Here is my first kumiko project. Basswood with a 1" square poplar dowel for the frame. I bought Matt Kenney's book and made jigs from some red oak I had kicking around. I bought 3/16" X 3/4" basswood strips from a vendor, figuring to save time and money. That was my first mistake. I bought plenty so that I only paid shipping once. They advertise a tolerance which I figured I could live with. Didn't matter anyway, since my flat top rip blade is .140", so through the drum sander they went…all 50 four-foot sticks! This is comprised of 266 pieces of wood, so lots of cutting! Not something I'd do for a living. The table saw was used to rough the length of the small pieces, as I'm more interested in progress than process for lots of little pieces. Cutting all the little pieces to shape in the jigs is about as Zen as I'll ever get. I purchased the wood before I got the book, so discovered that he uses 3/8" stock instead of 3/4". So, it's pretty thick. I have yet to put a cloth back on it like MR Kenney suggests. We'll see how that goes, or if I actually do that.
A nice pattern in the assembly, I am sure that is really some quite shop time once you get the lengths roughed out. The blocks look good, so the process should have gone quickly. I have yet to make the blocks myself and give this a try.
Thanks, yes, it's pretty Zen, once the jigs are adjusted. That's also something I like about carving, as I don't do much mallet work. One guy brought an electric chisel in to the carving class one time. OMG, the noise!
This is why the name I plundered for my Himitsu-Bako ("Japanese") Puzzle Box sort of sounded familiar, ↑ (That's nearly as anoying as those bleeding acorns!)
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
