Kumiko line

[Vips]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd introduce myself and also post some recent work at the same time. I've worked with wood for a few years now, and before that dabbled with composites (mostly CF). As perhaps others around here too, I've depended solely on books and online tutorials, with places like Chris' blog being very helpful. Understandably this has been the more difficult route when compared with a furniture school, but I decided to choose my very limited budget on tools, which arguably may not have been the right decision.

Having purchased a house with a large garage (by UK standards), I setup shop and bounced around between the online schools, and changed my methods and approach several times. Unfortunately after a few years, what was already a roof in dire need of repair, finally has started to leak too much, leaving temperatures low, and more importantly giving a high chance of my machines/tools being attacked by the elements. Demoted to the house and a small Japanese style workbench, I continue my work in whatever way possible.

My interest given the size of my workshop and capabilities has been boxes which I hope to at some point extend to furniture. I'll post some photos of some of the boxes I've made and if allowed, a link to my site. I already know Chris will be furious with the lack of real joinery and perhaps other choices I've made in my work, but Ill put up my heat shield now Decisions do boil down to time, and certain joinery is beyond my current clients' budgets. I'm always battling with time and joinery, but as I have very limited access to my machines to speed up any operations, I'll soon have no choice to aim for more individual pieces and perhaps higher prices. I'd like to add to this Kumiko line with some furniture I've designed once I've re-established my working practises.

I look forward to any critique and I hope to get some advice on working within very small workspaces.

Thanks,

Vips

[Brian]

The box is gorgeous vips!

Exposed joinery on small boxes can easily become overwhelming, in my opinion, I think it's acceptable to hide it in situations like this where other elements are featured.

Maybe hidden dovetails are choice to consider if your time and skill allow for it in the future.

[Chris Hall]

Welcome to the forum Vips!

[Vips]

Thank Chris. I figured it's time to stop being a lurker, although I'm still labelled one

Thanks Brian. Having made a few dovetailed boxes in the past, the joinery can be overpowering when there's either some nice grain/figure, or a particular focal point, like the Kumiko. I like the suggestion of hidden dovetails, and it will give me an opportunity to see what a box looks like without the splines. The splines do seem to get a lot of praise as something viewers appear to like.

The box is all planed, with nothing sanded. I'm using a Veritas bevel up smoother with a PMV11 blade at the moment, but I'm yearning for a better planed finish. I attribute that to this forum, after seeing all these Kannas and reflective surfaces, I can't help but want better now.

[Brian]

I can say from my experience, anything harder than walnut is pretty tough to plane with the Kanna bedded at 37 degrees for me. Walnut and softer turns a very nice shine, better than any of my western planes.

I like my #4 LN still...I use it regularly and with the chipbreaker set correct I wont get tearout.

The general public is a tough one, as there will be pockets of people interested in various things, but on a broad basis who knows. The most famous box maker that I'm aware of just cuts lock miters (Elie Bleu, the famous humidor maker)....but their product is sleek and clean, and often they run strips of gaboon ebony around the exterior of the box.