Corner shaping of Mame puzzle boxes
From today, a new week has started, and January will already end this week. Time really goes by fast.
This morning, I came to the workshop a little earlier than usual and was able to make good progress on various tasks. It was very cold again today, and early in the morning the temperature dropped to minus 4 degrees. However, the humidity has been low, and in our area there has been no snow or rain for the past few days, so although it is cold, the ground outside was not frozen. According to the weather forecast, this cold weather will continue for a little while longer.
This morning, I worked on the finishing process of the Mame (1-sun) Japanese puzzle boxes with 18 steps that I have been making since last week. Because this is a traditional yosegi design, I round all the corners of each box. This time, I plan to finish about 90 boxes. Each box has 12 corners, so I need to round all of them. That means, even with simple math, it comes to 1,080 corners 😅 Of course, the best way is to shape each corner one by one, but where possible, I work on several boxes together at the same time. This is something I can do because these are small Mame puzzle boxes. With other box sizes, I shape the corners one by one. Even so, I only do this grouping method on 4 of the 12 corners. The remaining 8 corners are shaped individually. It may sound like a huge amount of work, but once you get used to it, it is not so bad. There is a kind of rhythm to it, and I keep working at a steady pace.
These four corners are the parts shown in the photo. Only these corners are shaped across the wood grain of the panels attached to the outside. The other eight corners are shaped parallel to the wood grain. I always shape these four corners first, and then I shape the remaining eight corners later. The angle and the amount of shaping for these four corners are different from the other corners. When I work on the corners shown in the photo, the panel edges are the most likely to chip. Because of this, I have to work very carefully to avoid damage. To prevent chipping, I usually place a support piece of wood against the panel. It is hard to explain, but when I shape several boxes together at the same time, it has the same effect as using a support piece. The box behind supports the box in front and helps prevent the panel from chipping. After finishing this process safely, I moved on to the undercoating step.
This morning, I came to the workshop a little earlier than usual and was able to make good progress on various tasks. It was very cold again today, and early in the morning the temperature dropped to minus 4 degrees. However, the humidity has been low, and in our area there has been no snow or rain for the past few days, so although it is cold, the ground outside was not frozen. According to the weather forecast, this cold weather will continue for a little while longer.
This morning, I worked on the finishing process of the Mame (1-sun) Japanese puzzle boxes with 18 steps that I have been making since last week. Because this is a traditional yosegi design, I round all the corners of each box. This time, I plan to finish about 90 boxes. Each box has 12 corners, so I need to round all of them. That means, even with simple math, it comes to 1,080 corners 😅 Of course, the best way is to shape each corner one by one, but where possible, I work on several boxes together at the same time. This is something I can do because these are small Mame puzzle boxes. With other box sizes, I shape the corners one by one. Even so, I only do this grouping method on 4 of the 12 corners. The remaining 8 corners are shaped individually. It may sound like a huge amount of work, but once you get used to it, it is not so bad. There is a kind of rhythm to it, and I keep working at a steady pace.
These four corners are the parts shown in the photo. Only these corners are shaped across the wood grain of the panels attached to the outside. The other eight corners are shaped parallel to the wood grain. I always shape these four corners first, and then I shape the remaining eight corners later. The angle and the amount of shaping for these four corners are different from the other corners. When I work on the corners shown in the photo, the panel edges are the most likely to chip. Because of this, I have to work very carefully to avoid damage. To prevent chipping, I usually place a support piece of wood against the panel. It is hard to explain, but when I shape several boxes together at the same time, it has the same effect as using a support piece. The box behind supports the box in front and helps prevent the panel from chipping. After finishing this process safely, I moved on to the undercoating step.