh.

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>

Re: Displaying japanese chisels

Charles

>Eric, buy a quality chisel roll and spend your time and money building furniture. A simple rack to keep the chisels close at hand for work is cool. An elaborate project borders on the obsessive in my opinion.

I am not advocating that you abuse or misuse your expensive Japanese chisels. Just keep everything in perspective.

FWIW, I'm more or less a 'banger.' I keep my tools ready for work - sharp and rust free. Beyond that I don't much care. Everything I own is hung on pegboard, sits a shelf below a very pedestrian bench, or permanently resides in the tool well (a 1/4" mortising chisel for example). Everything is neat and orderly, but far from obsessed over.

Re: Displaying japanese chisels

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>The board with holes in it to hang on the wall is used for accessibility; and I'm sure the Japanese who use it have arranged the chisels carefully so they are very well organized for use.

Not to discourage you; but if you have the wall space, I can't imagine a more useful setup.

Pam

Re: Displaying japanese chisels

Manny

>I think any chisel rack out in the open will display your tools and provide some organization. I chose to use a rack similar to what you saw in Odate's book, except I wanted it configurable for various tools. It's simple and functional. Only took a couple hours to make and the tools are right in front where I can grab whatever I need.

The 1" x 3/4" pieces are drilled for 1/4" dowels and mounted to T-track embedded into the 3/4" birch ply using 1/4" bolts and nuts. The nuts slide into the T-track. That makes the dowel peg boards movable to accomodate different size chisels. I can make the pyramid shape you saw in Odate's book or just angle one of the peg boards as in the picture. I can also mount the peg boards horizontal for other types of tools. You can see in the upper right corner a marking gauge that's sitting on a peg board mounted horizontally. Not all of the T-track is being used. I mounted it in various places to make it configurable in case I ever want to change the positions of the peg boards.

Horizontal mounting

Manny

>Here's a pic of the peg boards mounted horizontally for other tools. The only difference from the vertical mounting is a third 1/4" bolt in the center to prevent flexing.

Overall Pic

Manny

>Here's what the overall workspace looks like.

Re: Overall Pic

cstanford

>That's a beautiful selection of tools. My brain would short circuit trying to figure out which one to select.

Re: Overall Pic

Alan Bierbaum

>Western bench and planes (hidden below the bench) and great selection of Eastern tools on the wall. Very nice work area. Why this mix of tools?

Re: Overall Pic

Manny

>A Japanese furniture maker will do most of his/her work on a bench low to the ground. My back can't deal with that. That's why I prefer the western style bench. Their working style is different. Occasionally, they use their feet to hold the work. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet a shoji maker named Mr. Watanabe. Right before a demonstration he was asked if he wanted to work on a western style bench. His response was "No, because then I can't use my feet." Very skilled craftsman. Hope to take a course from him next year.

As far as the planes go, most of the time (when in the mood to use handtools) I still prefer to dimension lumber with western planes. I use my Japanese planes mainly for smoothing softwoods and some hardwoods. (I'll admit for most of my dimensioning I'll turn on the power tools.)

As far as chisels, I don't know. I still use both. Lately, I've become attached to my LN bench chisels.