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Thread: Gennou - Handle
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19th January 2013, 06:09 PM #1
Gennou - Handle
I am, I have to confess a recent convert to the Japanese style of hammer. Actually convert is wrong as that implies rejection of all else in the genre and that is very far from the truth. I probably have thirty or more hammers of varying descriptions and I plan to get rid of none of them. Slightly more than half of them have handles on them too .
Back to the story and it dates from a couple of years ago, I think, without checking the details ( could I be a journalist in the making? Probably not with my spelling), when I discovered gennous in a post by Derek Cohen. He had made a handle for a rather nice gennou (I want one of those) and I realised that these hammers had a particular appeal for me.
This is the type Derek had and I want one
Tsuchime1.jpg
Japan Tool
By the way Derek, you are no longer welcome at our house. I made the mistake of showing SWMBO the gennou. I thought she would appreciate a good hammer.....
Anyhow, on reflection, I don't think I it expressed the best way I could and she took exception to the suggestion: She blames you .
I had for a present a while back a couple of small gennous. Just cooking versions, nothing special, but to my mind decidedly cute and I have used and used them.
Recently I found a web site and acquired a so-called handmade one. It was a little larger than I really wanted as they no longer had the smaller versions available. At 750g it is the weight of a good sized ball pein hammer. It is made by a guy called Fukushima. A couple of things came to mind. Firstly that it wasn't up to much and secondly that it was radioactive.
On the first count I decided after looking at the very poor videos on the web site of a person, possibly him, making the hammers I would take a chance. On the radioactive aspect I looked up where he lives and and it not the region that has been nuked. If there is some contamination I will hang in the shed at night and save some electricity.
It came unhandled and I had a piece of spotted gum that I has set aside for the purpose. Derek suggested a technique without using wedges. I was anxious to try that, but in the end I chickened out and fitted a timber wedge as well as the traditional Japanese method: Covering all bases . After hammering the handle and forcing it into the head, a wedge was fitted and then soaked in flaxseed oil. Well it was flaxseed oil when SWMBO gave it to me (said it had gone rancid). You and I would call it linseed oil.
The handle was rubbed with a scourer soaked in Organoil's burnishing oil.
Hammer Oiled 005.jpgbracket and hammer 003.jpgHammer Oiled 002.jpgHammer Oiled 004.jpg
Regards
PaulLast edited by Bushmiller; 20th January 2013 at 10:05 AM. Reason: Typos
Bushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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19th January 2013, 06:14 PM #2
Revised Handle
What I didn't say was that although the handle was comfortable, I wasn't happy with the shape so I remodeled it.
Gennou remade 003.jpgGennou remade 004.jpg
I prefer the curve of this handle. Boys like curves. It's in the genes.
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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19th January 2013, 06:27 PM #3
Nice job BM.
I made a handle for a Japanese axe recently and I am not at all happy with it. I'm going to have to make another one.Those were the droids I was looking for.
https://autoblastgates.com.au
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19th January 2013, 06:30 PM #4
Shaping
Forgot to mention how the handle was shaped. If there was anything inside my head I'd probably be dangerous. Actually I am anticipating that by brain will be much sought after by medical science - It's unused.
Shaping was initially by 40 grit sanding disc in the angle grinder and then 80 grit followed by normal ROS. Coarse to remove the swirl marks and fine (240 to finish. The scourer takes care of final smoothing). When the handle was re-shaped I only used the 40grit as it was fairly worn by then having been used for other applications in between. Still followed up with the the ROS.
The angle grinder sanding is extremely aggressive. It can put an arris on an edge about as quickly as a router bit, but with a gentle hand (to go with the curves ) a reasonable finish can be achieved very quickly.
I will be posting a thread where I have shaped scales for knife handles the same way.
Regards
Paul
PS. If I was going to to much of this work I would use a 100mm angle grinder as it would be lighter to hold for freehand shaping, but I have standardised my grinders at 150mm or larger. I may have to work on my muscles instead.Last edited by Bushmiller; 19th January 2013 at 06:32 PM. Reason: tidy up mistakes
Bushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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20th January 2013, 02:54 AM #5Senior Member
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Hi, Bushmiller. Nice handle. Love the shape. And love your post in general.
I was taught to shape a gennou handle as a curve so that the rounded side has a downward bow to it (less power) and the flat side has the upward curve (both of these when holding it horizontally, I realize I should clarify). The main advantage is that you know which side is which by the grip... otherwise I don't find it all that useful.
Just sayin'. Not recommending.
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20th January 2013, 10:46 AM #6
Hi Paul,
First, I'm not quite over the shock of seeing something posted here - got all choked up (maybe too much wine).
As for the quote above - sounds like the first job for your new genno is to whack yourself a few times (or ask the wife to, sounds like she'd enjoy it). Anyway, guaranteed to learn something. Science's loss, perhaps.
Very nice job with the handle btw, beautifully shaped. I notice, however, that your wedge might be going the wrong way? If you look at the hole, it is wider (or longer, depending how you reference it) where the handle exits (you can see the gaps at each end in the pic 005). Usually, genno are designed this way so the inserted end of the handle will flare outward and fill the gaps when wedged (perpendicular to the long axis), and thus make it less likely to loosen and come off. I'm sure for general use, like when the wife whacks you, it will be ok. But for more serious work (like disciplining children?) it may tend to fly off and, you know, cause injury . Not to mention the expletives which might be uttered at such a time (something that rhymes with Fukushima...).
