Hopefully, all the checking will be finished and the book will be ready for publishing before the end of the year.

The second is the wa-tsunagi (輪つなぎ), which means a connection of circles, and in this pattern, the circles are formed by the hexagon and triangle shapes.

This now brings the number of patterns for Book 3 to twenty, so I've completed roughly half of what I want to include in the book. All going well, I hope I'll be able to finish making and writing some time mid-way through next year, and finally publish it no later than this time next year. Fingers crossed.

Ryūsō asa-no-ha 龍爪麻の葉


Ryūsō kikkō 龍爪亀甲

The second pattern is the benten mie-kikkō (弁天三重亀甲). Mie means triple, and this pattern consists of triple hexagons with the benten triangle structure.

Both of these patterns are quite fiddly, and the benten mie-kikkō in particular is perhaps getting towards the upper end of the difficulty scale. The half-lap joints of the pattern pieces are quite close together in some parts (3mm), and there were a few breakages, so it was also a good test of patience. Very satisfying when the last piece slid in.

Urahana kikkō 裏花亀甲


Yae-urahana kikkō 八重裏花亀甲


Kawari urahana kikkō 変り裏花亀甲

These are quite interesting patterns to make, and each has its own set of challenges.

This is one of the simpler patterns for Book 3, but there's still enough of a challenge in cutting and trimming accurately to keep you on your toes.

The following photos show the process I followed in putting it together. I don't explain how to make the pattern — you'll have to wait for Book 3 to be published for that — but the photos will give you an idea of what's involved in making a pattern such as this. As with all the patterns in all of my books, the yae-karahana kikkō was made without using any specialised tools; just the normal tools I detailed in Books 1 and 2.

First, I cut the three-way mitsu-kude joints in the jigumi, then the three half-lap joints between each of the mitsu-kude joints.

I then cut the jigumi pieces to length, and chamfered the ends. Two of the Type A pieces will be further trimmed, but it's more efficient to cut all the pieces together.

Next, I assembled the jigumi.

After which it was time to make up the hexagons.

Eight hexagons are required, and each hexagon side is 7.5mm. The following photo will give you an idea of the size of the piece.

The hexagons are secured in place by three longer locking pieces extending from the corners of the triangles. Jaguchi joints are used to hold the hexagons firmly.

All the triangles have to be filled in.

Next, I started on the smaller locking pieces that intersect the outer jigumi pieces (red arrow below). These also use jaguchi joints to lock the hexagons.

All these pieces have to be inserted before I can move on to the next step.

The next pieces to insert are the smaller internal locking pieces (red arrow below). These have jaguchi joints at both ends, so any adjustment is quite difficult. The half-lap joint has to be in the exact centre between the jaguchi joints, so in this pattern, these are by far the most difficult pieces to cut and insert.

The final pieces to insert are the second hexagonal pieces (red arrow below). These are trimmed to fit on the 60° jig. These are not particularly difficult, but the sheer number of pieces make this final process quite time-consuming.

Once these final hexagonal pieces have been inserted, the pattern is completed.

And that is how I made the yae-karahana kikkō. Most of the more complex kumiko patterns at first seem to be a confusing maze of pieces of wood heading off in all directions and angles, but if you can break the patterns down into their individual pieces within each of the triangles, they do have a much more structured feel about them.

Tags: 唐花, karahana pattern

Benten is a Japanese Buddhist goddess, and is often shown playing a biwa (a Japanese lute). She is linked to the Hindu goddess Saraswati, and is one of the seven Gods of Fortune (Shichi Fukujin) in Japanese mythology and folklore.

The following photo shows the Shichi Fukujin at the Jōrenji Temple in Tokyo. Benten (or Benzaiten) is third from left playing the biwa.

There are a few benten patterns, and this is the least complicated.

The book will go into a detailed step-by-step explanation on how to make this and the other patterns covered. As with all the patterns I'll cover in the book, this was crafted with normal hand tools, and jigs that have already been made. For these patterns, though, a pair of pincers or tweezers will prove to be an essential piece of kit.

And if you thought cutting the mitsu-kude (three-way) joint was difficult, probably in Book 4 I'll introduce the tombo (or tonbo — dragonfly) pattern. This pattern incorporates the yotsu-kude (four-way joint), and will be a tremendous challenge.

I'll put the patterns up on the website as I complete them.

Similar to those in Book 1 and Book 2, all patterns in this book can be made with normal tools and jigs. No specialist tools will be necessary.

Now it’s back to the shoji video for YouTube.

At this stage I’m looking at about 20 additional patterns to those in my Kindle e-books for inclusion in Book 2. So depending on how big it becomes, altogether there will probably be between 35 and 40 patterns in the new book, mostly in the square jigumi base, but towards the end I’ll start on some of the diamond patterns. The mitsu-kude hexagonal patterns will have to wait until Book 3.

And so far I’ve been making reasonable progress.

More patterns to follow as I make them.

