Logging In Tokyo.....

[Andy Hoyt]

Stu - I've read that the Japanese treat wood with a high degree of reverance, and as such I'm surprised that they'd let you scarf this stuff up for free. Great for you, but contrary to what I've been led to believe.

Thoughts? Local perspective?

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Andy, "HA!!" would be a start....

I'm talking about "Tokyo" here, NOT "Japan" there is often a VERY large difference.

For the guys doing this work, they get paid a salary to do a job. For the company contracted to do the work, they make a bid and get paid to to the job, hopefully make a profit in the end.

The boss has some local nut Gaijin come along and give him some cases of beer (Yeah!) and takes some of the wood away, win win.

You see they pay by the truck load for the wood hauling, so if in the end I take enough wood away to equal 1 truck load, they save that much money, so the job comes in under the estimate, this makes the company more money, which makes the boss on site look good.

I hope that all makes sense, I just wrote it off the top of my head.

Cheers!

[Jamie Buxton]

Stu, this is wandering a long way off-topic, but in what other ways is Tokyo different from the rest of Japan?

[Alan Turner]

Stu,

What a thread, and what a load of work. I am impressed!!! Have you yet sawn the Zelkova? The reason I ask is that from an estate I bought (tools and wood only), which had about 40 or so slabs cut through the tree for table tops, there was one piece, about 47" wide by 52" long, irregular, that was labeled Zelkova. Glad it was labeled as I would have had no clue as to the wood type. I still have it, and it includes a crotch. I have not yet milled it to flat. It is cut about 8/4 heavy.

From reading, it looks like a prized Jap. wood. Can you provide any information on it. I read that it was known as Japanese elm. My slab seems to be highly figured. It is awaiting a coffee table commission, which has not yet come my way.

If you were in the US with this project, I know that there would be a few SMC volunteers you could tap in to, and I would be one of them.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Stu, this is wandering a long way off-topic, but in what other ways is Tokyo different from the rest of Japan?

Goodness, let me count the ways.....

Basically this is "THE" big city, Osaka and can try, but it ain't Tokyo

The biggest thing I find is that in Tokyo things are (for the most part) convenient, and easy to get done, but you have all the big city problems, crime, no space, concrete Jungle, traffic jams 24/7, no one knows their neighbours etc. Sure there is a coke machine on every corner (the soft drink) and a 7-11 on every other corner, but it is a big city.

I do some motorcycle touring, and I always find people out in the countryside so nice and, for the most part very easy to get along with. A buddy was out touring with his wife, they got a little lost, and it was getting late and they were looking for a place to stay. They had been camping, but as it had rained most of the day, they wanted a Hotel or a B&B of some sort. Well they were WAY out in the countryside, and they stopped at a general store kind of place, the owner said the nearest place to stay was a good hour at least, through some mountain roads, and it was dark. The guy said "hold on a minute" he called his buddy that lives down the road a ways, and talked to him. The buddy and his wife show up 10 minutes later, they invited them to stay at their house.

They went to the house, a VERY large farm house. There was Grampa and grama, Mom and Dad and 5 kids, so they had dinner and then some beers and then they moved the kids out of one room to another and let my buddy and his wife stay there for the night. Even fed them breakfast in the morning.

My buddy is a Yank, speaks good Japanese, and his wife is Japanese. They had a great time, the family was very nice and the kids were beside themselves. The father had been to Tokyo when he as younger, and had actually seen some foreigners in the streets, but had never talked to one. For the rest of the family, this was the first time they had actually SEEN a foreigner, let alone have the foreigner stay in their house and eat dinner and drink beer together.

The diff with Tokyo? Well too often I'll find myself somewhere in need of directions, most most people will not even talk to me, let alone give me directions, that is Tokyo. Out in the countryside, I've never had the problem, people are ALWAYS ready and willing to help you out. I've been invited in for tea and had bags of oranges, or such pressed on me, just for saying hello.

Well I've rambled long enough.

Back to the wood lot for me in the morning, what are you guys doing on Boxing day

Cheers!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Stu,

What a thread, and what a load of work. I am impressed!!! Have you yet sawn the Zelkova? The reason I ask is that from an estate I bought (tools and wood only), which had about 40 or so slabs cut through the tree for table tops, there was one piece, about 47" wide by 52" long, irregular, that was labeled Zelkova. Glad it was labeled as I would have had no clue as to the wood type. I still have it, and it includes a crotch. I have not yet milled it to flat. It is cut about 8/4 heavy.

From reading, it looks like a prized Jap. wood. Can you provide any information on it. I read that it was known as Japanese elm. My slab seems to be highly figured. It is awaiting a coffee table commission, which has not yet come my way.

If you were in the US with this project, I know that there would be a few SMC volunteers you could tap in to, and I would be one of them.

