Matsu Kaze Woodworking 
Urban Tree Salvage

A fair amount of my material I source myself. It's just impossible to find the wide or exceptionally thick boards I need for projects. Sure it's out there but is it the quality I want? Was it cut properly? Did the guy drying it even know how to dry wood?????
 I realized I had to source my own materials. I buy logs standing or on the ground.  We then custom cut for dimension and grain orientation specific to our needs which has drastically reduced waste and increased efficiency.
A fair amount of lumber comes from right from town not the forest.

 I get to re-purpose the material headed for the landfill and the homeowner gets to off set the cost of tree removal a little bit and sometimes even have something made from the relic tree from their property. 

 This 105 year old mango was growing near the servants quarters of a historic old Hilo victorian owned by Lorraine Shin ( BJ Penn's mom). It was a huge tree. Over 7 feet in diameter at the butte .  The yellow spot up in the tree is Brendon Yew. A very talented tree climber. He and a couple helpers took the tree down quickly and safely with no damage to the building.
There were some massive log sections, but unfortunately the tree formed two spires only a few feet off the stump. Basically it was two trees going from the same stump.
And when the tree was felled, the two split apart. Which is actually fortunate. Because we would have needed a bigger boom truck.....
   


         Here delivered to John's mill site.  Yup, it was a real monster. Full of nails , rocks, rat shield....You can see the split trunk. It's over six feet tall laying on it's side.. Really hoping to see a couple massive 5" thick slabs out of it for forth coming tables.  I still have not slabbed or cut dimensional from it yet, but I bet it has lots of color and spalt now.



Then just around the corner from the Penn's house I met a very nice lady that was clearing land for her new house and picked up several more mango and some silk oak logs.

I love silk oak. Silk oak is here from Australia where it is used for cabinets, furniture, and exterior millwork.  Many woodworkers are allergic to it suffering respiratory and dermatological reactions but fortunately I am not.  

                                                                                                                                                              

To the right, we have the mango and oak logs.

 They were nice, large , straight, free of knots, and most any defect.  They averaged 28~30" in diameter and 20 to 23 feet long each.

 They produced some amazing wide quater sawn boards with  wild ray fleck.

 Much was cut in anticipation of door making and tansu parts.  I also plan to make my kitchen cabinets from it. A friend made an uke with silk oak, sounded pretty nice.

 Last year I expanded the shop to included another 1000 feet of outdoor dry storage for material. Warm, dry with plenty of  air blowing thru. Perfect for air drying wood. Wood as you know requires extensive air drying before kilning for kind behaving material. It's a long cycle, years even. Longer the better! And eventually your milling, acquiring materials for projects you won't build for 5 or ten years from now. All the better for it and you.

Guess I forgot to mention , about two and a half years back we moved shop to a down town location near the Port of Hilo. I can literally walk 100 yards around the corner and get in the ocean......

I'll save that for next time.

Here are a couple picks of lumber from above logs now air drying.

  

 

Above picture is a couple flitches of 20+ inch wide Curly Mango,

There is just so much beautiful woods here on Hawaii Island.

 Most all that material was milled last year and just now we are seeing some of it out of the kiln.

Quick pic of a mango isho kasane dansu underway.

This is another advantage of milling your own wood. 

You get to make sure the arches are centered up!

 I am hoping to post a bit on the above tansu soon.

Thanks for checking in.

Uniquely  hand  crafted.

Matsu Kaze   Woodworking

simple devices for inspired living

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MatsuKaze Awarded First Place
in 
Harbor Gallery's Annual Juried Summer Show

This Chadansu is a smaller version of an award winning tansu I built a few years ago.

 It measures 13.5x34x36.

Curly Koa, Sugi, Milo, Toon, Port Orford Cedar, She Oak, Silk Oak,

Fine Shellac Finish, Forged Iron Hardware.

SOLD AT SHOW

 If you would like to order similar style please contact us.

Uniquely  hand  crafted.

 MatsuKaze  Woodworking

simple devices for inspired living

H  i  l  o    H  a  w  a  i  i  

ships world wide

A Matsu Kaze Woodworking Blog

Koa and Sugi Chadansu

 Long time no blog.  Finally had a moment to post some images of a recent Chadansu.

Chadansu were room cabinets most generally used to store cups, bowls, tea kettle,

 tea caddies, etc..  Some may have been used exclusively for tea ceremony  but commonly found in a typical living room used for casual eating and entertaining.

Chadansu are typically light in construction, easily moved, and have more detail than most other types of tansu.  Usually having several small drawers and 2 to 5 doors often including a kendon buta ( drop fit door)

 They are fun pieces to build with many, many,parts and pieces and plenty of joinery.

I enjoy the chance to incorporate a chigai dana ( staggered shelves) in the design.

With the doors removed and the alcove exposed it becomes an entirely different piece.

With out further ado , here is the new tansu........

This Chadansu is a smaller version of an award winning tansu I built a few years ago.

 It measures 13.5x34x36.

Curly Koa, Sugi, Milo, Toon, Port Orford Cedar, She Oak, Silk Oak,

Fine Shellac Finish, Forged Iron Hardware.

This particular piece is built using the same Palani Ranch Koa as it's predecessor..

 It has a deep rich tone with great figure and billowy curl. 

The tansu has a Milo wood edge banding and sits upon a Milo base. The Milo makes the phenomenally curly drawers fronts really pop. 

                                                   

 Detail of sword tip miter

 The tansu is fully joined using sword tip miters, dovetails, mortise and tenons,

 housed panel joints, full blind sliding dovetails..... 

" no nails " as they say.  Built to last 100 years or more.

 Hand cut dovetails with arrow feather twin pin accent.

 This chadansu works in a variety of settings and can be used to store most anything.

Some of my chadansu have been used to store small art collections and one for feather lei.

There is ample storage space with, count them, 12 drawers, and five doors.

The interior features a staggered shelf display area and two small drawers.

You may remove the doors for display of art.

Without kendon buta.....

 and above is yet more open shelf space

interior features curly koa shelves, curly koa drawers, and chigaidana 

with small post made from a piece of diseased She Oak  I had been saving for some time..

 It adds at touch of wabi to an overall formal design.

Drawers are hand cut with AAAA+ Curly Koa drawer fronts and

 Port Orford Cedar drawer sides and bottoms left with a hand planed finish.

Here is the kendon buta, a door that sits in a groove top and bottom. It can be lifted up and pulled out using the small hand forged tsukite, moon shaped iron pull.

The doors frames are curly koa and the door panels came from an old gnarly sugi tree.

The beading on the inside edge of the doors is made with a small hand plane and the corners are carved in.

The door pull has same irisumi design.

The back of the cabinet is made with the same care and attention to detail as the front of the tansu.

 Full mortise and tenon construction ,sword tip miters, carved detailing as fine as the doors.

 The back of the cabinet is made with a locally harvested Australian cedar colloquially referred to as Toon. Beautiful material. A complete joy to hand plane.

The finish is a dewaxed shellac that was refined in a German facility that

 produces exceptionally clear wax free shellac flake.

 The flake is diluted to a usable consistency and cabinet given the "Downeast rub"

Many thin layers of shellac are wiped on building a finish that is at once light but full of luster and grain clarity. The shellac is of a quality that will resist water rings.

A final rub of macadamia bee's wax leaves surfaces with a beautiful satin sheen.

Hardware is a traditional warabite design  hand forged from Japan.

 Last image, different time of day.

Full sun light.

Uniquely  hand  crafted.

Contact us for shipping information.

Matsu Kaze   Woodworking

simple devices for inspired living

H  i  l  o    H  a  w  a  i  i  

ships world wide