  
Soroban-kuzushi (left); Kikkō-nishiki (right)

  
Tsuno-shokkō (left);Yotsuba kaku-tsugi (right)

  
Yae tsuno-shokkō (left); Yae shokkō (right)


Soroban-dama

All these patterns are also shown in the square patterns page.

A few more to complete, then I’ll start rewriting and putting them together for publication. The book after that—Volume 4—should be the last of the square patterns; from there I move on to the diamond patterns, and all angled cuts from then on.

Like the goma-gara in the hexagonal jigumi, the square goma-gara really is an attractive design, and is right up towards the top in my list of favourite patterns.

Hopefully I’ll have the book finished over the next couple of weeks.

Chōchin (提灯) are Japanese paper lanterns and in the pattern you can see three chōchin along the center row. The izutsu (well curb) pattern is used to form the lanterns, hence the chōchin izutsu-tsugi name. While it may look fairly simple and straightforward, all of the locking pieces for the izutsu squares intersect the main jigumi kumiko with half-lap joints, so if the measuring and the cuts for both the kumiko and the izutsu squares are not exact, they ain’t gonna fit. There’s certainly enough of a challenge in the pattern to keep up the interest level.

This is the second-to-last pattern in Vol. 2. The last will be the izutsu-kiriko-tsunagi, which is also a member of the izutsu pattern family. I’ll cut and assemble that pattern over the next couple of days, then finish off the writing side of the book.

After that it’s on to Vol. 3 and some fairly complex and difficult patterns. These will still be based on the square jigumi. The diamond and triangular patterns will come later.

This pattern is fairly straightforward, but with the large number of joints very closely spaced, it is quite time-consuming, and accuracy is critical. This pattern would look stunning in a ranma, either by itself or in conjunction with another pattern, or as a bottom base pattern for a shoji.

This type of pattern is used for feature bands in a shoji, or as a top and bottom border pattern. It would also look quite stunning in a ranma arrangement.

I’ve had to split the book up because the file would have been far too big for people’s patience with the download if I’d included the entire paperback book in the e-book. Also by keeping the number of shoji and especially the patterns down to a reasonable level in each e-book, I can get the patterns out and available more quickly, rather than waiting to build enough for a decent sized hard copy book.

While my e-books have been formatted for Kindle and Amazon, it doesn’t mean that you need a Kindle device to read them. In fact, for books like this, the Kindle or other e-book reader is probably the last way you’d want to read them. Amazon have a range of applications you can download for free so you can read the e-books on your computer or iPad so the images are a bit more readable. The Amazon link is here. For people who have bought the book, higher resolution images for the shoji and kumiko pattern dimensions are available on my website for printing or downloading.

So not having a Kindle is no excuse for not buying this book, charging out to the workshop and getting stuck into some kumiko patterns.

The whole process was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. The reference book I mentioned in the last blog entry (The eBook Design and Development Guide) was a great help in learning how to write up effective and efficient HTML and CSS code, although the final few files that I had to make up to properly compile the final book for submission to Amazon caused more than a few headaches. Eventually I managed to fluke the right parts, and it cleared the Amazon formatting checks. So it’s up on Amazon for sale: for only US$4.99.

The Kindle book is essentially the first part of my book Shoji and Kumiko Design: Book 1 The Basics, although because of the different format—electronic as opposed to hard copy—I had to touch up all the diagrams and photos. I also made a few minor adjustments where I thought they were necessary.

The Amazon site has a “Click to Look Inside” function, so the sample pages and table of contents will give you an idea of what the book contains. In short, the book covers just about everything you need to know about setting up and maintaining a kanna, the problems that can occur, and how to avoid them.

So for the price of not too much more than a good cup of cappuccino, you’ll have all the information you need to get those thin and wispy shavings floating out from your kanna.

(2) Tapping too much or too strongly to one side: This quite often happens if the uragire is more to one side, and you fail to account for it .

If you find that your uraba is beginning to look like this as you hone, in either of these cases, simply stop and tap out some more in those areas that are too shallow. An uraba that’s too wide can be fixed after a few sharpening sessions, but once one or both ashi become overly wide, that’s the way they’ll remain.

Honing along a single line
If you hone the ura along a single line on the sharpening stones you will create a ridge, which is another sign of poor technique. Therefore as you hone the blade along the stone, especially the coarser grit stones after tapping out, gradually move it backward and forward 10–20 mm to prevent the ridge from forming.



Honing at an angle
When honing the ura, the blade should be perpendicular to the length of the stone. If the blade is at an angle you run the risk of an ura that looks like the following.



Sagging atama while honing
This is perhaps the most commonly seen fault. Kanna blades are quite large and heavy, and there is a tendency to let the atama sag while honing the back, giving the ura somewhat of an hourglass shape. The following diagrams show this.




When honing the back, you should have a feeling that you’re lifting the atama up slightly with your supporting hand as you apply pressure to the bevel with your other hand.



You shouldn’t actually raise the atama as this would give you an unwanted back-bevel, just feel as though you are. That way you are giving the blade proper and even support, and you’ll avoid the hourglass shape. Unfortunately, once you have the hourglass ura, you’re stuck with it until you’re able to sharpen past it, which could take several years.