# Karate belt display



## WoodshopJoe (Jun 22, 2009)

*The Concept*

I have afforded the opportunity to create a great piece for the local karate school. Both of my kids are in the program and my daughter is close to obtaining her black belt in karate. It has been a journey that has taken her nearly 3 years to complete and an experience that she will be able to draw upon for the rest of her life. As is always does, the karate school closes down over the Christmas break. When classes resumed after the first of the year, we came back to a redecorated interior of the karate school. While watching the kids out on mat, I noticed that the instructor hadn't had the time to reinstall all the belts on the wall as he had before. Originally they were just fastened to the wall using the tried and true drywall screw. Who doesn't love drywall screws right?

So I got to thinking of a better way to visual enhance the display method, this lead me to think about the journey my own kids have taken to reach every goal set within the program and how they have achieved these milestones. When I started thinking of this, I couldn't help but thinking of similarity between the growth of the students and the growth of a tree. I guess it's just the woodworker side of me that relates to wood but it worked for me at the time so let me elaborate. When a tree is young it is fairly vulnerable and can literally be twisted and molded into any shape as it grows. As it becomes larger and stronger, these twists and turns can't be undone and they form the beautiful wood that we all have come to admire. That is exactly what this program does for our youth. It helps to mold them into responsible young adults and provides them with a skill set that can draw upon for the rest of their life. This was the basis for what I wanted to create. A display that would exhibit the milestones, or in other words the belts, that represent the steps in achieving the ultimate goal of becoming a black belt in karate.

I came home that night and started drawing up a concept in Photoshop, just something rough to get a concept going and this is what I came up with.








The display is mounted above the mirrors that are already on the wall. The lettering was there before the redecorating, so I was assuming that they would add it again so added it just for design content but I wasn't going to make them. I didn't know exactly how long the wall was at this point, but I think I got close on the scale.

Once I had the concept drawing completed and sent over, the instructor wanted to meet so that I could go over the design. A few days later we met and I explained, as I did above, the symbolism of the piece as it relates to the strengthening of our communities youth. He liked the concept and asked if I could do a mock up for him. Anxious at the opportunity, I happily obliged. About a week later, with mock up in tow, I headed to the karate school to meet the instructor. This is what I brought him.









This shows two places for mounting the belts. When I finished it I was only moderately pleased with the outcome. I made it from walnut, hickory and maple and the sections are built up to look more like a rounded tree branch. The thing I didn't like was how the "branches", for lack of a better word, came off the main branch. I thought they looked too thick. Even though, the instructor loved the concept and gave me the go ahead to build display for his wall. We settled on a price and off I went; I even worked in the black belt candidate class fee for my daughter.

*The Dims*
So I needed to measure the wall, to see how close my initial concept drawing was. The wall measured 38 feet long and the margin above the mirrors was about 38 inches. With that we decided to make the display 32 feet long and 27 inches tall. Awesome right?? Since I have never built anything close to 32 feet long, I thought to myself, "well this should be interesting". But I am very excited, since this will be my first piece on public display. Everything I have built thus far has been for private individuals, but this will have hundreds of viewers each week so I better make it good!!

So thats the start of it, I'll keep you updated on how the build goes. This project is going to test my geometry and trigonometry skills but I am looking forward to it.

'til next time
Joe


----------



## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *The Concept*
> 
> I have afforded the opportunity to create a great piece for the local karate school. Both of my kids are in the program and my daughter is close to obtaining her black belt in karate. It has been a journey that has taken her nearly 3 years to complete and an experience that she will be able to draw upon for the rest of her life. As is always does, the karate school closes down over the Christmas break. When classes resumed after the first of the year, we came back to a redecorated interior of the karate school. While watching the kids out on mat, I noticed that the instructor hadn't had the time to reinstall all the belts on the wall as he had before. Originally they were just fastened to the wall using the tried and true drywall screw. Who doesn't love drywall screws right?
> 
> ...


