Jojo

Welcome to LumberJocks. Enjoy the site.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Glad to see that you have made Lumberjocks a part of your Woodworking experience… Welcome…

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

Welcome to LumberJocks.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Welcome to LumberJocks!

This is an awesome group of woodworkers that generously share thier talents, passion and interest in woodworking. We are looking forward to your projects and input.

LumberJocks is the premier member based woodworking site.

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Well, thank you for your warm welcome messages guys! It’s nice to see the community spirit here.

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

Welcome to the one and the only LumberJocks website. Enjoy your time spent here. Should you have any woodworking questions do not hesitate to ask…Somebody will know the right answer.

-- Carpe Lignum - Seize The Wood,

Jojo. I think the sense of community sets this site apart. Why are you shopless?

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

After all I have heard about the site from Matt and Co. I think it does so, WayneC. Regarding my shopless present status, space IS a premium here in Japan and to make things even worse there are NO basements here! ;o) But the main reason is that my wife and I are living here for a few years only and powertools are definitely neither that easily available nor cheap as in the States. So it makes no sense to get them. Anyway, we’re already working on what we hope will be our last and definitive relocation to western Washington, probably the Peninsula. In any case around the Puget Sound/Hood Canal/San Juan Islands for those of you who know the area. So nowadays I’m all set with a few handtools, like in the good ole days of woodworking. On the other hand, there are amazing tools you can’t find anywhere else readily available and lumbermills in every corner. Man, life is so safe here that they stock the 15 ft boards right in the curb with nothing attaching them, even at night. And I mean downtown, not in the backcountry! I got to take some pics for you guys.

Again thank you all for your comments.

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

Photos would be great. Also, there is a lot of interest related to Japanese hand tools on the site. Photos of your tools would be apreciated as well. Thanks.

I’ve been in the area in Washington and there are a number of LumberJocks that are in the area currently.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I definitely will be getting you some pics. Where do I have to post them for everybody to see? I still had no time to get around the whole site yet but it seems to be many different places to post comments and things.

Re. the japanese tools I actually would like to make kind of a small survey because I’m seriously studying the possibility of setting up an on-line business for selling them. I’m in touch with a couple of sawmakers and I can find almost anything, from the ultra-expensive planes and chisels to the affordable “normal” ones used by all the pros here.

Actually my father-in-law is a “daiku-san”, a master traditional all-wood housebuilder and I do know well which are the most used ones. BTW I have to say that nobody here takes the trouble of re-sharpening the “dozuki” saws. They are way too thin and easy to break and blades are widely available. You’d be amazed of the tons of different specialised saws available. I specially love the fact that many of them are designed to be able to make a cut in the middle of a panel without a previous drill hole, just the tiny kerf. A dream come true for those matching-grain drawers cut off of the aprons…

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

Welcome Jojo -

I’d love to see some photos of anything you wish to post! Lumber, saws, father-in-law’s houses, etc.

I’m a Puget Sound guy – Seattle is home. My father used to live in Japan for 8-10 years, when I was in my teens. Went to Japan only once though.

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Welcome to LumberJocks! I look forward to seeing your woodworking.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Try this link for an explanation as to how post photos

http://lumberjocks.com/help/writing/embedding-pictures

You will need to use a free hosting site to include photos in blog entries and comments. Project and workshop photos can be uploaded from your desktop when you create or edit entries of that type.

I would be intersted in seeing the kind of pricing you would have for good professional japanese tools (new or used).

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Hello … get out your digital camera … lets see what you’re working on !!

-- a legend in my own mind ...

Hey guys, thx again for your comments. I’m sorry because I got no time to take some pics of those lumbermills yet. I tried the other day, but it’s the rainy season here and that makes things quite difficult… For those of you that don’t know, the “tsuyu” is like the japanese version of that passage of the Bible: it keeps raining and raining for about 30 to 40 days, day and night, almost without any interruption. And then, worse comes to worst, this year’s first typhoon (AKA hurricane) came very early and passed yesternight South of us. Almost no casualties though, only a couple of old fellas and a poor boy, 12, that tried to reach a ball fallen into a roaring river carrying lots of water from the floods. Very sad indeed. :o(

WayneC: I’m targeting the good-but-affordable pro saws and other tools that the home-builders and woodworkers use here. Thus, even if I can’t give any estimates yet as I have to work out all the margins and that, I can guess that, in the case of the saws, most of them could range in the $25/$50 + shipping. All of them have easy-to-replace interchangeable blades and I’d carry replacement packs as well. Also there’s a whole lot of different tools very interesting and well thought. More on this later.

Dorje: I’ve selected some pics of amazing joinery jobs from thousand years old temples and I’ll post them as soon as I pass them throught the Photoshop.

Now I have to go to the futon, it’s waaay to late at night folks.

As Matt says: straight grains…

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

Thanks Jojo. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Welcome Jojo…sounds like we are all going to be interested in those photos.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Damn it! after 20 some years working with computers I’m no newbie at all but I can’t seem to be able to change the picture in my profile… am I missing something or what?

Bob: Thanks for your welcome. Too bad I didn’t know about your brother’s home in Hawai’i when I went there last year… :o) BTW you seem to like geckos… wouldn’t you work in the insurance business? Jokes aside, nice stuff on your projects page. That’s a fine example of a Morris chair.

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

You upload the picture from your account page.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I know WayneC, I’ve (tried to) do it many times but the trouble comes once I submit it. The screen changes and goes blank and then it hangs up there with no more results. And it does it over and over again. The computter works fine though, it is a Mac so no strange Windows hang-ups and any other page loads and works perfectly fine.

It’s not that I try to upload anything strange: a simple standard 28 Kb “jpg” and neither is my DSL, it is a very reliable and damn fast one (50 Mb down/12 Mb up ‘cos I didn’t feel the necessity of paying for the 100 Mb!... ah the joys of living in Tecnoland!).

Tomorrow I will try from my wife’s computer and we’ll see.

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

Hmmm. You may want to ask Martin.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

What an experience you have in Japan, while dreaming up your next and hopefully permanent shop in the occidental side of the pacific rim. Living in Japan, working with handtools, fluent in French… looking forward to your perspective and projects to come!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Hi Scottb, I see somebody’s been sneaking through my blog and comments! :o)

It is indeed an awesome experience being here. Not always positive (I left my pink spectacles at home many years ago) but eye-opening and really worthwhile in any case.

Albeit I like working with handtools I definitely don’t like the fact of being forced to do so because the lack of place to set-up a shop. As they say: everything comes to those who can wait, and I am confident that in a few years I will be having a shinny new shop that will make you all envious. :oD

PS: don’t tell anybody (not to brag about) but I’m fluent in 4 languages and working up my way in my 5th. ;o)

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto

I had a Japanese wife and some of the most awesome day’s of my life was ferry boating around to the little islands and stare in amazement at the old things. The old buildings for instance, planks on the floor made out of logs, 12’’ thick, 36’’ wide, 40 to 60 feet long. Now imagine the tree trunks that made the studs,rafters and the same boards on top for sheeting. I could go on and on, what an interesting culture. S/F

-- www.flickr.com/photos/egamarine/

It’s very true EGA, amazing buildings made of amazing trees. If you take a look at one of my posts—the one about the Itsukujima shrine in Miyajima, you’ll see one BIG ”torii” made of huge logs, the two main posts being single logs really wide.

Were you stationed over here a long time ago?

-- Jojo · shopless in Kyoto