Let me try to introduce myself. Hmm… Where to start?

I began my life with tools when I was five years old and figured out how to use a screwdriver to take my toys apart. I even managed to get them back together again. Sometimes.

As a kid I made a few treehouses and dog houses and managed not to break any bones in the process. In high school I took a semester of Woodshop as an elective where I made a simple end table for my project. I barely passed that class since fifty percent of our grade was based on our weekly quizes: two pages of math problems based on how to figure out board feet. Didn’t really learn a whole lot there besides how to read an imperial ruler,to hold a rip saw properly, and how to swing a hammer.

Fast forward twenty years later and I finally have a small workshop in my garage to play in. Last summer my wife and I drove down from Canada to Mexico. Along the way we stopped at every antique store we passed where I picked up a few old Stanley planes and a couple of chisels. I also stopped at an Ace Hardware store and picked up a cheap dovetail saw for under ten dollars U.S.

Once we got back to Taiwan (where I run a English language cram school with classes in the afternoons and evenings after the kids get out of regular school) I set to work on trying to figure out how to sharpen the tools and use them. My first shavings with the planes were very satisfying, though the undulating lumber left over was not good for much.

Then I started trying to figure out how to cut through dovetails with my saw. I made every mistake possible along the way from setting out my sockets with the V pointing out, to others that looked like they had been gnawed out by a demented rat with bad teeth.

I looked up every article I could find on how to layout and cut dovetails. So many of them make it seem so complicated. Which it really isn’t. Why just yesterday I picked up a Good Woodworking magazine which had part 2 of a three part article on how to lay out dovetails. If I remember right the exciting conclusion “How to lay out and cut the pins,” or something like that, is due next month…. It really is not that complicated at all. Frank Klause’s technique covered in a recent copy of Fine Woodworking is what got me pointed in the right direction. Mr. Klause’s technique does not involve any layout lines at all. Skipping that step saves me so much time! He stresses learning how to master three basic cuts: Straight, left slanting, and right slanting.

After A LOT of practice I started to manage to cram my pins into the sockets (with a lot of help from my hammer and some strong clamps). Then eventually I made my first box. It was very satisfying, though it is quite rough to look at now…

Then one day a few months ago while surfing the internet I came across this article by Richard Jones which introduced a seemingly “impossible…unworkable” joint: the double twisted dovetail, which he reckoned could not be used to make a box since there was too much wiggling needed to get the joints together.

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=furniture&file=articles_442.shtm

Seemingly Impossible? My curiosity was peaked.

Then I came across another article by John Buller which explains how he did manage to do a small box with the joint:

http://www.individualfurniture.com/maker/Dovetail-Maker.htm

I then came across a program that would lay out a template for a simple twisted dovetail. Looking at the lines on the template helped me get my head around how the angles of the joint interact.

http://www.blocklayer.com/Woodjoints/DovetailTwist.aspx

After that I managed to make a couple of rough versions of the joint:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/labolleslearningcenter/detail?.dir=/df43scd&.dnm=7172scd.jpg&.src=phEventually, I came across Master Kintaro Yazawa’s monstrously large version of the double twisted joint in a coffee shop shown here: http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~k-yazawa/publicspace.htmland his Original Joint Work page http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~k-yazawa/jointwork.html

Master Yazawa’s work has touched me deeply. It inspires me to strive for an impossible perfection of technique and vision, for that is what I see in his joints. Even the simplest of his joints, the stamp box with paper thin joints, has a zen like quailty to its sublime perfection.

I have saved different versions of his joints as screen savers and desktop backgrounds on different computers around the house and find myself staring at them and losing track of time as I try to figure out how they were done. I try to picture how I would try do each joint. I try to understand what kind of person could create such things in his mind that are so unlike anything else anyone else has ever done with wood. It is even more awe-inspiring that Master Yazawa could then take those mental musings and make them reality. It boggles my mind and inspires me to try to break beyond the boundries of my own mundane wood working craft.

It is with this frame of mind that I yesterday tried to re-create a joint he had posted on his website the day before.

(middle row, far right) http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~k-yazawa/jointwork.html

Here is my attempt, which for some reason in hindsight feels like sacrilege in it audacity:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/labolleslearningcenter/detail?.dir=/df43scd&.dnm=4b12scd.jpg&.src=ph

Tomorrow I will try to use that joint to make a four sided box. I think it will be a challenge.

Wish me luck.

David L.

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Edited 5/18/2006 12:50 am ET by labolle