Unique Idea


----------



## vetty (Mar 29, 2009)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *The Concept*
> 
> I have afforded the opportunity to create a great piece for the local karate school. Both of my kids are in the program and my daughter is close to obtaining her black belt in karate. It has been a journey that has taken her nearly 3 years to complete and an experience that she will be able to draw upon for the rest of her life. As is always does, the karate school closes down over the Christmas break. When classes resumed after the first of the year, we came back to a redecorated interior of the karate school. While watching the kids out on mat, I noticed that the instructor hadn't had the time to reinstall all the belts on the wall as he had before. Originally they were just fastened to the wall using the tried and true drywall screw. Who doesn't love drywall screws right?
> 
> ...


Joe, I hope you post some more once it's done. I've 32 karate belts (for the 4 members of our family) waiting in my dressing for me to find a proper way to display them… I might stole some of your ideas 
Good luck, Laurent


----------



## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *The Concept*
> 
> I have afforded the opportunity to create a great piece for the local karate school. Both of my kids are in the program and my daughter is close to obtaining her black belt in karate. It has been a journey that has taken her nearly 3 years to complete and an experience that she will be able to draw upon for the rest of her life. As is always does, the karate school closes down over the Christmas break. When classes resumed after the first of the year, we came back to a redecorated interior of the karate school. While watching the kids out on mat, I noticed that the instructor hadn't had the time to reinstall all the belts on the wall as he had before. Originally they were just fastened to the wall using the tried and true drywall screw. Who doesn't love drywall screws right?
> 
> ...


Totally mind blowing. You should be so proud of your daughter, her school, and your work.


----------



## WoodshopJoe (Jun 22, 2009)

*The Design Layout*

Directly after obtaining the go ahead I came straight home to start working on the layout know that I was going have to use the computer to determine all the geometry of the piece. So I turned to Google Sketchup to help with the task. Sketchup takes a bit to get used to, but having some CAD experience helped me to work through the essential details.

I started by importing the photoshop image into Sketchup and then proceeded to start to layout the boards that best fit the serpentine fluid motion of the piece. I was then able to print out close up plans for different sections to get me started.

Basically I turned this









into this









The great thing about using Sketchup, is that it provided me with all the angles and lengths I needed to construct the piece which saved me a ton of time. I was able to draw this up in just a couple of hours. The only problem I found was that Sketchup doesn't have an angle dimensioning tool. So I had to use the protractor tool to find the angles and then type them in using the text tool. I guess what can you expect from free software anyway?

I then created four enlarged plans for use in the shop such as this one









*The Wood*
My neighbors father owns a cabinet shop just a few minutes away so I gave him a call about ordering some wood since he can buy it at a much greater discount than I can. I asked him to order some walnut for me on his next delivery. Luckily for me his delivery was scheduled for the next day so he called them up and they added about 60 bf of walnut to the order.

Once I saw the the walnut I was ex tactic. Most of the boards were 8 inches wide and some were 14" wide. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to use it all so that I could save some for a few other projects that I have in mind.

While I was at his shop picking up the lumber, he let me go through his cut off bin and clean it out. What a gold mine that is. I scored a bunch of hickory and maple that I thought would work great as contrasting wood in this piece so I took all that he offered which was all he had. I guess it's good to know someone who is in the cabinet business. I know have enough lumber to keep me busy for some time.

Here are some of the walnut boards
















Alright that's all for now, in the next part I will explain on starting out this angular beast, I have learned a lot along the way so far.


----------



## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *The Design Layout*
> 
> Directly after obtaining the go ahead I came straight home to start working on the layout know that I was going have to use the computer to determine all the geometry of the piece. So I turned to Google Sketchup to help with the task. Sketchup takes a bit to get used to, but having some CAD experience helped me to work through the essential details.
> 
> ...


Wow thats really planning things out.


----------



## WoodshopJoe (Jun 22, 2009)

*The Angle of the Dangle*

Well it was now time to start making some sawdust, hopefully something would come of it in the end. I started by selecting a board that was about 7" wide to allow for a 4 1/4" and a 2 3/8" rip. Then starting at the beginning of the plan I transferred the board lengths to the piece and cut them to length allowing for an extra inch for adjustment. For the shorter pieces, I left them attached to a longer piece until I cut the dado slot to receive the inset.

