Useful Techniques from Other Countries

[JourneymanCarpenterT]

What tools or techniques from other nationalities do you think could be useful in the United States?

Much is known in the United States about Japanese hand tools, and even a little bit about Japanese techniques, but what about other countries? Japanese carpenters are known for their joinery. Germany is known for its quality. However, are there tools or techniques that are specific characteristics of German carpenters? Are there tools or techniques that carpenters in Ireland, Australia, Belgium, or wherever are known for?

[Toolwhore]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

However, are there tools or techniques that are specific characteristics of German carpenters? Are there tools or techniques that carpenters in Ireland, Australia, Belgium, or wherever are known for?

One technique that is used in all of the above mentioned countries, though it is frowned upon here (and that's probably a good thing), is they drink beer while working. :)

[dave_k]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

Here's some videos from Virutex in Spain. Check out the frame cutter and door frame jig. http://www.virutex.es/videos.asp?item=48

[Toolwhore]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

Uh, Dave??? What video??? Have you been drinking again??? :)

[dave_k]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

Uh, Dave??? What video??? Have you been drinking again??? :)

actually yes I have ;)

[Toolwhore]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

So......UH......Where's the video, Dave??? :)

[dave_k]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

So......UH......Where's the video, Dave??? :)

look again smartypants

[Joe Wood]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

A big diff is that almost all of those countries have a very strong Apprenticeship Tradition where the young person is taught everything important, especially the proper attitude to the chosen Trade,

while here in the States anyone with a set of bags can call himself a carpenter, especially out here in So Cal,

in the past I've worked with some New Zealanders, and some Brits, and they could do just about anything.

[Toolwhore]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

Ah, you must be referring to the little flask of Scotch on top of that saw. I told you those foreigners drink at work. Why do you think they had to invent that thing so they can fix the door jamb they just screwed up? :) Virutex makes a lot of cool stuff, though there really wouldn't be much use for that tool unless you did a lot of remodels on houses with 4x6 timbers for door frames. Those are pretty rare around here.

[bread and roses]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

Not a technique, exactly, but-

In Kyrgyzstan many of the windows are dual-pane- not insulated glass, but two separate sashes. One of them swings the whole assembly open; the other one hinges on the primary sash, so you can open them up and clean them. I saw them on quite old-looking buildings (like 50s and 60s, though the Soviet style is hard for me to date by eye....) Obviously they don't insulate as well as our dual pane windows, but they keep more heat in than single panes, and you can use them on highrises (unlike storm windows).

I spent a day in a cabinet shop in Japan once. They showed me all around and let me play with their hand planes a lot. One of their signature products was a "one piece table"- not really one piece but the top was a slab cut from a single tree, two meters long and about one meter wide with a raw edge of the peeled trunk. Those tops were too big for their CNC machine, so they were hand planed, and their carpenters could smooth them very quickly, using the soft-iron Japanese planes, straight through all the cross-grain and knots. But my favorite thing in the shop was their planer. It had a roller system to push a board through, but instead of a rotating two or three-blade bit, it had a single STATIONARY blade. The rollers just passed the board under the blade- the board came out the end and a single planer chip, as wide as the board and thin enough to read through, would peel off. A beautiful, simple machine.

(sorry, Mr T, that my example came from Japan- that's just the experience I have to share).

A technique I admired in that shop was that they planed, rather than sanded, their finished pieces. They'd do a very light sand just at the end sometimes, but mostly the planing was the surface treatment. There was a lot less dust, and I liked the clarity of not having the pores of the wood filled with dust. Then they'd put about 15 coats of heavy lacquer on it- yech.

[dave_k]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

These guys (Peri) http://www.peri-usa.com//products.cfm from Germany have some great concrete formwork and scaffolding systems. They are kind of the Festool of the concrete formwork world. Their stuff is really expensive but you get much greater productivity than traditional North American methods. They are the biggest formwork and scaffolding supplier in the world and like Festool their forms used to be exotic stuff you read about but never get your hands on but recently you see their stuff showing up on more and more jobs.

This may not interest too many guys on this forum I figure it's worth looking at if for no other reason than to see how other cultures do things.

[Charliehamr]

Re: Useful Techniques from Other Countries

That japanese planer that you saw, was briefly available in the US. I believe that Makita had a model, as well as possibly another manufacturer. I don't think that they sold well...as they were quickly discontinued. They were called a super-surfacer, and used a single fixed knife which could be rotated to provide a skewed knife angle in relation to the cut direction, to allow for wild grain.