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Thread: Kezuroukai, Planing Competition Finals 2012

  1. #1
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    Kezuroukai, Planing Competition Finals 2012


  2. #2
    Must be fun. 9 microns is pretty thin. For metrical challenged woodworkers, that's about 0.3 of 1 tau of an inch. I've read several times that the record is 3 microns! That makes me wonder, how thick is an Alaskan yellow ceder wood cell? I've been googling but couldn't really find an answer.

  3. #3
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    Less than half a thousandth of an inch.

    It's brings to mind and is certainly a pretty conclusive riposte to the service guy from the machinery manufacturer who (under pressure) set out to persuade you that you are off your rocker (and by implication being unfair to them) for getting stroppy when you find e.g. your new planer thicknesser can't be set up to within a couple of thou - because the tables are 0.012in out of flat or something. (which somehow according to their manual manages to be 'within the manufacturer's specification')

    That as the stock story they trot out often goes: 'wood is a natural material that moves all over the place anyway. It's not realistic to seek to work it with those accuracies.'

    For sure that's an amazingly fine cut, and it's not always needed to work to that sort of accuracy. It's pretty clear that many joints in fine woodworking routinely achieve this sort of accuracy though - if nothing else by creeping up on fits. That if your dimensioned stock is way out that it's going to cause some problems.

    The wood moves subsequently, but of course the point of good design is that this movement is accommodated without gaps opening up...

    ian
    Last edited by ian maybury; 02-08-2013 at 6:48 AM.

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    Ian makes a good point. but as far as the competition goes, and I might get bashed for saying this - It's one of the dumbest things I have
    ever seen.

  5. #5
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    Cool. I've always wanted to see what goes on inside a traditional japanese toilet paper factory!
    Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...

  6. #6
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    Loo paper! It wouldn't necessarily be my scene either Matthew (making a competitive sport out of planing - but then the attendance seem to be very much of a certain age), but it sure highlights what's possible...

    ian

  7. Quote Originally Posted by Matthew N. Masail View Post
    Ian makes a good point. but as far as the competition goes, and I might get bashed for saying this - It's one of the dumbest things I have
    ever seen.
    Amen, brother.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matthew N. Masail View Post
    Ian makes a good point. but as far as the competition goes, and I might get bashed for saying this - It's one of the dumbest things I have
    ever seen.
    It does seem kinda silly to me as well. But it is entertaining, and the people there seem to enjoy it. I'm sure its not about practical woodworking, its about competitively pushing the limits of ones abilities and tool.

    Of course, getting a bunch of overly aggressive guys or gals together on a field/court/rink and having them bash into each other to try and get a ball or other object into a net or past a line, when you stop and think about it, is equally as, if not more ridiculous. But again, its entertaining to watch.
    Last edited by Chris Griggs; 02-08-2013 at 7:43 AM.
    Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...

  9. #9
    Yeah, the whole of this hobby is kind of, too. But we do it, anyway. I'm sure it means more to the japanese than it means to us because they actually plane for finish on a lot of architectural and furniture pieces.

    It's not really a whole lot less stupid than the contests that go on with our woodworking shows, except there are probably fewer hacks participating at a kezurokai final.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matthew N. Masail View Post
    Ian makes a good point. but as far as the competition goes, and I might get bashed for saying this - It's one of the dumbest things I have
    ever seen.
    Perhaps this is one of those inexplicable cultural differences that can't be parsed.
    I also think this like arguing how many Tonttu can dance on the head of a pin.

    The amount of effort that goes into something like this drives me positively nuts.

  11. #11
    I can't imagine expending that kind of effort, either, but it does look relatively more enjoyable than hurrying to glue and clamp up a large case.

    I would really mind any part of that endeavor except that you'd have to have the board excrutiatingly prepared to take a full shaving of that quality and the next day if you went to play with it again, it would probably move enough so as to need preparing a second time.

  12. I would love to know how they prepare the blades for these competitions. To take a sub .001 shaving, about 4" wide is certainly a feat. Is the blades bevel ground on a machine? Is the blade sharpened solely on waterstones? Not to mention the Dai. Does anyone have any insight into this?

  13. #13
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    Not to mention prepping the work piece to the point where it's possible to take a full length cut like that...

    ian

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Turnbough View Post
    I would love to know how they prepare the blades for these competitions. To take a sub .001 shaving, about 4" wide is certainly a feat. Is the blades bevel ground on a machine? Is the blade sharpened solely on waterstones? Not to mention the Dai. Does anyone have any insight into this?
    Maybe stu will stop by and tell us. There's nothing they're doing that you can't do by hand (in terms of making and fitting a dai and sharpening an iron).

    If you challenge yourself to make a really sharp iron, you'll find that you can make shavings sub 1/2 thousandth without too much trouble, but making them continuously (with no tears) like that over a wider surface is a bit more of a trick.

  15. #15
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    To me, this is like watching American Idol. Some people just love it but it makes no sense to me and I want no part of it. But I'm glad they are enjoying working with tools, whatever that means to them.
    Your endgrain is like your bellybutton. Yes, I know you have it. No, I don't want to see it.

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