Japanese 'workbench'

[Mark Woodward]

Hi all,

I guess this is more directed toward Soatoz.
I'm interested in your workplace as much as your tools. I have Toshio Odate's book but would love to hear from you regarding how you actually do things.

At the moment my 'bench' is a 8"x6"x6' hunk of hardwood and two 8"x6"x18" chocks. To be honest it's not a bad way to work. I can use the plank on the two chocks when chiseling, drop one of the chocks when ripping (or cutting dovetails). Sounds primitive but it's actually pretty effective.

But I think it's time to upgrade as the planks cupped. I'm thinking of replacing it with a laminated plank or an old hunk of iron bark if I can find it. (The old one was too green).

Soatoz, is it possible to reply with a run down with how you operate? ie what you use when ripping boards, planing boards, chiseling mortices etc? Not the tools, but your work area.

I for one am pretty chuffed to have someone with your knowledge of japanese woodworking to be able to ask questions.

thanks,

--
Mark

[soatoz]

Hi Mark,

Sorry it's taken me so long....



I guess this is more directed toward Soatoz.
I'm interested in your workplace as much as your tools. I have Toshio Odate's book but would love to hear from you regarding how you actually do things.


As I have wrote in the email to you, my work environment is nothing like a decent workshop. I don't even have a roof, so can't work on rainy days.... It's raining so much nowadays, I can't set up tools people have requested, so many people are waiting:( But I'm so happy because the surf is spectacular!!!! This June is great!



At the moment my 'bench' is a 8"x6"x6' hunk of hardwood and two 8"x6"x18" chocks. To be honest it's not a bad way to work. I can use the plank on the two chocks when chiseling, drop one of the chocks when ripping (or cutting dovetails). Sounds primitive but it's actually pretty effective.


Yeah, that should be fine. As long as you can plane with decent form (standing up, not too high), other than that I think anything is okay. But planing on the ground is absolute no no, I know this from experience...



But I think it's time to upgrade as the planks cupped. I'm thinking of replacing it with a laminated plank or an old hunk of iron bark if I can find it. (The old one was too green).


Oh, the planks need to be fixed with dovetail sliding joint. I'll try to upload the photo of my plank, in a day or two.



Soatoz, is it possible to reply with a run down with how you operate? ie what you use when ripping boards, planing boards, chiseling mortices etc? Not the tools, but your work area.
I for one am pretty chuffed to have someone with your knowledge of japanese woodworking to be able to ask questions.


Hahaha, it won't help you at all, cause I work in a terrible condition.

I use a metal vice to clamp the wood when chiseling and stuff. Ripping the boards are done on plastic milk cartons. The only decent thing I have is for planing, but the materials used for the bench is construction grade (ie low) timbers I found in the dump.... But looks (looked? it's all dirty now) good though. You can have a glimps of my work area in this page. It shows my vice and almighty milk carton as well.

http://www.geocities.com/soatoz/nomi/Handle_Making/Handle_Making.html

You can see my former workshop here (super small balcony). Good thing this apartment only had surfers living. They didn't mind all the noise I made! Cool neighbors.

http://www.geocities.com/soatoz/kanna/Cabinet_Makers/Cabinet_Maker.html

Schtoo-kun, are you possibly reading this??? Could you help me out with this? I'm sure you have much better workshop than mine (mine isn't even a workshop...) and somewhat Japanese?

Sorry I'm no use regarding this topic!

[soatoz]

You can see my work area here, although it probably won't help you too much....

http://www.geocities.com/soatoz/nomi/Handle_Making/Handle_Making.html

[Mark Woodward]

You can see my work area here, although it probably won't help you too much....

http://www.geocities.com/soatoz/nomi/Handle_Making/Handle_Making.html


Thanks So,
Looks a lot like mine. But mines nowhere near as fancy :D
I'm actually making a 'bench' at the moment. Using the old bench (a hardwood sleeper!) to make it. I'm actually impressed with how much I can do with just a plank.

Not as impressed as I'm going to be when I get the Masanari and small saw set :2tsup:

The only thing that doesn't feel comfortable is planing (like you said).


cheers,

--
Mark

[wilburpan]

Hi Soatoz,

I was wondering: on your planing board, you have a gap between the two parts of the planing stop. Is there a reason for making the planing stop in two parts, instead of making one long planing stop all the way across?

[Schtoo]

Schtoo-kun, are you possibly reading this??? Could you help me out with this? I'm sure you have much better workshop than mine (mine isn't even a workshop...) and somewhat Japanese?

Sorry I'm no use regarding this topic!


Neither am I!

My workshop/shed resembles a Japanese workshop in no way, shape or form except the labels on the power tools, some of the hand tools (but not too many) and where it is.

Other than that, I feel pretty confident that my shed is bigger than 90% of the guys on this forum, has hardwood floors and a 6' x 3' main workbench with a large vise, homemade though.

It's like steeping out of Japan and into a typical western shed. :wink: :D