Kanawa Tsugi: Japanese Scarf Joinery

Traditional Japanese joinery, with its intricacy, precision, and strength, is awe-inspiring, and very enticing to any woodworker. But learning how to cut these joints can be a challenge regardless of your skill level. Layout doesn’t rely on straight and square reference faces, and determining the order in which to cut things can be tricky.

Join us in this class where you will create a "kanawa tsugi" joint, translated as a half-blind tenoned, dadoed, and rabbeted scarf joint. Used in Japan for centuries to splice two members together end to end, it creates a single longer one capable of sustaining multidirectional forces. It's an excellent place to start exploring non-Western joinery. Designed to be cut without power tools, you will learn to cut this joint by hand, with just chisels and planes.

Layout is the hardest and most important part of the joint. Instead of working off two straight and square reference faces adjacent to each other, everything works off a centerline. You’ll use an ingenious story stick that, with five layout lines and a precise width, contains the keys to the whole joint.

Experience with hand tools is helpful but not necessary.