Has anyone used a jigsaw to saw out the Shamisen pieces and the fingers and shape of the Skin Stretching Jig? I found some longer jig saw blades for thicker wood. Would that work ok to rough saw out the pieces?
Photo from Stefanie’s post:
This blade says it has 3.5 inch usable length and can do extra fine curved work:
Has anyone tried using these blades to cut out 2 inch or 3 inch thick hardwood?
I bought a 10 foot board of true 8/4 Padauk and also a 12/4 board of Sapele Mahogany. I probably have enough wood to make a shamisen for me and some grandchildren shamisens. I planned to use the 12/4 Sapele to build the jig for the skin stretcher. Is that wood strong enough? It seems about half as heavy as oak but has a 1510 Janka hardness…White Oak has a Janka of 1450. I also bought a 1 inch thick narrower boards of Bubinga and Bloodwood. Would those be better to laminate onto the Padauk for a fingerboard on the neck? I bought a 1 inch thick oak board to make the skin stretching clamps…
This is the Sapele 12/4 wood. It is 10 inches wide. I used a piece of paper to trace the body of the shamisen that I have for a pattern and then added a margin around that for extra wood. I used 20 mm between the fingers instead of 25 as Kyle mentions in his book. I am thinking I can buy a longer blade for my jig saw and use that to saw out the fingers of the jig. I hope I can use a jig saw to also rough saw out the other pieces of the Shamisen from the one Padauk board.
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This is the Padauk wood that I plan to use to build one Samisen from. It is true 8/4.
This is a smaller 4/4 board of oak. I plan to make the bottom fingers for the skin stretcher and the 20 clamps out of this.
I bought the 4 1/2 T308BO blades for my Bosh jigsaw because they said the cutting thickness would be up to 3 1/2 inches thick. However that is not true. It only cut a little less than 2 3/4 inch thick. I was cutting through 12/4 (3 inch thick) Sapele mahogany wood… This complicated matters.
I also learned that when cutting 12/4 (3 inch) thick hardwood with my jigsaw the blade deflects to the side no matter how level I try to hold the saw flat to the top of the wood.
Sawing by hand was too tedious. I was using a combination of sawing and chisels, but it was taking a long time to progress.
Sawing thick stock with a jigsaw doesn’t work well either. The blade wants to drift and I didn’t find a blade to cut all the way through. I think I need to buy a band saw if I want to make this easier…
I am getting closer, but it is not as clean as I want
I ordered a bandsaw to be able to cut out large pieces of hardwood or to be able to re-saw wood into other sizes… Has anyone used a bandsaw during the construction or repair of a Shamisen? Can a band saw be used when making cuts for the 3-piece neck? BTW I learned my Bosh folding workbench is not really adequate when using dogs to hold the wood. The workbench top is only 1/2 inch thick and the dogs kind of slip out of their holes when holding 3 inch thick wood. I am currently reading “The Anarchist’s Workbench” by Christopher Schwarz. It has a lot of good ideas about building your own heavy workbench out of Yellow Pine 2x12 lumber that is ripped.
I bought a 48 mm Japanese smoothing plane, but the inside width of the Dai to hold the chipbreaker is too tight for the chipbreaker to fit. .
Perhaps shipment from Japan to the U.S. with storage in CA before shipment to me changed the shape of the Dai after it was made…
Hello. I’m not sure on your level of woodworking knowledge, so sorry if this is mostly things you already know. If this is your first time cutting that species of wood in a way that produces fine dust I’d recommend doing a very small amount of work and then wait a day or so to see if you have a reaction to it.
You can use the bandsaw to cut away the bulk of the wood you don’t need, but leave at least a 1/16th distance to your lines so you can refine the cut. If you have a low tpi blade leave a bit more space just in case the wood doesn’t react as expected. To get a tight fit you’ll need to use a chisel to remove that last portion. You’ll have a much easier time getting accurate cuts if you use a marking knife instead of a pencil for the outline, as it lets you index the chisel edge directly where you want to cut. If you’re not familiar with joinery I’d strongly recommend going with the one piece neck first. The fitting work of the one piece neck to the body should give you a great place to see how accurate your cuts are without wasting too much time if you find it’s something you don’t intend to do more than once. If you’re dead set on making the 3 piece style I’d suggest copying the design of those joints to a softwood like pine and seeing how well you can get those to fit.
As for your tools, remember to check that the backs are all flat and square or you’ll never get a straight cut with them. It takes a while, but is an absolute must. You should be able to do pretty much everything with what you’ve got, but a good wood rasp isn’t expensive and is good for roughing in curves. A cheap 4x36 sander could help with making the itomaki.
Thanks much Farmer for your advice and tips. All are appreciated. I don’t have much woodworking experience other than making a footstool in 8th grade woodshop. I have some basic tools like a table saw and chop saw, but haven’t tried to build any furniture. I have refinished some used chest of drawers before which required some minor repairs and regluing. I assembled a couple of Dulcimer kits this year one from Folkcraft music and the other was a cardboard kit where I added frets to the neck to make it chromatic.
I have never tried any dovetailing for joinery although I became interested in Japanese joinery when I lived in Japan two different times for a total of 7 years. I was amazed when I saw Kyle’s book with all the in-depth instructions and pictures. I had never seen a book like that. That made me interested in taking this plunge to make a shamisen… I ordered a nice bandsaw which should be delivered next week. I was hoping to use a local military base wood shop’s tools, but it has been closed and I was told would not reopen… I would like to buy a sander like you mention. I would like to get a planer/jointer and a real workbench in the future. I have never used Japanese chisels or a Japanese hand plane before. This is all a new journey for me…
I was going to wait to pick up a new edition of Kyle’s book in digital format, but I just might have to grab one now based on that review. If you’re interested in Japanese joinery you might want to check out an architectural book. Those dulcimers look great.
It’ll definitely be a little frustrating at points, but woodworking is one of the most rewarding hobbies to take up. You’ll be able to do an amazing amount of repairs and make just about anything you could want with enough skill. A planer is a good idea if you have enough cash and plan on doing woodworking for a while. Saves an incredible amount of time. Wood by Wright and Rex Krueger are great Youtube channels to get some tips on using hand tools. Krueger has an excellent video on making your own English joiners bench. It’s a great way to learn a variety of joints while also not needing to be super accurate. A few beer caddies make great personalized gifts for the holidays too.
Make sure to keep us updated on how your shamisen projects are going! If you have any questions I’ll try to answer them.
