let's go ban here and today's exciting episode we are going to
join timber in three different ways without using nails screws or glue
something I've always admired from afar and that's Japanese joinery the connection of
Timbers without using nails and screws and I've always been fascinated with it I think it was a
summary carpenter that got me onto in the first place here it was thanks to him that I bought
this book years ago it's got all these different instructions here showing you how to make those
joints so I thought pick up some cedar sit up the bench and that's what we're gonna do today
all right so these are some of the Japanese tools that we're gonna be using and they're not all
Japanese and I'm just gonna be honest with you straight away and had met that that's the ham of
a Makita battery because I'm going to be using battery tools as well it's still technically
Japanese right so this is a Western redcedar and I got it from play scoreboards and tell Kitson I
paid for it it's not for your thing but when I got there they I asked him what kind of temper it was
just to make sure I knew it was seated but wasn't quite sure what's here and I'm doing the guy way
now I can give you like a information booklet if you like oh yeah sure and then you came back
from behind the office and is a I couldn't find a booklet but here's an actual book on Western
redcedar and he gets me that's guy usually when I want to join two pieces of wood like that maybe
screw and now the join like that and then out add something like that but Japanese joinery is
not like that we're gonna do it entirely out of timber so I'm going to go into it like 15
all right that's the first part now let's see how it cuts into the post that part there you
know I need to take out the full size of the timber which is fine but then once
it's end and wants to go down so I need to make a 45-degree cut inside I'm gonna cheat a little bit
there as you can tell this is obviously not as efficient as nailing two pieces of wood
together and using steel brackets to finish it off and hold it but um they build entire
temples like this in Japan and elsewhere there's one actually here in Auckland in
some cases they put the entire temple together using joinery like this and then they're able
to disassemble it and clean all the parts and put it back together again unless like
like it's legal or something crazy crazy I don't know how many routers they use there
all right time to put it together all right it's a super snug fit in here so there's a method
called killing the wood and this is what you do pretty much all you're trying to do is flatten
the timber to make it a bit smaller to get into the pocket here and once they're in there that
will expand back to their regular place as long as you don't break the fibers so far so good
in the wrong way
and I've cut this little little witch here to lock
it in easier Beeman is your post and if you want to take it apart
all right on to the next one so this is a mitre and you might do this on a door
frame or you know some sort of structure but of course this isn't gonna hold itself so you
usually have to put some nails and glue and screws but not the Japanese way we're gonna
do it without nails without glue without screws this is called a through single dovetailed mitre
told me re cutter son my hos oh I probably butchered that fill I'm marking it out as
the key as many gridlines as possible so this storage container that I work in is
always loved because it's a storage container and people are coming and going all day doing
this thing but I mean it's cheaper than hiring a workshop here in Oakland that's for sure you
had a high workshop here you probably pay like at least 12 grand a year plus bills and power
and all the rest of it on top of that so I will put up with a bit of noise for a cheap workshop
there we go we've got a couple of arrows just to remind me where I am at all times
now I can mark the top here because I've got the mitre going right to it so this
is what you call the male piece this is the piece that sticks out in the joint and the
other piece is the female piece so on this piece I take out the sides and on this one
I take out the middle quickly realizing that Japanese joinery is all about marking it out
correctly this one looks like a mess but uh wish me luck it's time to cut
not bad with this car not great either
a little bit get P yeah try there you go hey three single duct tape lighter a little bit
gap here and there there we go it's almost getting too hot for this kind of folks girls
summer is coming here in New Zealand so my Japanese joinery needs a bit of work
apparently I wouldn't implement this stuff in a house so that's not why I'm trying to do it I
think it's just good to practice maybe I bought some furniture or something in the future and
use these joins as I can feature that could be cool the half-lapped dovetail joint that
is what we're doing now kind of similar to the last joint except it's joining two pieces of
timber intervened alright so I've got a darker and a lighter shade of this western red cedar
just to situate the difference in the timber so when we're doing them like this you can see it
you're joining with a dovetail and that dovetail keeps it from pulling out or you know moving
around this is like what they would use for a bottom plate on our wall frame or a top plate
so nowadays we put nails out there and then we put like a nail on plate over the top and Hammer
that down it's just that keeps it together and it's a lot quicker than what I'm about to do
whether you have a team you're in to enjoy it you're a right-angle joint with a dovetail mitre
and your beam to pulse joint enjoyed doing that that's fun here's the book again if you want to
check the book out for yourself there's a lot more there's a lot more complex joins in there
that maybe I'll do another time I'll put the links below there's something I don't talk about enough
by the way I've got links for my tools below as well it's always there and yeah there's
ways you can help the channel below thanks for watching a successor and see you in the next one