I have seen a number of videos where this is done with a number of different woods, including sugar maple. It is also a common technique on the wood lathe for woods that really want to tear like dry Koa.
robo hippy
Member
I have seen a number of videos where this is done with a number of different woods, including sugar maple. It is also a common technique on the wood lathe for woods that really want to tear like dry Koa.
robo hippy
Contributor
Good point, Rafael, and good question. I stand corrected. With water on hard maple end grain, it wasn’t terribly difficult.Originally Posted by Rafael Herrera
The first full shaving was too thick (image showing the end grain), so I tried again (image with the ruler).
4EC3B6EB-B779-48B4-A48E-16C2672B8A02.jpg
5BF1D0E4-421F-4F6B-A13B-F2729B648EBE.jpg
Contributor
I’ve seen a number of these type of vids on YouTube. It’s usually framed as an ancient Asian technique or Zen woodworking. The wood is typically a light, hard, fine grained tropical hardwood that cuts like soap. The chisel is normally used with a slicing action as opposed to traditional paring. It looks cool anyway. It reminds me of my days tying flies and making poppers. A single edge razor blade works balsa much the same way.
Sharp solves all manner of problems.
Contributor
Sharp chisel aside,
Japanese woodworkers use water in in the shop much more than most western woodworkers.
Swelling wood before planing or paring and swelling joinery after assembly, Kigoroshi
Paring a softwood like cedar can be difficult if the fibers want to crush and pull out before they're cut.
Swelling the end-grain with a little water, reduces tear-out and allows for easier, smoother paring on end-grain fibers than on dry wood.
As Reed said, this is also common in turning
Contributor
Well, I mean it’s subjective, but I supposed it kinda indicates a high level of patience, attention to detail, and skill with the tool. Which absolutely leads to better furniture.
Member
Well, it might seem so, but it's not really. Yesterday I sharpened a random old chisel on a fine India and stropped it a bit - took me exactly 3 minutes (I time it). Then it was able to cut exactly the same translucent shavings, except I wasn't slicing - I was pushing straight, and the grain wasn't wet. Also, I haven't used a guide and made several shavings just like that: not falling apart and so thin a newsprint could be read through it. By the logic above this makes me an outstanding and an exceptional furniture maker. But then I've called the MetMuseum about setting up my personal exhibition and they just hung up on me.
I do agree that "patience, attention to detail, and skill with the tool" leads to better pieces, it's just none of this is demoed in the short above or in my attempts. The only thing it demoes is that an operator knows about a wire edge and knows how to remove it. This is just a parlor trick, nothing else.
Contributor
Well lets be fair. You are using a lot of words I didn’t say.
Contributor
Whether the video in the OP was staged or not;
Being able to pare a shaving as depicted, does not make you a great furniture maker by itself, this is true.
If this ability is to be more than a one off or parlor trick, it's in it's application, which is where you don't seem to appreciate how valuable it is.
It's not the skill itself, it's how you apply that particular skill to your joinery and aesthetics. Being able to manipulate wood in this way only augments ones overall skill set. The inclusion of the skill is what makes one a better woodworker.
It's a skill many endeavor to attain, that you dismiss for some reason.
Last edited by Prashun Patel; 04-04-2023 at 3:03 PM.
[OP]
Contributor
It is a skill often employed in my work:
Paring Proud from Pins.jpg
My dovetails are almost always cut a little proud. This was my first dovetails in poplar. They didn't appeal to me being shaped as is often done on my dovetails and pins.
Being able to take a thin shaving with a chisel helps to keep them from becoming ragged looking.
A useful skill to develop for anyone working wood.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Moderator
I smell a little smoke.
Still pretty civil so far, Folks. Let’s keep it that way.
Last edited by Prashun Patel; 04-04-2023 at 4:37 PM.
Guest
There's nothing magical about paring end grain cleanly. You don't have to have ultra fine honing media, special super duper steel or anything like that. That said, making a habit of shooting ends square with a chisel doesn't seem to be a particularly sane way of going about that particular woodworking process.
Contributor
I apologize for my part, it must be from being a moderator myself on another forum.
I know many members only read and don't participate in discussions. Posts from members that simply dismiss others views or methods can have a decidedly negative effect. It much less likely that the read-only members will participate in the future if there is a hostile climate.
This is especially true for those who are new or less experienced. Many are either scared to say the wrong thing and get jumped on, others don't need the headache so they don't contribute.
I've been in all these situations at one time or another.
Contributor
I'm glad to see this trick. It will be fun doing it when I get the chance. The closest I remember doing with a chisel is rolling up dovetail saw tracks on a little tenon cheek offcut. The micrometer is on the larger shaving in the picture.
The see-through shaving was done with an A2 plane iron someone sent me from another forums that they couldn't get sharp. It was done dry.
Last edited by Tom M King; 04-04-2023 at 7:15 PM.
[OP]
Contributor
If I've done it, then it can't be magical.
I seemed to have missed anyone saying anything about honing media or type of steel. Some have commented on a chisel needing to be sharp to cut cleanly.
This may have just been someone having fun with a chisel in their spare time. My son sent the link to me. He mentioned his opinion that this might be how the toilet paper on his base is made. In my reply he was sent a link to a Kezuroukai competition in Japan.
Sometimes one just picks up the tool closest at hand instead of walking to the tool board to grab a plane.
As stated in an earlier post, my dovetail joints are often cut proud. Often the proud wood is rounded over as a decorative feature. This is usually done with chisels and/or gouges.
In my experience a chisel can be less work than using a plane. A chisel also allows more control of removing only what one wants to remove.
There are many ways to get to the same end.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
Dunno about this particular piece, but we are often looking at timber framing materials with this sort of video. They tend to be a different beast.
Not something I ever considered but listening to lumber update this morning Shannon mentioned other countries having different kiln drying standards. There would be no reason to dry to 8% in a country like Korea where it is extremely humid. I have no experience there so I am just making this up, but it would make sense the wood would stay a bit wetter.
Last edited by chuck van dyck; 04-05-2023 at 12:23 PM.
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