Japanese Carpentry Demonstration

[Chris Vandiver]

I thought some of you might be interested in a video of a Japanese carpentry demonstration given at the Noguchi Museum in New York. It is just a brief presentation showing a method for scribing a post down to a stone base(pier). Here's the link; http://vimeo.com/63662100

[David Weaver]

That's an incredible amount of trouble! I think I would've started with a sqauare stone and a round hole rather than a round stone and a square hole. Wouldn't be throw-away work though, when he does work like that.

[Charlie Stanford]

I thought some of you might be interested in a video of a Japanese carpentry demonstration given at the Noguchi Museum in New York. It is just a brief presentation showing a method for scribing a post down to a stone base(pier). Here's the link; http://vimeo.com/63662100

French Scribe method of timberframing [images]:

https://www.google.com/search?q=french+scribe+method+of+timber+framing&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SKV6UbfdJcm8qQGVt4DIAw&ved=0CFoQsAQ&biw=1345&bih=588

[Phil Thien]

Fascinating demonstration.

So that is how they do a foundation, a post on a rock?

[Sam Takeuchi]

So that is how they do a foundation, a post on a rock?

Traditionally yes. Even a lot of post war houses are build on the same principle, but used molded concrete to eliminate variation and need for precise fitting. Buildings just sit on those rock/concrete foundation and weight of the house is distributed over a few posts/columns.

A lot of new houses use more familiar foundation, concrete and anchor bolt though.

[Stanley Covington]

Fascinating demonstration.

So that is how they do a foundation, a post on a rock?

Building codes won't permit it anymore for anything but a few applications related strictly to appearance. In addition, except in the case of historical buildings, additional approved structural methods intended to tie the superstructure to the foundation (bolts, straps, etc) must be employed to compensate for the proven failings of the traditional "post on a rock" foundation. Post-on-a-rock foundations do not fare well in earthquakes.