Chinese Hand Tool Woodworking

[Pinwu Xu]

I'd agree warren. There isn't any deep burying of the chisel and then trying to lever out something that takes great force, or hard scraping of a mortise bottom or anything. The levering is subtle, like a wrist flick. It's a good technique.

I have no clue what the wood is, of course none of us probably do, but it doesn't look too hard - looks a lot like mahogany. It's interesting that he works straight through no problem and appears to have a nice through mortise.

Looks like Mahogany, I think in the 1st episode of the traditional wooden folding stool, he mentioned the word Philippine .

[Pinwu Xu]

It's the four-post mortising gauge that really caught my eye.

All four gauge lines from the same reference face,
no fancy widdling required.

I figure even I could make one of those.

What I can't duplicate is the three dimensional memory this guy
has for the layout of joints he's cutting.

That's spectacular.

Yes, one can make that gauge with drywall screw (use the screw head as the cutter)

As far as the way he made the layout, I can only say that he's done it so many time, maybe he could even do it blindfolded

[Michael Kellough]

In the episode 1 of the stool (folding stool) making, he expressed opinion about the western style marking gauge, thought that the one he was using was good and accurate enough.

The fact that it's got 4 cutters is a really useful one, we use the western styled marking gauge may end up with several on bench and it would give us hard time remember which is which

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Can't figure out how to post an image so here is the url for a close-up picture of the multi-point marking gauge.

http://www.xuemugong.com/home.php?mo...2326#pic_block

It is made with cut off hex keys. In this version there are threaded inserts with brass set screws to secure the keys but with no way to grip the screws I don't see the point. If the holes the hex key shanks fit through are tight jsut adjust with a hammer.

[Tom Vanzant]

Set screws with nylon or bronze tip inserts would serve well.

[steven c newman]

Kind of fun to watch, may have to bookmark this. He seems to have just a tad more room than I have in my shop, thoughIMAG0013.jpgCozy place, even can sit on the tool chest to saw dovetails......

[Jim Matthews]

Yes, one can make that gauge with drywall screw (use the screw head as the cutter)

As far as the way he made the layout, I can only say that he's done it so many time, maybe he could even do it blindfolded

It does not appear to be his first Rodeo, if you know what I mean...
他知道他的业务

[Pinwu Xu]

I couldn't get past the mortising. Notice how he rapidly walks the chisel so it is between the lines.

And he complained about his poor eyesight, had to use pencil to mark the gauge mark. Keep this in mind and now watch how fast he moves the chisel...

[Jussi Auvinen]

Heres the same guy giving a lesson in mortising (with english subtitles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQZsPs7jaPE


And heres the direct link for all his uploaded videos (all have subtitles)

https://www.youtube.com/user/zhangzefeng/videos

[David Dalzell]

I can't be sure, because of the jerky camera, but in the last video it seems to me that he set only every other tooth. Is it just me or is this so? If so, then what purpose do the unset teeth serve?

[Kees Heiden]

I thought I saw that too. That would make a raker tooth, as used in greenwood crosscut saws.

[Pinwu Xu]

Watching the episode 4 of the folding stool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyvB2-1Fdrw

At about 28 minutes, while waiting for the glue, he talked about how fast a saw is and how thin/long/wide the wood shaving could be, and emphasized that he used the plane for work, so the quicker the better; not in the "hobby" (sorry, no appropriate word right away), that you can spend hours to plane of some 1/4" inch of wood edge...

He did mention the availability of the metal plane that would cost RMB 3000-5000 (but the episode ended), will search for episode 5 if it exists

[steven c newman]

Any idea what wood he uses for the plane build? I might just try that build later, after a box gets completed. Which direction was the grain going?

[David Weaver]

No clue, but they have a full menu of woods in china that we don't generally see here.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Just browsing through more of these -

Making a plough/grooving plane - like a metal skated version of the open-sided planes David shared recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzth9FMmsd8

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-zyn7TzdZI

[Clark Magnuson]

Thanks for posting that. It felt like I knew what he was saying.