The Kumiko lamp is finally finished. It took the longest time to wait for the arrival of the power cable, light and light socket (e14). I like it so much that I will probably make it again for myself, haha.
this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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And some progress pics
My jig:
What the hell are those clamps? Did you make them yourself? I've never seen anything like them. I probably won't buy or build them, but they do look cool!
Those are Hatagane, japanese bar clamps. I use them for such small things where regular clamps would be too bulky and too heavy.
They are beautiful in themselves, with a kind of delicacy of form. I've tracked down places to purchase them. They're not as expensive as I imagined, so I've added them to my Xmas and birthday lists. :)
Thanks.
Incredible results, and I really love seeing the progress pictures! Thank you for sharing!
Is there any advice you would give to someone following your footsteps here?
Thanks :) I briefly mentioned this in another comment: Measure thrice and plan in some slack. I measured thrice but didn't plan in slack. Thus the frames where the littlest too large to fit into their places (~0.5mm) When forced in, the joints of the frame jumped open a little bit.
Would you mind sharing the joint you used for this? I’ve gotten a few books on kumiko and wanted to make a lamp similar to yours. I’ve been trying to figure it out from a photograph and have most of the wood dimensioned already. Japanese joinery is pretty fascinating and complex, and I’ve been trying to find a good joint for these corners. I started making one that might work but I cut a bit too much off and I really don’t know what I’m doing here.
Sure, but I must admit that I am too very new to this and lack the proper tools to make more complex joints as precise as they need to be in adequate time.
I don't know the proper name. All joints here were simply cut half the width of the individual bars and then stacked into each other. I.e. the bar is 2x10x100mm, the cuts for the joint must be 2x5mm. Very simple.
As a beginner I would advise you to start with square templates first and then insert square patterns into those, like here or here of another lamp of mine. I don't have the tools myself to work with triangle templates and patterns.
I’m sorry, I don’t know the name of what I’m asking for, but I do know it’s more of a shoji or traditional joinery question than it is a question of the kumiko itself. Your kumiko looks lovely by the way.
The kumiko itself I have jigs for and is the part of the process I’m most excited about getting to. However right now, I’m working on the outside frame of the lamp, what looks like might be the oak peices in your photo.
Specifically, the joint I’m looking for is the three way joint to join one long leg of the lamp to the bottom of the frame that houses your kumiko.
I think you’re refering to the mikomi and mitsuke. Looking at a book I have on the subject, I think I’m refering to joint to join the stile to the bottom rails and the top rails, treating the lamp as a shoji with 4 sides to it. Did you use a joint for this, or just wood glue (I see no nails).
If I understand correctly, you mean the joints where the horizontal oak bars meet the vertical leg?
On another lamp I tried simple butt joints, but those were too imprecise. The other lamp sort of became diamond shaped instead of square shaped when looking at it from the top. Also, butt joints would have caused this lamp to fall apart, because the kumiko frames where a little bit too large for places where they are now press fitted in.
On this lamp I support these butt joints with regular round dowels. This allows me to exactly measure where a horizontal bar would be needed to be placed to fit the kumiko frame. Any error during drilling would of course ruin the whole thing. Due to the oak bars only measuring 12mm in width, the dowels could only be inserted about 8mm deep for one horizontal bar and about 4mm for the other perpendicular bar.
As for how the kumiko frames are attached to the lamp frame: slide in and glued.
Nice, yes that was what I was looking for. Dowels do sound a lot easier to deal with than a custom joint, especially for a newbie to woodworking and joinery like myself. I sort of made a mortise and tenon joint with the vertical leg and one horizontal leg, and then cut half of the mortise (leaving just the upper half), and made another mortise and tenon joint for the other horizontal leg, cutting half of the mortiose (leaving just the bottom half), trying to get those to fit in nicely. I think it could work but one imperfection and I need to dimension more wood. I guess difficult things are difficult to do.
Dowels huh? Now you have me thinking. Again, great project, it looks really nice!
You're welcome and thank you! Yes, I also tried similar joints on one lamp. It turned out that I am too impatient and imprecise to create such joints by hand. Dowels seem much easier and achieve about the same thing. The angle doesn't matter in this case as there aren't large forces involved, so (1) initial hand adjustment and glue should suffice and (2) the Kumiko frames will push the the connecting bars in the right angle anyways.