19-May-2025
Today, I continued working on both the 3-sun 12-steps box and the smallest 12-steps box, picking up from where I left off last week.
For the 3-sun boxes, I made and attached the side panels using walnut wood. Although there were 100 boxes to work on, I was able to complete the task successfully.
After applying glue to the side panels, I attach them to the main structure and then press them overnight using woodworking clamps. Because of this, I can only glue as many boxes at once as will fit into the clamps. This time, since it was the 3-sun size, I was able to press all 100 boxes at once. However, if it were 100 boxes of the 5-sun size, I would need to split the work over two days.
These woodworking clamps are unique to this region and were originally developed for use in Hakone yosegi marquetry work. Compared to the large clamps used around the world, these are more compact and can apply gentle, precise pressure, making them ideal for gluing small parts.
For the smallest 12-steps box, today’s work involved attaching the Aruki panels (moving panels) and gluing the yosegi panels to the top and bottom. Since the box is very small, the “movement range” of the Aruki panels is also slightly narrower. To match that, the thickness of the top and bottom panels is also thinner (about 2 mm) compared to boxes like the 3-sun size.
