My Box of Joints

Every once in a while I would bring in a box of wooden joints to this K-8 school I worked at.  It was funny because every time I say to a kid or fellow worker, "Want to see my box of joints?" Id get this silly stare.  Yes, I do live in Santa Cruz and that is a common thing around here so I understand their concern.  But to everyones relief they would discover it was actually just wooden joints that work like fun puzzle pieces.  Each week I would bring in a new challenge for them to try and open or put back together.
  

Below are a few of my favorite joints that I learned from a class I take up in Oakland every weekend (more on that in later posts).

This joint is properly called "Hakosen tsugi" or "L-shaped dadoed and rabbitted scarf lap joint" for those of you who don't speak Japanese.  I made it out of Port Orford Cedar which is my favorite type of wood because of its work-ability, beauty, strength and smell.

This is a more simple scarf joint called the "Kanawa tsugi" or "Half blind tenoned dadoed and rabbitted scarf joint"

This is one of the hardest joints I learned in my class, its called the Rising Dove Tail.

This one is probably the kids favorite.  Its just a bunch of bridal joints with a half lap in the middle.  I will be posting many more pictures of joint experiments in the future.  Thank you for visiting and please stay tuned for my next post.