I numbered all the pieces along the board to make sure that I could keep track of piece position and grain. I wanted the grain to flow through the piece so it didn't look like a bunch of random pieces of lumber.

Then I ripped the 4 1/4" piece to width.

After the pieces were cut to length, I setup the stack dado set in the TS and cut a 2 3/8" dado 1/4" deep. This slot would receive a 2 3/8" x 5/8" piece to give me a thicker section for the shaping to take place later.









After all the dado's were cut in, I then ripped the 2 3/8" piece to fit the slot. This piece also received a dado slot down the center. This slot was cut at 1" wide to receive a hickory inlay that was to be 1" wide by 1/2" thick. The hickory provides some contrast to the piece and can be shaped later on to give some really great lines and curves.

I only did half of the total length of the entire display which took two of the walnut boards to this point. 
Here is what each board consisted of









Here is my first stack of rough dimensioned lumber to get me started out









*My first screw up!!*
In my hast and not thinking ahead, I glued in the inserts to buildup the sections like this








The problem with doing this at this point is that I still needed a slot to install the belt holders. You see the belt holders are cut into the top two inlay pieces and glued to the top of the 4 1/4" wide piece. An easier way to accomplish the dado is to cut the inlay pieces to fit up to the belt holder, this way if the angle is off just a bit it can be adjusted because the inlays are long enough to allow for it. By gluing it up right away I needed to make sure the dado's for the belt holders were cut exactly right and with all the angles in this piece it's easy to cut the compliment of the angle rather than then the actual angle you need. Anyway, more on this later and it will be more clear.

*The angle of the dangle*
Ok so now it was time to start the actual layout of the display on the bench. I started to cut the first miters using my Super Sled knock off.








To measure the angles I used this angle finder that I bought at HD. I wasn't sure how accurate it would be but since it's made right in New York I thought I would give it shot. I actually found it to be very accurate.








*
Note to self*
One thing I did find out during this process is that if your angles are off by as much as 1 degree, everything gets way off, especially in a piece this long. So I took extra precautions and built in checks along the path of the piece. This was done by designing in a few boards parallel to a bottom layout line. Then I could measure each end of the piece to check that was in fact parallel. Also, since my bench is nothing more than a thrown together surface, I laid everything out on a piece of MDF that I had that I knew was square.

*The First 14 feet*
























You can see the straight edges that I used to make sure that everything would line up correctly and stay on track. The first picture shows the straight edge at 47 deg to get the all started off. Since my bench wasn't long enough to accommodate the entire length I had to move it over to complete the layout. The boards are just butted up to each other at this point. Next it was time to pay the piper for my screw up of gluing the inlays to the boards from above.

*Dado slots for the belt holders*
















Well that is all I have time for now, I have to go to the Cub Scout Winterfest to test out the dogsled we built last weekend. The boys are excited to get pulling.

Joe


----------



## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *The Angle of the Dangle*
> 
> Well it was now time to start making some sawdust, hopefully something would come of it in the end. I started by selecting a board that was about 7" wide to allow for a 4 1/4" and a 2 3/8" rip. Then starting at the beginning of the plan I transferred the board lengths to the piece and cut them to length allowing for an extra inch for adjustment. For the shorter pieces, I left them attached to a longer piece until I cut the dado slot to receive the inset.
> 
> ...


It's really comming together.


----------



## WoodshopJoe (Jun 22, 2009)

*Working out the Kinks*

Since this was going to be 32+ feet long I needed to build it in at least three sections in order to handle and transport it to the karate school. In order to maintain alignment in the shop and then at time of installation, I built in two joints that slide together using a plate of hickory wood with dovetailed edges like this one.















Essentially it's an over sized dovetail joint that uses friction to hold itself in place. The hickory piece was made to snugly fit into the first dovetail slot and glued in place, then the second *slot* was made just a tad smaller so that hickory piece wouldn't fit this slot. I then cut two kerfs to allow the hickory to flex and wedge itself into the slot; I then added a biscuit that is only glued on one side for added alignment and this made it a very tight fit and allows it to get put together and come apart easily.

