OK – so here’s the final installment of the diamond asa no ha pattern exercise. The asa no ha, or hemp leaf, is a traditional japanese pattern that appears in many, if not all, of the culture’s traditional arts. In shoji work, the pattern can be fit to most of the kumiko structures. For the diamond structure of this piece, the pattern consists of three legs, each of which have 60-degree spear beveled ends to fit into the corners of each triangular section.
In order to form these ends, I use a shooting jig with a 30-degree angle at the end:
The first piece in the pattern is a long section, with each end spear-pointed at a 60-degree included angle. To form the ends, you simply shoot a 30-degree angle, then flip the piece and shoot 30-degrees on the opposite face; the result is a perfect 60-degree spear bevel.
This long piece is then split dead-center to form two of the pattern’s legs – but a very small (under 1/32″) bit of wood is left intact, forming a ‘hinge’ to keep the two sections connected. To accomplish this, I attach a pair of depth stops to my dozuki – set with the saw resting on three sheets of drawing paper to leave just the right amount of depth below the cut.
Here is the resulting piece