Today was another very hot day. The rainy season has not ended yet, but it already feels completely like summer. I continued working on the 3-sun puzzle boxes today. The natural wood type has already finished the undercoating process and should be completed soon. I have also started working again on the traditional yosegi type. Since there are many of these boxes, I cannot finish the entire sliding key panel process at once. This morning, I made the sliding key panels, and in the afternoon, I attached the small wooden pieces called Bocchi to the box bodies. Tomorrow, I will machine the box bodies and make the surfaces flat, and then I will be able to attach the panels.
The photo shows the Bocchi being attached. Of course, I also did this process for yesterday’s natural wood type, but this time I attached six times as many. The way these small wooden pieces are attached varies from one craftsman to another, and in my case, I also change the method depending on the size of the box. This is an important part of the sliding key mechanism, so I will not explain it in detail here. Even if I did, it probably would not be very useful anyway..haha🤣
The reason the method changes with the size of the box is that a larger box can take a little more force in the mechanism, while a small box like this needs to move with only a light force.Because the mechanism is also larger on a large box, it is easier to apply force to it. So, people naturally tend to push it more strongly. If the movement of the mechanism feels too light on a large box, the weight of the panels can make it feel loose. For that reason, I attach the Bocchi a little more firmly on larger boxes. However, if I use the same method on a small box like this one, the mechanism becomes too tight and difficult to move. It is not only the stiffness of the movement. The area where you push or hold the box is also small, which makes it harder to operate. So, a small box needs to be made with a lighter movement. For this reason, I do not attach the Bocchi as firmly as I do on a large box. I use a softer method, and the way I attach it is different. Of course, when I say “tighter” or “lighter” here, I am only talking about very small differences in how the box is made. I do not mean that a large box is very tight and a small box is very loose. It is only a subtle adjustment.