*Rough Cutting the Profile*
The next step was to layout the profile to prepare for shaping later on. I did this with my homemade compass and the band saw. With the piece laid out on the bench I traced out large and small arcs along its length to remove the edges. 








Then after gluing up some of the length into pieces short enough to handle at the bandsaw I cut out the profile. This was the rough cut piece for the center section. 








I place a couple of level lines on the wall to check that the belt holders where aligned correctly and all worked out really well. I don't have the last belt holder fully assembled in the above photo just yet.

*Putting the parts together*
So after my first screw up on the first few boards by gluing the inlay sections in, I decided to change up my process a bit. Instead of gluing up the entire section, I just used double faced tape to keep the piece from moving around during layout of the belt holders. So first I made the belt holder and determined the angle of the cut. Then I just cut the inlays at that angle to end up with pieces like this.









Then once they all fit up nice the end result would be like this, 









One other thing I changed up, was the miter joint at the end of each board, I started out using biscuits. I soon found out these weren't strong enough to handle the stresses of shop handling and transportation. So I switched to a simple through spline with was much stronger and still pretty fast to make. Here is a shot of the spline and dry fit joint.
















I continued gluing up parts and found a better way to glue up the odd corner angles as shown in this picture here.








I clamped to bar clamps tightly to each side of the joint. I made sure that on the inside of the joint the two clamp heads were in contact with each other at the top, the clamps are not touching each other where they are holding the wood. I then put a quick grip clamp on the inside corner of the joint to squeeze the two clamps together. The contact at the top of the clamps acts like a pivot point and the two pieces are held tightly in contact with one another. I then put another quick grip clamp on the outside of the joint, clamps the two other clamps together and squeezed them tight. This worked really well and the resulting joints turned out nice and tight.

*It's Shaping up Now*
The next step was to start the shaping and getting this to start looking like the tree branch it was intended to. Basically this was about a week long process. I honestly, didn't think it would ever really end. I started out with at the 4.5" angle grinder with a 40 grit flapper sanding wheel. This works great and goes pretty fast. Here are a few pictures as I progressed through the rough shaping.






























This was an extremely dusty process, my entire shop was covered in a 1/4" of solid wood dust. It took me about 2 hours to blow it all down and vacuum and blow it again and vacuum some more. 
I won't bore you with all the details of the finish sanding but I sanded some then sanded some more and then sanded even more. I think I sanded for about 3 days after the rough shaping. For the sanding I used my random orbital sander and took it to 220 grit to get a very smooth surface. I am sure there would be a better tool to use other than the RO sander but that is was I had. I now have to replace the pad on the bottom of it but it got the job done.

Well that's all I have for now, next time I will show you the finishing which I am working on right now. It's looking pretty awesome, man I love working with walnut, just wish it wasn't so freakin' expensive.

til next time,

Woodshop Joe


----------



## WoodshopJoe (Jun 22, 2009)

*It's Alive!!!!*

Alright, so in my previous bloggings about the karate belt holder I have desciribed how I came into the project and how i planned and built the project. In this posting I will show you my finishing method and finally the installation, since I installed it today!!! Hooray it's out the door!!!

Anyway, so my finishing steps were pretty straight forward with this as it is with most of my work. I really like the look of tung oil. I like how it deepens the grain and brings out the natural appearance of the wood and it doesn't really do it by coloring the wood like stain or dye. I do use stains and dye in projects but I usually stick with natural finishes whenever I can.

I sanded the piece to a 220 grit with the random orbital sander and then use a vacuum and tack cloth to clean it.
Here I am using the tack cloth to remove the fine dust.









Then…. and this is the part of the project that I really get excited for. When working with walnut it is mostly a drab gray color during the project build. When people see it unfinished they can't really see the awesomeness of this wood species. But when that first stroke of oil is applied to the surface, it's like uncovering and ancient artifact that has been buried for a thousand years. That walnut grain just pops right out at you, and I always get a big smile on my face. I honestly think about the tree that I am working with. And the thought goes through my head that this tree has been growing for however long, maybe 60, 70, 90 years, and now I have shaped its wood into this piece. I find that amazing, but I guess that why I do it.

