Kezuroukai, Planing Competition Finals 2012

[Matthew N. Masail]

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

That's exactly what bothers me more than anything else! I can just see a guy saving up and buying a 30000grit shapton - dreaming of making the finnest shaving ever...

the perfect wood
the time
the resources
the setup energy - oh my g-d...
t
all for practically nothing. what a waste of time... it's worst than using old wornout sandpaper. a lot worse

but I do think it's a natural humen quality to push to the edge - and thats good, but somwhere we have seem to lose the sense of relevence (sp??) that
they had in the old day. not that I was wround than.

[David Weaver]

I can't imagine why what someone else was doing would bother anyone when it doesn't cost you or me a dime? They're not selling anything, they're not asking you to do something you don't want to do. This mentality in woodworking (which is a hobby for most of us), to have concern with what other people are doing in a hobby that really is a constructive waste of time and money for nearly all of us... it's bizarre.

The more involved some folks get with something they derive pleasure from, the more it draws out a trolling judgemental mentality in some. It really makes no sense to me.

Jeez...the guys are planing a board in a competition half a world away, if you don't like it, busy your mind with something else.

[Gabe Shackle]

all for practically nothing. what a waste of time....

You could make the same argument against sports, music, art, poetry, fictional writing, cooking, etc... None of them have any particular practical value. If someone enjoys it and it doesn't cause any harm, more power to them.

[Sam Murdoch]

In a world in which mediocrity seems "perfectly" acceptable I am inspired by this effort to achieve perfection. IMHO it is not in any way I waste of time but perhaps it is the "not doing" of woodworking - a moment of utter focus that few of us ever experience. Not the way I would spend a Saturday afternoon but you've got to admit these guys are tuned in to sharp and it looks like they are having fun too. I would have liked to have been there .

[Chris Vandiver]

That's exactly what bothers me more than anything else! I can just see a guy saving up and buying a 30000grit shapton - dreaming of making the finnest shaving ever...

the perfect wood
the time
the resources
the setup energy - oh my g-d...
t
all for practically nothing. what a waste of time... it's worst than using old wornout sandpaper. a lot worse

but I do think it's a natural humen quality to push to the edge - and thats good, but somwhere we have seem to lose the sense of relevence (sp??) that
they had in the old day. not that I was wround than.

If only you had the skill required to do that fine of planing, you might be singing a different tune. Don't be so quick to dis something you don't fully understand.

[Sam Takeuchi]

The way I see it, this kind of activity and attitude to sharpness contributes to continuous development of new waterstones. Personally I don't care for this kind of competition, but as a whole, probably without it, Japan would be sitting on the King stones still. At least I do find it interesting to read about folks who are into this type of things and their take on sharpness and tools.

Like I said in another thread recently, this is not a woodworking activity. It simply involves woodworking tools and wood, but It's about the user's skill, dedication and eyes for a tool. They know full well this kind of perfect planing has no place in a practical woodworking environment. For some people, probably that's all they do, just pursuit of perfect plane tuning and shaving. No actual woodworking. That being said, if you break down a lot of things, there are silly things all around that makes no sense: Paying gym fee to use treadmill and stair master, competitive eating, sitting in front of tv all day, riding around town on a big motorcycle while gunning the engine, chasing a tiny ball with a stick in a course larger than a small town (I know a lot of you like it, but for us non golfers, it is a silly 'sport'), woodworking to furnish their workshop endlessly so they can make more for their workshop, or this is something that really apply to a lot of us...paying hundreds of dollars for a plane when a $10 wooden plane from the old days can be made to work just as good and mastepieces from the past were made from these less than perfect tools.

What I mean is that we do silly things, but I think we strive to achieve something for our own satisfactions. It's probably silly to call them silly when we are also sitting on expensive but less than necessary tools, woodworking projects for the tools you have but don't use or need, and for some, paying more simply because one brand of tool looks more appealing and such while alternative products are just as functional, or even better engineered. So among a lot of silly stuff we do, I think it's good that they are getting out and doing something that excited and interest them.

"$300 is a lot of money!" (was it Wilbur Pan's?) is right. That's how people see our tools, but that's what we use, recommend and repeatedly buy. Even our powered brethren think we are silly for paying so much and using these 'primitive', 'ancient' or otherwise inefficient tools. And the fact is, a lot of people have very little to show for their investment, but as long as it's fun for them, it's worth it, isn't it?

[Mel Fulks]

It lacks the elegance of American watermelon seed spitting contests.

[Chris Griggs]

Perhaps this is one of those inexplicable cultural differences that can't be parsed.

Totally, you would never see westerners doing something this nutty with a hand plane....

[Chris Griggs]

Although when we do we have a very good reasons..... to make money!

[Zach Dillinger]

It lacks the elegance of American watermelon seed spitting contests.

Or Finnish wife-carrying contests.

[ian maybury]

So i guess we'll be looking at international championships next???

More seriously it's a very nice demo of what a finely set up plane can actually do....

ian

[Sam Takeuchi]

Like someone else mentioned earlier, traditional buildings utilized unfinished, bare wood surface even for ouside, so I think the mentality to achieve perfect surface come from culturally necessary carpentry tradition. Even a lot of modern Japanese houses incorporates traditional Japanese rooms that has unfinished, but smoothly planed pillars that are visible. My grandparents' house were built in the 1960s, and that house has a lot of those unfinished show pillars inside and they are still shiny even now. Of course, over time surface get burnished and polished more as they are rubbed, touched or cleaned, but there is not a trace of chatter mark, tear out, twist or anything visibly imperfect. Even my parents' house that were built 33 or so years ago has one of those perfectly planed and still smooth pillars.

The competition itself do not directly result in production of those pillars, but it takes skills to achieve that sort of surface. Carpenters sought and developed skills in order to achieve as perfect as possible surface even in old times. Now in this modern age, there's a machine called super surfacer that is capable of this type of planing at a high speed. If people didn't care for perfectly planed surface, there wouldn't have been one. Same reasons super surfacer never hit big in the US where demand for a machine that is able to achieve perfect surface in high volume was not that big. So I don't think this is all for nothing.

[Zach Dillinger]

I think I would be interested in setting up the American equivalent of this contest, namely, how fat a shaving can you make? This could actually have a practical application to Western woodworking.

[David Weaver]

We could have theme food at the american version. Scallops and thick cut potato chips.

[Zach Dillinger]

We could have theme food at the american version. Scallops and thick cut potato chips.

I was thinking sponsorships from Mountain Dew, Budweiser and Taco Bell, but I suppose I could make some exceptions. Just so long as the shavings don't mistakenly get fried and served to the masses. Although, I suppose you could deep-fry just about anything and make it edible.