Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
JAPANESE TOOLS:
Transform your woodworking.
OVER THE PAST thirty years or so, there has been a burgeoning interest in the use of Japanese woodworking tools and methods by Western woodworkers. We’re attracted to these tools for myriad reasons. For some, it’s the philosophy and traditions of the Japanese woodworker, or the technical aspects and quality of the tools, for others, it’s the appeal of the aeons-old history of Japanese swordand blade makers.
We have remarkable woodworkers such as George Nakashima, Toshio Odate and others to thank for bringing Japanese tools and techniques to the forefront in Western woodworking, and a growing number of us contend that Japanese tool design is superior in many ways. In case you were wondering, I do still love my Western hand tools – I grew up with them, their techniques and idiosyncrasies, but I do use Japanese saws, marking knives and planes on a daily basis in my workshop, alongside their Western counterparts.
For the true Japanese woodworker, workshop life is more of an all-encompassing philosophy than just being about the tools alone. They respect and care for their tools, almost to the point of reverence. A Japanese craftsman or artisan is called a shokunin. This is not merely a descriptive title, but carries a much deeper meaning. In the words of master craftsman Toshio Odate: ‘Japanese apprentices are taught that being a shokunin not only implies having technical skill, but also an attitude and social consciousness.’
It would be impossible for me to properly elaborate on the entire concept of Japanese woodworking in this series of articles, as I am most definitely not qualified to do so. Instead, I will concentrate on the tools that have made their way into Western woodwork workshops, especially those that are easily available to us in South Africa.
There are a few fundamental concepts that separate typical Japanese woodworking tools from the Western tools that many of us know and grew up with. The basic principle of Japanese woodworking tools is that it is more efficient, accurate and productive to use a pulling motion than a pushing motion when using hand planes or saws. And this makes sense. Not only is it more efficient, but the process of starting the cut away from your centre at the full extension of your stroke allows you to set up the stroke for the best balance. By cutting towards your body, you are bringing the tool into your centre of balance and gravity, which has the remarkable advantage of more control of the tool, coupled with less effort and therefore more efficiency.
I have proved on many occasions, when teaching new woodworkers, that students develop efficient and accurate control over the tool much faster with a Japanese saw or hand plane than with its Western counterpart. When learning to edge joint timber with a Western hand plane, new woodworkers will invariably start the plane at 90° to the timber and, the longer the board, the more acute or obtuse the cutting angle will become. I think this is because with a Western plane, you start ‘at your balance centre’ and move away into a position of less control during the cut, while with a Japanese plane you start ‘away from your balance centre’ (or the position of least control), and then line up your body with the cut and bring the plane in towards your core. Effectively, at the point of least control (extension), you are static and setting up the cut.
A good way to test this hypothesis is to take a wellsharpened and tuned Western hand plane, turn it around and do a few cuts with it in the ‘reverse’ or ‘pull stroke’ direction. You are likely to find that your cut is closer to 90° to the face of your board over a longer area of the cut than with the plane in the ‘push stroke’ direction. You will also tend to position your head and shoulders lower during the cut, compared to the position you would hold with a Western hand plane, and I strongly believe this helps in keeping the plane at 90° to the work.