8 microns shavings

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Japanese style

 

With these shavings you can laminate woods and make  a lot of parts.

[wefalck]

Wonder what kind of wood it is ?

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Japanese hand planes or kannas

annual Kezuroukai exhibition in Japan,

planers are allowed to bring bundles of whatever wood they think yields the best result

the wood planing competition was held in the port city of Uwajima, on the island of Shikoku,

 

 

https://brianholcombewoodworker.com/2016/08/18/kezurou-kai-approaching-zero/

http://mokuchiwoodworking.com/events/kez2016/

 

Alaskan Yellow Cedar

 

''It takes very high quality lumber to be able to produce a considerably thin shaving, not simply the species of lumber but also the orientation of the grain. Wood, in it’s strongest format would need to be oriented with the grain running vertical on all faces, this is otherwise known as VG (Vertical Grain), in order to provide a VG format the first step is for the lumber to be sawn in a manner which produces a rift cut.  A rift cut is one in which the grain runs corner to corner at approximately 45 degrees.  The rift cut can run off course, so the pith (center) of the tree must be aligned so that the board produces grain running parallel to the edges.  The final step is to cut the lumber to follow the grain running along the faces of the board.

The strongest lumber is that without grain runout.  Grain runout is an occurrence in which the grain terminates on a vertical face.  If you have ever caught a splinter in a board it was likely at a point in which the grain rose to the surface of the board.  A common place to find such an effect is in an area surrounding a knot.  Vertical grain, in it’s best form is one in which there is no runout.  In addition to the sawing program this also requires the tree to have grown in a straight run for the at least the length of the board.  This happens most often in dense forrest where the tree gives up on low branches very quickly as it grows higher to compete for sunlight.

The species of lumber is next considered.  Alaskan Yellow Cedar, commonly referred to as AYC is the species of choice.  Alaska has very short growing seasons and so the lumber yields very tight growth rings.  Tight growth rings are preferred on high quality lumber.  I’ve heard stories of people acquiring lumber which required a magnifying glass to count the rings.  Growth rings that tight are coming from trees which are centuries if not thousands of years old.  Cutting down thousand year old trees is not something I carry much interest in doing, instead I’ve acquired wood more common to the trade and still very high quality AYC.''

[donrobinson]

Very well said Gaetan, the thought of cutting down trees of that age is not a pleasure to me either. In saying that the colder the climate and the shorter the growing season does make for much smaller growth rings thus making the normal "softer" species harder

 Thanks for the educational lesson.

[wefalck]

Makes perfect sense to start off with a piece of wood in which the grain is perfectly parallel to the plaining direction.

 

I love nice wood, but hate to see old trees being cut down for it ...

[reklein]

I have quite a bit of experience with AYC as I lived in Sitka Alaska for 30 years. Its quite common there but large clear trees are hard to find. Its also the area Sitka spruce comes from and has supplied the aircraft and music instrument busines probably since WWI.

 AYC is very nice to carve but it is fairly hard. The growth rings don't have that marked hardness that some types of red cedar do. A problem with it is that the dust from sanding can be a real irritant to the skin and mucus membranes. It used to raise little blisters on the sides of my fingers. It takes detail really well. Also because ts a little oily it doesn't stain well and some types of paint don't adhere well.