What kind of wood is this?
What kind of tree is this?
The answer is "walnut."
The official name is "American Black Walnut."
A walnut tree native to North America.
Japanese walnut trees are light in color,
The most distinctive feature of walnut is its deep, purple-tinged burnt brown and gray gradation.
It has a sense of splendor, depth and dignity.
It has a glossy finish and is a good material that blends in with any Japanese or Western interior.
The tree in your hands now.
There's a lot you can learn by looking closely .
for example,,,
What impression do you get from trees?
Beautiful. Sophisticated. Peaceful.
Relaxing, soothing, etc.
Try placing a tree in the palm of your hand. It has a similar light reflectance to human skin.
One theory is that the reason humans feel safe when they are near trees, earthen walls, and other natural materials is that they instinctively feel safe because of the protective coloration effect, the ability to blend in, and the feeling that they can protect themselves from enemies.
What about the jagged R on the surface?
「軸傾斜」「昇降盤」などの丸い30センチφほどの回転刃で切った跡のことを「ノコ目」といいます。この機械のノコ目は手がんなをかけるので家具の完成時には見えなくなります。
昔、貴重な材は大きなノコで手で挽いて板にしていた時代が有りました。（機械で切るより無駄になる部分が少ないため。）
材木さんで50年100年出番を待っている木材には、木挽き職人さんの手ノコ刃のあとが今も残っているものもあります。それを景色として活かして使うこともあります。
What about the horizontal stripes on the surface?
The texture of the wood surface,
Hold it up to the light and observe it.
There are stripes about 1 mm wide.
Can you see it?
This is called a "knife mark."
In the photo example, the right half shows a knife mark.
The left half is the part that has been hand planed.
(Depending on the wood card you have, the entire surface may have been planed by hand, and there may be no knife marks remaining.)
Knife marks are the marks left by the high-speed cutting blades of a machine that cuts the surface of wood when the wood is sawn flat with a hand planer and then made uniform in thickness with an automatic single-sided planer. Two to four blades are attached to a cylinder about the size of the core of the wrap, and they rotate at high speed to cut the wood.
What about the smooth part on the surface?
It is said that the coefficient of friction of wood that has been hand-planed is similar to that of human skin, making it smooth and silky to the touch.
Dropping water onto the tree with your fingers,
Try spreading it out.
The sawtooth side and the knife mark side are
Because it has a continuous surface that has been cut by pressing with a blade, when it absorbs water the surface area expands and it swells, becoming rough to the touch when it dries.
The surface that has been hand planed does not change much even if it is wet.
At Kyoto Sumiyama Asakura Woodworking, we hand-plan the surfaces of all our furniture, which helps keep the wood's surface smooth and beautiful even when it gets wet or is used for a long time.
Wood cutting direction: "Straight grain"
This is the appearance when the tree is cut so that the annual ring pattern appears vertical. It is elegant and does not easily warp.
木取り方向「板目（いため）」
When wood is cut in a direction that makes the annual rings look like bamboo shoots, this is called board grain. (The seat of the chair in the photo is an easy-to-see board grain.)
Individual differences in wood grain "moku"
The rare wood grain and pattern is called "moku."
Walnut wood has a shimmering, variegated appearance that can be seen in some places. In your daily life, you can enjoy the different expressions that appear depending on the direction you look at the furniture from.
The photo shows a walnut ball used as a barrier that was delivered to the ramen restaurant "Takakura Nijo."
Observation from the tree rings of wood grain
The photo shows a cross-section of a tree called Shioji.
There were about 250 tree rings.
If you look closely at the cross section of the wood card in your hand,
You can see the holes. The "vessels" that draw moisture from the ground are formed in the spring, and absorb rain to help the tree grow from April to October.
As the weather gets colder, trees grow slower.
The presence of tree rings indicates that the tree grew in an area with seasonal changes.
There may have been bad weather or something the year the width of the tree rings suddenly narrowed.
Several years of history from when it was a tree are in the palm of your hand.
ABOUT US
Kyoto Sumiyama Asakura Woodworks,
15 minutes by car from the nearest station, JR Rokujizo
Furniture workshop & shop.
Chestnut, Cherry, Zelkova, Walnut
Horse chestnut, maple, cedar...
We make furniture from a variety of wood species.
The photo shows a walnut bookshelf (delivery example).
