shed wall construction

[Robert Trotter]

Hi Alan,

Ashiya is near Osaka. You know the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, don't you. Ach enemies of Tokyo Giants.

Kansai is nice and relaxed. A bit more down to earth type of people than Tokyoites (is that a word?) I live near the sea and have views of the mountains.

Bamboo flooring is around here. Looks nice in the right setting, too. I haven't tried working with it though. Maybe some time in the future after i get my little shop set up.

The problem I have here in Japan as trying to find wood. It is very hard to find. Japan is not really a DIY type of place but DIY is getting more popular I think. I can get softwood reasonably easy for simple projects. But I want to start working predominately with hardwoods from now and I will be buying it over the internet until I can track other sources down. Although I can buy Ipe and Ulin and those "exotic" hardwood that are used for wood decks and exterior here, pretty easily. I am thinking of making my bench out of Ulin or Seran Ganbatu or Ipe. Nice straight, stable grain and heavy.

Robert

[Alan DuBoff]

Ashiya is near Osaka. You know the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, don't you. Ach enemies of Tokyo Giants.

Absolutely, in fact when I lived in Japan during the 80s, Bass was very popular, and people used to confuse and/or think I was Bass on occasion. Not sure how long you've been around Japan, but there were less foreigners in those days.

I do get down the way sometimes, and last year my family took the bullet down as far as they could, and switched to JNR (or similar) to get to Kagoshima, stopping at different spots to visit friends, Osaka being one of them. I'll look you up if I do (my company may be sending me to Japan this year).

Bamboo flooring is around here. Looks nice in the right setting, too. I haven't tried working with it though. Maybe some time in the future after i get my little shop set up.

The problem I have here in Japan as trying to find wood. It is very hard to find. Japan is not really a DIY type of place but DIY is getting more popular I think. I can get softwood reasonably easy for simple projects. But I want to start working predominately with hardwoods from now and I will be buying it over the internet until I can track other sources down. Although I can buy Ipe and Ulin and those "exotic" hardwood that are used for wood decks and exterior here, pretty easily. I am thinking of making my bench out of Ulin or Seran Ganbatu or Ipe. Nice straight, stable grain and heavy.

Bamboo is extremely strong, and the laminated stuff seem to endure. Hey, if they would quit cutting up their forests for disposable chopsticks, folks like you could use it for their lumber. Stu had a thread a while back on logging in Tokyo, and Stu gets creative in that regard.

I had bought a dozuki when I was getting serious to work with wood again, my office inspired me to get back into woodworking. I find it really difficult to work with most of the Japanese saws, since they're primarily used on softwoods. I also prefer to work with hardwoods. You should look for any fallen trees from storms, and consider an Alaskan Mill, since my guess is there are few band mills around. An Alaskan Mill looks like a lot of work, but I was considering it where I live also.

I ran into a problem where the local hardwood dealers were trying to rip people off, and I don't like people that do business like that. Then I ran across a guy selling off hard maple for $0.50/bf, shorts and narrows, but all of it not completely clear, his contract calls for only clear maple. He mills rubber stamp handles out of it. I bought 1200 bf, which is being stored in the second half of my shed/office, and where the hand tool workbench will go when it's done (wood will move to the garage). My wife thought I was crazy for buying so much wood, but now understands that wood can be a big expense, and $600 for that much wood was a deal, IMO. Had I been farther along in my Log Home Project, I would have tried to buy 5000 bf, which I figure I will go through when I can tackle that project. Unfortunately the dot-bomb era put a hold on my dream, but I was able to hang onto the property...so, while I don't have a log home yet, I still have my dream and am recovering from the devistation/fallout of being out of work for a couple years.

Then I traded 100 bf of the maple for air dried walnut (it's rough though) to a friend. I used another ~200 bf so far, most of that milled for the workbench I'm building. Some was slightly warped. I figure at $0.50/bf, I can afford slightly more waste. I now have some walnut to compliment the maple. I would have never found this much wood so cheap in Japan, so I offer you folks my sympathy.

I would look into milling and laminating up bamboo, since it's so plentiful in Japan and grows so rapidly. You could make some very cool stuff with it, I've seen some very creative uses of bamboo in Japan, as you probably have also.

Norm Haven's Green Gables is one of my favorite stories of woodworking in Japan. A good read if you haven't seen it before. I'm reminded again that his site is on Global Online, which brings a slight tear to my eye...The founder, Roger Boisvert, was a good friend of mine in Japan...shot and killed while visiting the states several years back... (another story, not for SMC). We used to rock Tokyo like there was no tomorrow, together...those were the days...Somehow, the Rabbi still lives on...to this day... (although I'm not known as the Rabbi anymore, too many people took offense to it).

[Rick Cabot]

Hi Robert
You might find the following link helpful. Good luck with the project. http://www.just-sheds.com/construction_tips.htm


Rick Cabot
Dover-Foxcoft, Maine