Seriously, tho', for a chap with so many hammers, you likely know what's ok in use, so my observation may be frivolous. And, in my case, I don't think I could swing 750g often enough before running out of steam to have to worry about the handle coming loose.
Anyway, thanks for posting, its a beautiful tool.
Steve
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20th January 2013, 11:20 AM #7
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20th January 2013, 11:29 AM #8
Yojimbo
I think you are right on the money. In fact Derek Cohen's post, from which I took inspiration, depicted exactly that, a curved handle. However my preference, prejudice actually, was for symmetry. To determine which side is curved I unconsciously run my fingers over the faces to tell which has the curve. I guess that, if by my age you cannot tell a curve from a flat, life's experiences have taught you nothing and you should consider giving the whole show away .
In practice, the flat head has become dirtier as it is used more often, but I concede that from twenty paces I don't have a clue which way is up (on the gennou).
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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20th January 2013, 11:50 AM #9
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20th January 2013, 12:18 PM #10
Well, I was going to suggest epoxy as an alternative, but the last time I used it, it took me hours to free my hand from the handle.
I don't recall the post by Derek, but he likely covered all the bases about the flared hole (or lack thereof) if he suggested not using any wedge. And as the old saying goes, "there's more than one way..."
Steve
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20th January 2013, 12:40 PM #11
Steve
This was Derek's thread and his very smart gennou:
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/h...rticle-126947/
You will need to refer to his website for exact details via the link.
BTW Derek, if you want to come over and play, I will smooth the waters with SWMBO, but I think we will still have to make our own tea and biscuits as she does not have a benevolent nature .
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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20th January 2013, 06:10 PM #12
Hi Paul
I'll only come over to play if it is cooler in Qld than Perth and you have plenty of icy beer. I was in Sydney 2 days ago when the mercury hit a smidgeon under 46 C. I had just arrived back from Canada, where it was -10 to zero. Not to mention it is the weekend and our aircon will not go on!!!! Tell me all is forgiven!
Now your handle is good for a Western handle, and I have no doubt that it is comfortable and will work (.... so what more does one want with a handle?). What you have made is very similar to many of the handles one gets on a production gennou. This gennou head was handmade and consequently I wanted to do it justice, hence adhering strictly to the traditional.
The reason for the curve is simply to orientate the face. You automatically know which side of the gennou is domed and which is flat. The domed side is used to finish nailing without marring the surrounding surface. For adjusting planes it is also going to do less damage than the edge/corner of a flat hammer face.
Locking the end of the handle in the mortice is easy enough. Why not give it a go?
Also, I think that you would have a lot more fun shaping the handle with a spokeshave than a grinder
Regards from a sweltering Perth
DerekVisit www.inthewoodshop.com for tutorials on constructing handtools, handtool reviews, and my trials and tribulations with furniture builds.
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20th January 2013, 07:04 PM #13
Thanks Derek for your comments.
I understand the change in climate from Canada. The first time I came to Oz in Dec 1978 I left Amsterdam where there was snow on the runway and stepped off the plane at Kingsford Smith to 38 deg. The climatic equivalent of being thrown in at the deep end.
Although we have had our share of hot weather here ironically it may not have been as hot as NSW and other places. Different story if you went NW from here about 1000km. Thargomindah I think hit 49 deg or thereabouts, but we only got to the high thirties .
Not the biggest beer drinker myself, but normally have some beer in the fridge for my son, friends and relatives .
I anticipated that my attempt at a handle would bring out the purist in you . However let's take this one step at a time. I'm not good with change at the best of times and also if you had seen my spokeshaves you probably would not have made that suggestion. It probably only took me twenty minutes to obtain the basic shape before using the ROS (I know, I know...another travesty ).
There is another problem with spotted gum in that it has a marked tendency to pick up. The stock I used was planed first and "pick up" is precisely what it did. I was using one of Terry Gordon's planes and I reversed the blade as he suggests to make a scraper. This was actually the first time I have done this. It worked extremely well, although harder going. However this would not have been an option with a spokeshave.
BTW an earlier reference to the angle grinder size should have read 125mm (not 150mm which was the ROS).
I still want one of those Tenryuu models. Let's see, Birthday, Father's day......... .
Regards
PaulLast edited by Bushmiller; 20th January 2013 at 07:06 PM. Reason: typo
Bushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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21st January 2013, 02:16 AM #14Senior Member
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21st January 2013, 04:39 AM #15
Too late.
I'd still have to look, 'cause I wouldn't remember which way the handle curve goes with which face. Look twice, hit once I always say.
Derek,
Where in Canada (if you're at liberty to say)? I'm on the east coast (Nova Scotia) and we had similar temps (-10 to 0, which isn't unusual for this coast), but so did a lot of other places, which isn't usual for January. Of course it goes without saying these days that, the world over, temps are "above normal". Much as I look forward to the spring/summer, I don't envy you Aussies with your heat wave. Icy beer is certainly a relief, but after a few of those, one can't really attempt anything with too much precision (at least I couldn't, but then precision isn't a word I'd use to describe my work anyway).
In the words of my late Uncle (an Australian), "A man has to believe in something,... and I believe I'll have another drink".
Steve
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