So anyway, I thought I would take a photo of the first few strokes of oil right after it was applied to the wood, unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice but here you are.









And after I have applied the first coat of oil this is the finish I end up with.























So I don't use pure tung oil, it's actually a tung oil finish product by Formby which is a combination of tung oil and varnish. Here is the product.








This is a great product and I will definitely use it again, I like the smooth even finish it provides and it doesn't color the wood but really brings out the beauty of it.

After I applied the high gloss tung oil finish, I then applied a nice coat of high gloss lacquer to provide and even higher level of gloss. This really provided a "wet" look that I like to call water on wood. In this piece, due to it's curves and bumps the light glistens off of it in certain areas and doesn't in others. It's a really cool effect I think.

I let that cure out for two days before installing it.

*From Tree to Boards and back to a Tree Limb - The Final Install*
So now was the moment of truth, did I do all the math right and get all the angle right? Or did I mess up and the end of it not end up where it was supposed to be? Just a degree off in the beginning could result in a major problem at the end of the 32 foot long piece.

Well, the end result turned out great. I had never seen all together myself until we actually installed it. Only because my small shop doesn't have a wall that long. I was very pleased with how close I was able to come to making this fit as I saw it in my head. It went together without a hitch. So here are the final install photos before the belts were installed. The ceiling isn't really pink, it's just the reflection from the floor.






























Here is the piece with the belts installed.




















































As I mentioned in my first blog about the piece, this is all about shaping our communities youth into model young adults. Much like a tree is shaped by all the forces of nature. So here are those youth in training with the new branch on the wall.






























So that's it, thanks to all that followed me making this piece, it was a fun and challenging piece that I got to use some trigonometry that I learned years ago, I made few new jigs and found a great finish product. So all in all I am very pleased with the outcome.

My daughter starts here black belt candidate classes this weekend, and in eight more weeks she will take her final test. I can't wait to see it.

Joe


----------



## oldworld124 (Mar 2, 2008)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *It's Alive!!!!*
> 
> Alright, so in my previous bloggings about the karate belt holder I have desciribed how I came into the project and how i planned and built the project. In this posting I will show you my finishing method and finally the installation, since I installed it today!!! Hooray it's out the door!!!
> 
> ...


Joe, Excellent design concept and workmanship. Congrats on the project. I am sure everyone will love and respect your work.


----------



## toddc (Mar 6, 2007)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *It's Alive!!!!*
> 
> Alright, so in my previous bloggings about the karate belt holder I have desciribed how I came into the project and how i planned and built the project. In this posting I will show you my finishing method and finally the installation, since I installed it today!!! Hooray it's out the door!!!
> 
> ...


Man! That is really great. It is creative, abstract, sculptural, just plain neat looking!
Good JOB.


----------



## RvK (Nov 22, 2009)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *It's Alive!!!!*
> 
> Alright, so in my previous bloggings about the karate belt holder I have desciribed how I came into the project and how i planned and built the project. In this posting I will show you my finishing method and finally the installation, since I installed it today!!! Hooray it's out the door!!!
> 
> ...


thats cool


----------



## jockmike2 (Oct 10, 2006)

WoodshopJoe said:


> *It's Alive!!!!*
> 
> Alright, so in my previous bloggings about the karate belt holder I have desciribed how I came into the project and how i planned and built the project. In this posting I will show you my finishing method and finally the installation, since I installed it today!!! Hooray it's out the door!!!
> 
> ...


There is just something special between Karate and wood, don't have a clue what it is. Maybe the quite strength, the close use of wood in practicing, it is always there. A quite presence that we as students hope to include in our learning. Very nice job, great presentation. Very great addition to the Do Jo. Ps, don't get me wrong, I haven't taken Karate since I was in the Army, wayyy back in 71-72.


----------

