I’m waiting for the finish to be ready on a couple of planes I’m working on, so I’ve been planning out a shoji exercise I’ve wanted to do for some time. I’m going to do a Ranma (transom) piece with a diamond or hexagonal structure and asa no ha (hemp leaf) details. You can see a fantastic example of the pattern in this screen by John Reed Fox, one of my favorite furniture makers. This is extremely detailed work, and requires a very high degree of precision to execute well. I’ve done a couple of basic shoji in the past, but this will be my first attempt at this complex pattern. There are a couple of critical handtool fixtures for this project that I wanted to show here.
For the frame on the ranma, I’m going to use a mitered housed mortise and tenon joint that Toshio Odate describes in Making Shoji. It’s a tricky joint, and the miter itself is particularly critical for a clean fit – I’m using my miter jack.
I think shooting boards are in pretty widespread use by handtool woodworkers, but I’m not sure the miter jack is nearly as common — which I think is a shame. This is a fantastically powerful tool for any sort of joint that involves a miter. This is my second jack – I needed to remake it to work with my new Benchcrafted tail vise. There is a reprint from some fine plans for a jack at the most thoroughly informative website of Alice Frampton (ALF) in the UK: Cornish Workshop.
The miter jack can be used with a plane for a variety of mitered joints, much like the ‘donkey’s ear’ shooting board, which I think a fair number of folks are familiar with. Where the jack surpasses the donkey’s ear, however, is more complicated (and structurally sound) mitered joints – like this one, or the secret mitered dovetail. The two wedges of the jack are perfectly mated, and tuned to a dead-accurate 45-degree angle. The workpiece is clamped between these jaws, and the ramp surfaces act as a jig for the miter work. In this case, I’m using a paring chisel to define the miter:
The prepared rail, ready to be mortised:
I’m reasonably adept with a saw, but I’m not capable of getting anywhere near this sort of surface any other way. Here’s the joint, ready for assembly:
David says
Wow, that mitered "blind" tenon is realy impresive! What kind of wood do you use for the frame and for the "web" work? do you use mainly Japanese pull saws for youe cuts or a mixed of western and Japanese?
Great post, I wil keep following!!
David
David says
Wow, that mitered "blind" tenon is realy impresive! What kind of wood do you use for the frame and for the "web" work? do you use mainly Japanese pull saws for youe cuts or a mixed of western and Japanese?
Great post, I wil keep following!!
David
Jameel says
Nice joint Raney. Please post some details on how you changed the jack to work with the vise. I have the same jack, so I'll be interested to see how you handled it.
Jameel says
Nice joint Raney. Please post some details on how you changed the jack to work with the vise. I have the same jack, so I'll be interested to see how you handled it.
raney says
Thanks David – the frame here is some generic mahogany I've had around the shop for a few years. For the kumiko, I'm using eastern white pine. I use both western and japanese saws, but for these applications I find the japanese saws are a little easier to eke precision and clean joints out of.
Hi Jameel – I'll post a followup with the bottom of the jack, but basically I've just shifted the mounting post so that it fits well in the tail vise. It still doesn't allow for the jack to be pivoted as it would in a traditional tail vise, but when I need that feature, I figure I'll mount it in my patternmaker's vise.
Jameel says
Thanks for the follow-up. Looks like it modification time for me too…
Jameel says
Thanks for the follow-up. Looks like it modification time for me too…
Chris says
Great looking jack. One thing I could never figure out is when you use it with a plane, how do you keep the plane from shaving the face of the jack?
John Koten says
It’s been five years since you asked this question, but what the heck: Set the plane blade so it is disappearing into the sole where it would contact the jack.
Chris says
Great looking jack. One thing I could never figure out is when you use it with a plane, how do you keep the plane from shaving the face of the jack?
John Koten says
It’s been five years since you asked this question, but what the heck: Set the plane blade so it is disappearing into the sole where it would contact the jack.
James says
That miter jack is sweet! I wonder how well a Lie-Nielsen 97-1/2 Chisel Plane or the new Lee Valley/Veritas version would complement that fixture…
James says
That miter jack is sweet! I wonder how well a Lie-Nielsen 97-1/2 Chisel Plane or the new Lee Valley/Veritas version would complement that fixture…
Gabe D. says
I just finished up making a Japanese transom with asanoha pattern, and finding your blog post here really helped. Thanks! One thing though, could you possibly post another picture or two of your kumiko plane? I’ve been using a cheap kanna with runners on the bottom like Odate describes in “Making Shoji” which works well as long as the kumiko is over 1/4″ thick. But on thinner material my tolerances go out the window. Specifically, I would love to see the interior of the dovetailed hold down mechanism and spring. If you’re interested, this is my series of posts on making the transom: http://granitemountainwoodcraft.com/2015/04/19/making-odates-japanese-transom-with-asanoha-pattern/
[email protected] says
Hey Gabe,
Sorry for the slow response. For some reason WP didn’t notify me this was in my moderation panel… I’ll try to get some photos of the kumiko plane shot this week.
raney
Gabe D. says
I just finished up making a Japanese transom with asanoha pattern, and finding your blog post here really helped. Thanks! One thing though, could you possibly post another picture or two of your kumiko plane? I’ve been using a cheap kanna with runners on the bottom like Odate describes in “Making Shoji” which works well as long as the kumiko is over 1/4″ thick. But on thinner material my tolerances go out the window. Specifically, I would love to see the interior of the dovetailed hold down mechanism and spring. If you’re interested, this is my series of posts on making the transom: http://granitemountainwoodcraft.com/2015/04/19/making-odates-japanese-transom-with-asanoha-pattern/