Craftsmanship in Wood

Here are some pictures of splayed structures that I thought I should share. They are all taken the same day during just one of my adventures trough the city here in Shanghai.
Although none of the examples employes the method of shaping legs to accommodate a square footprint they do illustrate the usefulness and variety of a splayed leg approach.
I guess the reason why it is so difficult to find examples where the leg is shaped to get a square footprint, is that little carpenters master the method of laying it out or don't want to go true the trouble of dealing with it or have this 'it's good enough mentality' or don't even know of other possible solutions..
Anyway, I will let you know if I find an example of the method we are studying at the moment. Very likely I will encounter them when I am in japan next week.

Once you have a good jig setup and are familiar with the layout method for developing the leg shape, it is actually quite easy to make them in the way described in the course. No more excuses for us..

You are all invited to post more pictures of any splayed structure you encounter yourself. I find them fascinating anyway no matter how they are made.

These benches I see all over, they are commonly made in the same way everywhere with little variations on joinery, double or single tenons, loose joints or tight ones: Another example of the same thing. In this case the tennon which connect the short stretcher to the leg was only shouldered on one side, and wedged with one wedge in the middle instead of two in the other examples. I suspect this is an example of the 'how can we cut another corner' mentality. It was also quite wobly-wobly. This one was obviously made longer ago since it showed the scared signs of time. And I think it was made 'better' as well. Thereby I mean the employment of double tenons, tight joints and its rigidity. (Why are things made long ago often better made, is that what they call progression?)

This bell tower stood inside the Jade Buddha Hall Temple and is worth some pix. It was all made of round timbers which eliminates the layout challenges you encounter with splay posts with squared timbers. In this case it comes down to accurate scribing technique. Nonetheless a beautiful structure. And a ladder-stool with railing, used to ring another bell suspended from ropes. I wonder what the appropriate name is for this, any suggestions? I am sorry for the quality of some of the pictures but I have to employ some appropriate discreteness when taking them in a temple complex. Therefore it was hard to concentrate on the light or sharpness.

These are some of my favorite examples that I saw that day.

This stool I find very nice, the proportions just feel right to me. The workbench of the local plumber. This picture I just love.. I kept watching this man for a while, analyzing his sharpening technique, checking out his stones. The two stones in the front, the blue rectangle and irregular shaped one beneath, are natural finish stones. They left quite a fine edge and nice hazy finish, typical for natural stones. The strap around the bench,made of an inner tire, was to hold the stones down with his foot. There is also a stop at the end of the bench to hold the stones but you can hardly see it because of the slurry. You can see him using the hand cranked grinding wheel which he uses to remove a lot of material fast and get rid of the chips.
Obviously made of recycled materials since you can see some old mortises on the legs. The legs in this example are randomly splayed depending on how pressure is applied on the structure. Super wobbly-wobbly going with the sharpening flow.

Awesome! Thanks for the pictures Mathieu and please keep them coming.


Here is a Japanese type, one of my favorite forms of splayed-leg structure, called a scaffold stool: