No nail, no glue

On a lighter, depressing note: I just found out Keebler quit making my favorite cookie: Danish Wedding Cookies. My friends who really loved me would send big supply of them from Texas, they have never been available here.

I would love to be able to do this. I guess I could make one very simple joint using this technique. It is so incredibly beautiful.  

Edo sashimono is a type of wood joinery made in Tokyo with hand-cut dovetail joints and without nails. The word sashimono comes from the process of measuring with a monosashi or woodwork ruler. 

This craft is based on the Kyo wood joinery produced as part of the Heian period (794-1185) court culture. In the Muromachi period (1336-1573), carpentry skills evolved, giving rise to professional cabinet-makers who made furniture pieces like chests of drawers, display cabinets, and boxes for storing tea ceremony items. These articles were used by the Imperial Court and nobles. Kyo wood joinery developed as the tea ceremony culture, chanoyu, did. Another type of wood joinery is Osaka karaki sashimono, derived from Chinese joinery techniques studied by Japanese missions visiting the Tang dynasty (618-907). Edo wood joinery began in the Edo period (1603-1868), when the Tokugawa shogunate (feudal military government) relocated artisans from across the whole country to establish artisan towns specializing in a particular craft such as blacksmithing, dyeing, and carpentry in some areas of Edo. In the middle of the Edo period, as handcraft manufacturing developed and demand increased, the carpentry work was subdivided. As a result, cabinet making was established as a separate profession along with temple and shrine carpenters and artisans of doors and shoji screens. 

Chisels and knives are used to carve interlocking finger and dovetail joints into the timber and boards, which are then joined together without the use of nails. Additionally, small handmade wood planes are used to produce a variety of finishes and patterns along the edges of the boards. While the variety of techniques cannot be seen from the outside, their use results in a finished product that can be used for decades. The chisels are soooo sharp! It is so satisfying watching to process. If you want to know more, this is a good resource about the traditional practice.  

7 Things You Need to Know About Japanese Joinery

   

  

Also ran across this The Making of Trifecta Bowl by Kris DeVo. This guy has some serious tools and patience! It would scare me to make this! 

His Full Disclosure: I am into this bowl for about 50+ hours of labor and $400 in wood alone. I am asking $3,750 with shipping from Alaska. It works out to me making about $55hr for 1 bowl. Will it sell for this much? I'm not sure. Can I keep the lights on in my shop making $55 an hour before taxes and cost of tools? Absolutely not.