re: Japanese carpentry is at another level

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I still have not see anyone much better than Norm Abrahams, and he specialized in just trying to find projects and demonstrations for normal weekend warrior woodworkers.

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I have been watching Norm Abrams for 57 years and I think he is a wood working god but his joinery is not overly fine. It is extremely simple as far as joinery goes and that is for a reason, it flat out works. Stays together and allows for movement which is going to happen unless you are using all sheet goods and they have to be extremely high quality sheet goods. Norm Abrams can build a fine piece of furniture, he is not going to win a juried exhibition for fine woodworking. Not a slam...almost no one does.

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I have a gun cabinet that my Grandfather had handmade in Japan in the 50's when he was stationed there. It's made out of tiger maple and is magnificent.

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The lack of quality material is a massive part of the reason American woodworkers, and even carpenters, tend to be less "skilled" than those from other nations. When a 4x8 sheet of 1/2 inch plywood with more than 5 plies costs $200 and takes a month to source taking chances on new techniques is not in the cards for all but the well heeled. We simply do not manufacture lumber and sheet goods in this nation that are not complete garbage. In Europe and Asia you can find high quality lumber and sheet goods in big box stores....in the US sheet goods that are worthy of using are almost non existent and the only lumber worth buying is produced by small niche millers who do it because they enjoy it for the most part, not because it feeds and houses them and their families.

I picked up 10 - 16 - 18 inch in diameter, 16 + foot white oak logs this weekend from a lot that was being cleared. They have been on the ground for about 5 days now. They are nearly perfect. - straight and almost no taper, what would be called saw logs. They have about 144 board feet of usable lumber in each of them unless they are hiding something, unusual for white oak. I usually beat the Doyle Scale by about 10% and the Scribner Scale by about the same in the other direction...so I will probably get somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 board feet per log. Flat sawn, quarter sawn will yield higher grade lumber but will result in far lower quantities and more waste....not a concern with common white oak but quarter sawn white oak is remarkable. That 160 BF of lumber times 10 logs is 1600 BF. In my area right now I can sale that 1600 BF of white oak for about $4 a BF unplaned and green as gourd...it is the decking of choice for trailers. Planed and kiln dried to 10% or less MC it would be north of $6 a board foot. That is only because I paid nothing for the trees and I ain't in the sawmill business to pay the bills....if I were I would not sale that lumber for that price. At that price very few people are going to go through the learning curve to become a true artist...because it is simply too damned expensive, anyone interested is going to stick to what they know and do it well....which most often means simple and time honored.

A local trailer company texted me this morning that they want those logs for $6000. Green and unplanned and unscaled. It will take me 16 hours to mill them and took about 5 to load them on a trailer and haul them to the mill and unload them. It will take 4 $25 blades. With fuel that is about $275 an hour. Maybe I am in the sawmilling business to make a living LOL.....

Thats a lot of pretty perfect free hand drilling. shite, if you made me do it, Id be back at it with that hammer