Temple Carpenter Video

[Stanley Covington]

The link below is to a YouTube video about a young 27 year old temple carpenter (Miya Daiku) named Fujiwara who works for Kongo Gumi, a construction company that was in constant business for 1429 years until it failed in 2008 during the economic downturn (and real estate investment debt) in Japan. The company still continues, however as the subsidiary of a newer and larger construction company.

The film shows Fujiwara and his crew working on the restoration of an old temple. Restoration in this case included full demo and reconstruction with structural code-mandated upgrades. The film shows how they make full-size drawings of the roof structure on the floor, do ink layout, hand carving on large timbers, the dovetail and mortise-and-tenon joints, the splices, chiselwork, planing, adzework, and assembly work. It is interesting to see even if it is all in Japanese.

The film shows a couple of Fujiwara's goofs, and his boss and the erection team foreman show him where he went wrong, and how to fix the problems.

It is a brand spanking new high-quality professional video I think you will find interesting.

Stan

Here is the URl to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qyYv3mBpxU

Here is a link in English about Kongo Gumi:
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/kongo-gumi-oldest-continuously-operating-company-survives-1400-years-crash-003765

Here is a link to Kongo Gumi's webpage about the video:
http://www.athome-tobira.jp/story/045-fujiwara-hiroki.html

[Dave Anderson NH]

After that I think I'm going to burn or melt all of my woodworking stuff and take up something simple like quantum mechanics. Amazing to watch. Thanks Stan

[Brian Holcombe]

Great video Stan, thanks for sharing!

[Rob Luter]

These guys have serious game. Wow.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Stan!

[Chet R Parks]

I've watch a lot of these Japanese artisans. The diligence they exhibit when doing whatever they'er working on IMO, borders on a religious intensity and I mean that in a most respectful way. Vary inspirational. Thank you Stan. Chet

[James Pallas]

Thanks Stanley. A very different view of woodworking at that level.
Jim

[Mark Stutz]

Thanks, Stan.

You may have talked about this in the past, and if so I apologize, but could you speak about the marking ?pen/brush? that he is using.

[Stanley Covington]

Thanks, Stan.

You may have talked about this in the past, and if so I apologize, but could you speak about the marking ?pen/brush? that he is using.

Mark:

I don't think I have mentioned sumisashi before. I own some since they are handy for controlling the inkline in open-top inkpots, but I always preferred either ballpen or carpenter's pencil when doing layout for carpentry work.

Sumishashi make a nice, dark line that is easily seen on light-colored wood, but they are kind of messy.

They are made out of bamboo, with the fibers separated so they suck up ink like an old quill pen.

One end is cut thin and wide to hold more ink. This end is used against the steel square.

The other end is more rectangular in cross section and is used for making short marks, such as indicating the inside of cuts, and column/ bent numbers.

Most carpenters prefer to use mechanical pencil-style lumber crayons with 1/8" diameter leads nowadays. Less mess, they don't dry out, and the rain won't wash away the marks.

Here is a video of a guy making some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BwSen3HdNs

[Phillip Mitchell]

Wow! I've always wondered how they laid out the framing and joinery for the roof. Massive templates on the floor, of course! I was just working on some arches/radius work with joinery and used 4x8 plywood to lay it out with templates so it's fresh on my mind.

Thanks for sharing!

[James Pallas]

The whole process of doing layouts on a flat surface is one of the oldest techniques. It makes a roof far less complicated and othe things as well. Interesting discussion for another time. I would bet that Stanley knows a lot about empirical layouts along with how ancient tools are used in the process.
Jim

[Sam Murdoch]

The whole process of doing layouts on a flat surface is one of the oldest techniques. It makes a roof far less complicated and othe things as well. Interesting discussion for another time. I would bet that Stanley knows a lot about empirical layouts along with how ancient tools are used in the process.
Jim

^ Just as lofting in boatbuilding. Very humbling to watch such a complex structure come together from the individual efforts of very skillful artisans/woodworkers.
Thanks for sharing.

[Stanley Covington]

The whole process of doing layouts on a flat surface is one of the oldest techniques. It makes a roof far less complicated and othe things as well. Interesting discussion for another time. I would bet that Stanley knows a lot about empirical layouts along with how ancient tools are used in the process.
Jim

Not really, but of you hum a few bars, I can fake it.

I was never at those boy's level as a working carpenter. I've just spent a lot of time around them on jobsites, and inspect this sort of work every chance I get.

Stan

[James Pallas]

Not really, but of you hum a few bars, I can fake it.

I was never at those boy's level as a working carpenter. I've just spent a lot of time around them on jobsites, and inspect this sort of work every chance I get.

Stan
In any case the whole thing is fascinating. The layouts from inked center lines and the rest of it is just plain cool.
Jim

[Mark Stutz]

Thanks Stan. I asked because they looked like a mess waiting to happen. I can certainly see how they would have worked traditionally, but wouldn't want to mess with it if I didn't have to.

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks for sharing, Stan. One thing I think I noticed is the use of square blocks as guides for chiseling perfect side on mortises. Versus eyeballing (which they seem to have the skill to do as well, a guide would certainly help me get more accurate sides on my mortises.

[Brian Holcombe]

I didn't see the use of guide blocks, maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. When do they use them?

IMO guide blocks are not necessary when you have a knife mark around the layout, but they may well be necessary when you're working from ink or pencil marks due to the thickness of the line.

[Stanley Covington]

I didn't see the use of guide blocks, maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. When do they use them?

IMO guide blocks are not necessary when you have a knife mark around the layout, but they may well be necessary when you're working from ink or pencil marks due to the thickness of the line.


Brian:

I don't have the time, but the blocks, or rather fences, showed up when he was shaving the deep sides of the tenons/haunches on the ends of the carved kouryou (rainbow beam). I think it likely that the more experienced guys on the crew would not need to use them, but there is no way to deny their practicality.

Stan

[Brian Holcombe]

Ah, thanks Stan!