The Zelkova is called Keiyaki in Japanese, all I know about it is that it is highly prized.

I took a pic of a very large slab of it out at the DIY center today, I'll post it later.

Cheers!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Boxing Day Specials!

As there is no "Boxing Day" in Japan, well not the cultural part, I made some specials for myself...


I got some wedges to use, make the cut go smoother.
I also got a proper file guide and some files,
as well as the correct depth gauge for the raker teeth,
this made a big difference, as the saw cut really well today.


My Boxing day haul of wood, some of it is highly figured,
but there was some pith in the middle, so I ended up with some thin boards.


Loaded up ready to go.


The log used to go to the tree on the left side, not any more!
I'm done for now, there are no pieces that I can get to at the
moment, I'll be busy at the L shop anyways, so I'll wait until next year.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

That sure is a nice wide slab on the bottom Stu!!! I sure would like to have that one for a tabletop!

[John Hart]

Yep...pretty great! Most of the wood you got has e drooling a bit. I've learned a lot from all this....including the wedges! Guess you got tired of your chain seizing up eh?

[Jerry Clark]

Hey Stu, That was fun and interesting-- Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year.

[Tim Wirtz]

Did you ever get the Zelkova tree? That's Keiyaki in Japanese, isn't it? If so, there are people who will kill for that... My father-in-law got a huge stump out at one of his construction sites and cut it into table tops. People were offering him 300,000 yen and more for the slabs he had. He just gave them away to his friends. He did keep two, though, and made tables for his wife and his daughter out of them. He said it was the hardest wood he had ever tried to cut. Good luck. I'm sure your wife is looking forward to all the things you can build her with the wood you have collected.

Tim

[Alan Turner]

Did you ever get the Zelkova tree? That's Keiyaki in Japanese, isn't it? If so, there are people who will kill for that... My father-in-law got a huge stump out at one of his construction sites and cut it into table tops. People were offering him 300,000 yen and more for the slabs he had. He just gave them away to his friends. He did keep two, though, and made tables for his wife and his daughter out of them. He said it was the hardest wood he had ever tried to cut. Good luck. I'm sure your wife is looking forward to all the things you can build her with the wood you have collected.

Tim

Tim,
Tell me more about the Zelkova as I have a slab, and know nothing about it. Any pix of those tables? Thx.

And, more importantly, welcome aboard.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Yep...pretty great! Most of the wood you got has e drooling a bit. I've learned a lot from all this....including the wedges! Guess you got tired of your chain seizing up eh?

John, the saw did not seize up, but it did drag a bit, hard to even bog this big old Husky, it sure has some power, and torque.

The wedges just make it easier to move the saw along, less drag.

Cheers!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Did you ever get the Zelkova tree? That's Keiyaki in Japanese, isn't it? If so, there are people who will kill for that... My father-in-law got a huge stump out at one of his construction sites and cut it into table tops. People were offering him 300,000 yen and more for the slabs he had. He just gave them away to his friends. He did keep two, though, and made tables for his wife and his daughter out of them. He said it was the hardest wood he had ever tried to cut. Good luck. I'm sure your wife is looking forward to all the things you can build her with the wood you have collected.
Tim

The Keiyaki is on the list to be cut, but not until next year.

Their entire schedule got all messed up, because when they started to tear down the old storage house, they found it was made from reinforced concrete not the limestone blocks they thought it was. You see here in Japan, lots of rich families have a storehouse on their grounds, the building is only for storage, not living in. Your most valuable possessions are kept there. It is usually made from limestone blocks and has steel or even stone doors and windows that shut up tight. In the past many times fires have ravaged Tokyo, and all would be lost, this was the best insurance against this. Everyone thought this storehouse was the same, good for fire, but the limestone could easily be knocked down. Well whomever built this one made it about 1' thick steel reinforced concrete with a layer of limestone blocks only about 4" thick. They had to bring in a different excavator and clear a space to crush up the concrete, and take out the steel (recycling laws). Therefore the number of trees that have been cut is less than we thought it would be, by now, and there is no space to work until they get the concrete trucked out. It is all good for me, as I'm busy at the L shop anyway.

I also have to mod my chainsaw, someone complained it was too loud it is a chainsaw after all, but I've got an old motorcycle muffler for a 2-smoke 250cc bike here, I'm going to work out how to stick that sucker on there, it should quiet the noise without too much power loss, I hope!

Cheers!

[Tom Horton]

Stu,
I feel for you on the noise issue. It seems that when there are a lot of people in a small area, tempers are short. I remember that the Honda company has been very successful in quieting their generators, and motorcycles. Maybe there is an old muffler off of one of the old "gentsuki-sha", a 50cc scooter, or something that could work.

Tom