Kumiko Woodworking

We're very lucky in my shop today with a unique opportunity. A friend of my sister's, Steve, is here. He is actually a professional kite flyer, but also a woodworker, and does a very unique form of woodworking called kumiko. And we're lucky he's here, 'cause from our conversation we've had already, I don't think I'm patient enough to do what he is doing. So this is a great opportunity for us to learn a little about what this is and what it takes and I don't know, I'm gonna quit there, Steve, and you're the expert here on this. So first off, let's do a little bit of your general woodworking background, so like if somebody else wants to know this or wants to do this, what did you know coming into this that's helped you do this or is this such a standalone that that's not. No, I built some shoji screens in the past for the meditation center and that kind of joinery and precision is comparable to this, just a bigger scale. 'Kay and outside of that, we were talking like cabinetry, furniture, and your background prior to this. Yeah, I've built bookcases. I did a knee wall in the kitchen that added electricity and some LED lights. I've been doing projects since high school. And what is it, well, let's talk about this first, and then we're gonna come back to what trips are triggered here. But tell us, like when we were talking about, what's going on here, what does it take to put this together, and let's start with that woodworking kind of stuff, and then we'll go from there. There's three, these three pieces are cut two thirds of the way through. These three are two thirds of the other way and these pieces are cut one third from each side. The saw curve is 136, so I make the wood 140, so it's about a fourth out friction fit and it all fits together. If I do it right, it stays flat. If I do it wrong, it cups. So it's cool that you're basically doing what I call a cross-halving joint in each of these pieces where it lay bridal together -- Yes. Like this. But in some cases, your half and half, in some cases, your one-third or two-thirds -- Yes. Just depending on where we are in the screen. Yeah. But then, or in the piece, and this one is poplar and purple heart, right? Probably, yup. And then it looks like the angular aspect of this is incredibly complex. So what is it, how are you producing these? I mean, you have a great fit on this stuff, which I would have a fit trying to produce the fit, I think. So what is it you use in order to get that stuff to come together so nice? Basically, I steal the idea off YouTube. They tell me what angles go where. And then I have a jig that holds these at the precise length and holds my plane at a precise angle. And then, so I do like here where there's two angles. Do that end first then do this joint. And then keep adjusting the jig until this end just fits, so I only cut the single plane on the final fit. And then once I get that fit correct, then I can reproduce the rest of them. Got it, so I think an important part of this is looking at this, it looks like you've got a tiny, little piece right there. But this is one of those cross-halving joints in here. Yes. So overall length of that part is whatever it is -- Yes. Two inches. Yeah. So it's still finite stuff to work on, but not as finite as working on a half-inch long piece -- Right. And trying to produce that. And then, so in the planing aspect, like low-angled block plane or what's your, what is it? Yeah, I start it with a low-angled block plane and I bought a heavier blade, so it doesn't wanna chatter. I was using a chisel, but that was shaving away my jig, so block plane seems to not do that. And then we were talking about these, so this is cool, 'cause you introduce some curviness. Poplar and walnut in this case. And what do you gotta do, 'cause you've got some examples here. Walnut, sapele, and cherry. Right. So what's happening to these pieces to get them to take that shape, so that you can push 'em into that bow? I made a steam bender out of an old pan and PVC pipe, steamed these for about 10 or 15 minutes, then wrap 'em around a piece of four inch PVC, and hold them there while they cool. And then I still have to bend 'em a little bit and I still have to shave the angles on the ends. Yeah. To get 'em in. Well, and that's what, this is so finite here. It's a little bit and I don't wanna say bird's mouth, which isn't quite right, but in addition to this bow, if you really get in there, the end of that piece of walnut is also shaved at the angle it needs, so when that curve comes in, we match into that really tight inside corner. So, I mean, obviously you like it, 'cause you keep doing it, but does it make you crazy sometimes? No, I was a computer programmer for 35 years, and this is the same kind of intricate precision, but you can see something. In computers, if you do everything right, nobody knows you did anything. Yeah. So. So then what's the, is there an end game to, you make a bunch of these panels and then they're a thing or is it for you? Is it challenging yourself? I wanna try different panels, try different shapes, try different angles? What I was doing here was trying different woods to get the contrast of the colors. See what it was like to work with like purple heart doesn't bend well at all. Some of it's brittle and snaps. I had, the early work, I actually re-sawed something like this by hand. So if you look close, the width varies all over the place. Later, I did it on the table saw, but there's a really, like for every eighth inch piece I cut off, there's a kerf, so there's 50 to 75% loss. Yeah. Which is kinda painful, but. So some company watching wants to sell you a drum sander, because that would help you get these things to a finite shape and we were talking too some time ago we did a video on the Bridge City plane, which has skids on the bottom of it, and that's part of their premise is you can use a, like a planer, but handheld to get stuff down to a real finite thickness. That'd be cool. And I think that's part of this is part of the application that it would be cool. And there are some specialty Japanese planes to cut these angles on a whole bunch of pieces it wants if you're making a big wall thing, but that's way beyond my budget. Yeah. Well, this is neat, and I appreciate you coming all the way in, and I can't wait for you tell me stories about my sister off camera and things that I don't know about her. So thanks for the time. Yeah. And bringing this cool stuff and giving us a walkthrough kumiko, did I say it right? Yup. Okay.