Torii inspired necklace rack - WIP

**javali** · 26th January 2010, 06:34 PM

My mum's birthday is coming up soon, so I made a necklace rack for her. As I need to allow some time for shipping, I was busy doing the work. Now that I am waiting for the oil to cure it's time to put the story up on the Web.

The timber is silky oak I collected a few years back. Ripping is a hard work, and I have no use for the large branch that came out of that tree, so I trimmed the timber to length. To get the best grain pattern I wanted to cut along the medullary rays. Combined with an irregular shape this creates a holding problem. Luckily I had the right tool in the shed. Two days after taking the photo Chris Schwartz wrote a blog entry on this technique. This entry sparked a discussion on the direction of the teeth. My take on this is that a woodworker must be aware of what he is doing. If he is the risk is only hypothetical. If he is not, he should not be woodworking.

After planing the face, resawing is much easier. The timber is, then foursquarred and the work starts.

One point worth mentioning is that it is quite hard to see the gauge marks on the lacy side of the timber. As can be seen in the photo, putting some chalk before gauging helps highlighting the mark.

**BTman** · 26th January 2010, 10:13 PM

It's good to see that you have your all Australian steel capped thongs on.

Nice work so far and look forward to seeing the progress shots.

**javali** · 26th January 2010, 10:42 PM

I use a sliding bevel set to about 5 degrees for (almost) all the angled cuts. The nuki (middle piece) is made of three parts of a single piece tenoned into the hashiras (uprights). To align the saw with the mark I cut a shallow groove in the workpiece before sawing it.
For the mortice I use the bevel as a reference, cut at a more acute angle and pare the ends of the mortice to the line.
The last photo shows how I mark the length of the tenons. As this is not a load bearing joint I can use shallow tenons so I just align the tenons, mark around the middle and saw to the mark. For a real torii gate, I would probably half the thickness of the tenons to get them to hold each other and to have a larger glue surface.

**javali** · 26th January 2010, 11:11 PM

To shape the top piece, I first mark the shape and a few vertical lines down to the arc. I saw down these lines and than saw the waste out. Cleaning up is done with a spoke shave, followed by sand paper.

The tenons at the ends of the hashiras are squared. I dry fit the pats and check the angles to mark the locations of the mortices. I first glue the gate up, and clean it, and then glue it to the base and trim the protruding ends of the tenons

**artme** · 26th January 2010, 11:44 PM

Good stuphph Javali. Love the grain in that SO.

**javali** · 28th January 2010, 02:33 PM

Thanks BTman and artme.

The rack is completed. Finish is BLO and traditional wax, hardware is Brusso chain hangers.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is not as stable as I would have liked it to be. Next time I will use a wider base. Other than that, I am quite happy with the results

**RufflyRustic** · 28th January 2010, 02:42 PM

Lovely design. I totally agree about the base needing to be bigger, or heavier even.

I like how it sits against the wall - very neat!

cheers
Wendy

**benupton** · 28th January 2010, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by javali

Thanks BTman and artme.

The rack is completed. Finish is BLO and traditional wax, hardware is Brusso chain hangers.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is not as stable as I would have liked it to be. Next time I will use a wider base. Other than that, I am quite happy with the results

It turned out great

**Christos** · 2nd February 2010, 09:40 PM

I like it.

Could you not make another wider base and glue that onto the bottom.

**chowcini** · 3rd February 2010, 12:46 AM

looks great mate , old school tools and all

**artme** · 3rd February 2010, 06:57 AM

Well done mate!!

I like the little hanging pegs, neat and unobtrusive.

Agree with thoughts about the base.

**Jeff Mills** · 3rd February 2010, 04:13 PM

Yikes

don't slip

Silky oak looks a lot like American sycamore but it's oak so it's much better than sycamore. Very nice project and beautiful timber

**artme** · 3rd February 2010, 06:38 PM

Jeff, Silky Oak is not Oak. It is a Grevillia - Grevillia Robusta. Is called Silky Oak because when Quarter sawn the grain has much the same flashes from the medullary rays as does Oak.

**Jeff Mills** · 4th February 2010, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by artme

Jeff, Silky Oak is not Oak. It is a Grevillia - Grevillia Robusta. Is called Silky Oak because when Quarter sawn the grain has much the same flashes from the medullary rays as does Oak.

Ah... I see the tree is also a evergreen, is it also a soft wood?

**artme** · 5th February 2010, 07:24 AM

reasonably soft.

Forgot to mention that there is another timber here called Silky Oak. The species is Crdwallia Subliminus and it grows in Queesland. Similar grain, slightly coarser, colour tends to be more pink/beige.

Similar tree grows in Sout America and is sold in the States as Leopardwood.

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