The record-union., 1895-12-03
JAPANESE CARPENTRY,
Peculiar Ways They Have of Working
and the Tools Used.


Lumber is worth about twice as much
in Japan as ii is with us. Common
lumber, which we sell for $40 and ST.
la thousand feet, viii bring 40 yen
that is. $50 gold, here. This is due
chiefly to the scarcity of timber and
| the great laber required to work 1t up
by their primitive processes. They
heve been cutting timber off their
mountains here for 2,J0O years, and al
though the forests have been repro
Guced again and again during that time
it is difficult and expensive to get logs
down from the mountain sides IN the
absence of the necessary facilities.
Tney usually go into the woods and cut
one log at q time, which they maui out
by hand or by oxen for many miles.
Where streams are convenient they use
them as we do, but they have no saw
mills in the mountains, although there
is an abundance of water power every
where l understand they have tried
them, but they have not been success
fdl.
They cut all their lumber by hand
with wide and thin saw during a time
of wear when they have nothing else to
Go. and each man who is engaged IL
business that requires lumber usually
luys his own logs and cuts them up
himself at odd times. Women and
men both work. one man or woman
VIII
another works underneath, but usually
not with the same saw. l have seen
four or five men working on the same
log, each saving off his own board.
They raise the log at an incline OF 10
degrees with one end on the ground
ard a rest about the middle, and when
they work down to the rest they tie IL
no and begin at the other end again.
All the lumber is dressed by hand. l
have found but one planning mill in the
country. This is in Yokohama. 1t eDl-
D.Cys about 150 hands, and, curiously
enough, its entire product is made into
boxes ana shipped to India. 1t does
no business in the local market inc
machinery is all from Boston. The man
ager tells me that the company IS thlNk-
/ ing of charging the plant by adding a
sash factory and machinery. for making
blinds and doors%alsO for thelnd1a mar
! ket do not know why they Go not sell
! their goods in the local market out
! presume there is q good reason fot IT,
I perhaps they get better prices IN ildiS-
| The Japanese make ali the wooden
work about house by hand' ana an liiosl
/ of heir houses are all wood. Iney are
| very skillfuI in all kinds Of cabinet ana
| ioiner work, and are more rapid than
! orr DeoDle. Their tools are better
/ adanfef9 for doing close work than ours,
| and are kept very sharp BESIDE, they
! give q great deal more labor anu pa
| tience to an article than our carpenters
land cabinet-makers. You never see
| scratches from nicSed tools in their
blamed work. They use very few nails,
but mortise almost everything. IT is
usually so we'll done that it is difficult
| to detect the joints by the grain and
| ir lasts forever. Some of their ships are
made without bit of iron in their COM
position. Everything is mortised.
| What pay do they get? Skilled ma
/ chinists carpenters, joiners, cabinet
makers and the highest cIassof that sort
/ of mechanics get from 40 to n sen q day
for twelve hours work. That is equiv
aIent 70 20 and u cents of our money;
while sefond-rate worllmen get from 10
tC 20 sen a day, and women, who work
right along with the men in the shops
receive from 10 to Is sen. They do not
accomplish as much in twelve hours as
cur skilled mechanics will in eight