Another Dai, Another Dollar,...

[Sheets]

Just finished this dai for a blade I got recently on eBay (60mm NitaShiro). Not sure who made it or the steel, but it seems well made and not too hard to sharpen. I'm donating it to a fundraising auction, so hoping it will fetch a couple of dollars. The wood is purple heart which has been sitting in my wood pile (actually meagre collection - almost exceeded by the depth of dust which has accumulated on it). So its got a few checks, but is quite stable after all this time. I initially cut another piece without any checks, but decided that one was too nice to give away. Besides, I whacked the dai enough times while adjusting the blade, so its not going to come apart. There's also the strong chance that the person who buys it isn't a woodworker, so it may just be a shiny, colourful thing that some people (like me) are attracted to (like the last one I made). I've put two coats of Tung oil on it, and was still wet when I took the pics. Anyway, I made a few shavings out of poplar, so it works.

[Gadge]

Nice job Sheets. Well made dai and I like the blade; looks like wrought iron jigane. Very nice.
It's a pity to do all that precise work on a block with cracks. For what it's worth, I'd never give away a piece with flaws. I'd feel I was compromising my integrity.

Regards,
Gadge

[Sheets]

Hi Gadge,

I know how you feel. But the last time I made a dai to donate, it was bought by a non-woodworker and I'm sure that will be the case this time. Even so, as I said, the dai was struck many a time and I watched to see if there was any change to the checking that would lead to failure, and I'm confident that it will not. I've had the wood for 25 years and it was imported for who knows how long before that. The checks look worse than they actually are. I made the decision to buy the blade for the kanna to donate, and in spite of it costing more than I planned (darn exchange rate these days) and its a better quality than expected, I decided to press on and use it anyway. I think, if there is a woodworker who knows what their looking at, they will understand what is at stake and appreciate the quality of the blade and even if they think the dai is crap, are prepared to deal with the consequences if there are any. Otherwise, this tool will just make some money for the event (which is the point) and sit on a shelf and that's fine. If anyone thinks anything less of me because its not perfect, well that's ok too.

Maybe its an excuse, or maybe a lack of integrity on my part, but one of the problems today is that if we only ever use the "best" of wood, there will continue to be less and less of it (and I'll admit to being a hoarder of my best stuff, which paradoxically IS wasted if never used), so I'm using grade B here so its not wasted. And in use, it would be fine - I'm sure many of us have beat up dai from eBay kanna that still perform well.

I appreciate your comments and don't mind having a spotlight put on me.

Steve

[yojimbo]

I'm in agreement with you, Sheets. Particularly because it's purpleheart. I've worked with pieces that have significant cracks in them -- even dropping a piece on a hard concrete floor at one point () -- and they never seemed to move a micron.

[Sheets]

Yes, think of it as a piece with live edges on the inside .

[Sheets]

Update:
a. Sold! for ,.... $35.00 . (Non-woodworker, small crowd).
b. Its for a good cause.
c. At least I can say my work is suitable to sit on a shelf.
d. So there's one less kanna in circulation, so that makes all the others worth a little bit more, eh?

[yojimbo]

Well done, pal.