Presidents Message

Fellow woodworkers

We recently visited the Oakland Museum of California for the first time since it reopened after a major upgrade a few years ago to look at the furniture of Arthur Frank Mathews, one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement.

He had local connections; studying art at the California School of Design then, after time studying in Paris, returning to San Francisco where he and his wife, Lucia (also an artist) set up a shop in the city called the Furniture Store where they made and sold their works.

The museum's furniture collection also contains work by other designers from the Arts and Crafts movement.

This Charles and Ray Eames Folding Wooden Screen made from molded Cherry plywood, which was designed in 1946 and made in 2005, reminded me of partitions I have seen in hotels recently.

Big gate made by Bernard Maybeck Gates, circa 1910, Hand carved Redwood.

Memorial windows by Arthur F Mathews, 1925

A Sam Maloof settee

Green and Green side table

This high back chair is quite heavy and was built for the children's study area in the museum. It may have been an inspiration for Renne Mackintosh in Glasgow. He designed similar chairs a few years later that were much more delicate looking.

Enjoy your woodwork
Frank
(Contact at:
Frankramsay8@aol.com)

Top

Last Meeting

President Frank Ramsay called the meeting to order at 6:10 PM.

Upcoming Meetings:

May 19th: Next month Jon Kaplan who will talk about CNC woodworking. Plus: Special Show and Tell: John Flahery - Rebuilding after the fire.

June 16th: Jamie Buxton will present a special Show and Tell about cabinet building plus we will have the 2x4 challenge.

July 21th: Tom Gaston will s speak about Kumiko Zaiku.

September 16th: Currently still open. Frank is trying to arrange a talk on finishing.

A talk was requested on how to cut and dry lumber.

Announcements:

Frank has received a copy of a book by the San Diego Woodworkers Association about designs for toys which he will make available to members. They would like to establish a relationship with us.

Claude Godcharles brought in 2 books for silent auction.

Jon Kaplan brought in some magazines and wood strips to give away.

Top

Featured Speaker: John Lavine

Chinese and Japanese joinery

John Lavine was introduced by Frank Ramsay. His talk is about Chinese and Japanese joinery. His interest in Chinese techniques was first ignited when he visited Kowloon 45 years ago and saw people straightening nails for re-use and realized how valuable metal fasteners were to the people. This is what led them to figure out how to make wood joints with no fasteners or glue. By 1400 BC they had already figured out how to do mortise and tenon joints and frame and panel construction.

John's career started in construction carpentry and high-end remodeling. He took classes at Laney College in woodworking and moved into furniture construction. The turning point in his career came when he attended a Japanese joinery demonstration by Mikoto Imai in San Rafael. Imai-san had been apprenticed to a Japanese master beginning at age 8 and had just finished rebuilding his family shrine. This led John to learn how to incorporate Japanese joinery into his furniture.

In the third century BC the Chinese began to build furniture, beginning with folding chairs replacing mats. The Japanese continued to sit on mats and confined their joinery to building construction. Chinese furniture is made mostly of rosewood and padauk while Japanese buildings are constructed of cedar because these are the native species respectively.

John described the joinery used in the 1975 reconstruction of the Golden Hall of the Yakuschichi Temple, which was done from written plans. Most of the fabrication techniques were held as guild secrets and not often disclosed. There has been a lot of interchange between Japanese and US woodworkers, particularly at Kazurakai shows which showcase works and competitions.

John then showed examples of Japanese joinery. The first was a detail of a bracket on top of a post from the Yakuschichi Temple. It consisted of many components interlocked to each other to support the various static loads of the structure as well as to resist earthquakes. It represents one of 60 such joints in the structure. John referred to books on this subject, Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Japanese Joinery, and Japanese Woodworking.

A typical way of joining timbers together to increase their length is a scarf joint with notched pegs to hold it together. These could be either a gooseneck loose tenon or a gooseneck fixed tenon. The tools used were typically Japanese saws, handplanes, and chisels, wooden mallets of different sizes, shaped bamboo dipped in ink for marking, and a flexible square. Japanese woodworkers also made shoji screen which were at the opposite end of the size scale and used tools and joints of the same type, appropriately scaled to much smaller size.

Chinese furniture began initially as boxes with supports at floor level. Eventually they figured out how to make joints strong enough to be able to eliminate the bottom stringers around the turn of the millennium.

John referred to a book, Chinese Household Furniture. Chairs require very strong joints since the members are narrow and the joints must bear high loads. Chinese woodworkers disliked end grain so every effort was made to hide it in the joinery. This is quite different from the Japanese approach which did not object to end grain. John showed an example of a table by George Nakashima, a Japanese immigrant who was trained as an architect in Japan and became a master furniture maker upon emigrating to the US. John recommended two further books, Chinese Domestic Furniture, and a 2-volume set, Construction of Chinese Furniture. He then showed photographs of several examples: a Chinese chest of drawers like a western armoire, a 6-legged Chinese washstand with complex bridle joints in the base, a Nakashima cabinet with interlocking shoji-like pattern on the door, and a classical Ming chair with hidden mortise and tenon joinery.

He then showed an article he co-authored with Yeung Chan on the assembly of a Ming style armchair followed by a tansu cabinet and a tansu on wheels that he made. The wheeled tansu was made primarily from re-used wood crates that had been used to ship motorcycles.

Chinese and Japanese Joinery-Selected Bibliography
Link

John Blackmore showed 2 of his turnings from a recent class he attended.

Yeung Chan showed 2 small bronze planes he had build using a pieces of bronze channel.

Per Madsen showed a series of boxes he used to make from scrap 1/4in ply in his workshop.
They were used for many purposes including boxes for building blocks made by the Toy Workshop
and gifts of chocolate to his special friends.

Steve Rosenblum, Secretary