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
David says
Wow, impressive! And if it is sloppy for some standard… One has to start some where!!
Great post!
David
Wood Doctor says
Best said by Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat…."very nice!!"
Nice work Raney!
Also we are getting the "other" group of woodworkers off the ground, so I will let you know the details soon….
Anonymous says
A very nice piece, beautifully executed.
What I want to know is, do you make plane for sale?
Tom Goodman
Bailey, NC
raney says
David – thank you for the kind words; I agree with needing to start somewhere. My point was more to the remarkably high standards of craftsmanship that I've seen in many shoji pieces. It really is quite inspiring.
Hi Justin – looking forward to hearing from you.
Tom – thank you. And yes – I do make planes for sale as well as my own pleasure, though not as a full-time job. As I'm not really interested in a large plane collection, but am interested in continuing to make them… well, they have to go somewhere!
Anonymous says
Raney, I love the design, and think it's a great effort. Very cool.
Cheers,
Steve
Dave Nelson says
It looks great. I am going to try the pattern with cane glued to Japanese art paper. Our guild has a box contest every year and a pattern such as this would make interesting panels on a box. Is there a pattern book available anywhere?
Have your thought of using Port Orford Cedar for the latticework? I made a couple of items out of small piece I found and it is very stable with a consistent color.
Regards, Dave Nelson
[email protected] says
Dave,
wow – been a long time since I’ve been to this page. But to answer your question: yes, indeed. Port Orford Cedar is easily my favorite wood for shoji – it’s the closest thing in NA to the Hinoki cypress favored for this work in Japan. Alaskan yellow cedar is a very close second – and in some ways is actually nicer to work with – but the smell of port Orford cedar puts it solidly in my top 3 favorite timbers.