Furniture Design & Construction | The specialists guide to Chinese antiques

Chinese Woodworking: books and resources from around the web

Chinese Woodworking: Stock Preparation

This is a nice overview of materials preparation that was posted in the forums at Fine Woodworking.

“In some way it is lucky that we met Liu Shifu at the end of his career: early in his career a Chinese Shifu will hardly ever allow outsiders to watch them work, not to mention photograph. In fact, Liu Shifu was very interested in the prospect that his life’s work could find a forum in the United States. Stock preparation starts with the equivalent to a broad ax which, with enough practice, get’s you fairly close to the final dimensions of the board.”

Chinese woodworking 200x300 Chinese Woodworking: books and resources from around the web

Chinese carpenter 200x300 Chinese Woodworking: books and resources from around the web

Read the Full article: http://forums.finewoodworking.com/fine-woodworking-knots/hand-tools/chinese-woodworking-stock-preparation
PDF Backup (for broken links): Chinese Woodworking_ Stock Preparation

Books on Chinese Woodworking with good diagrams

There are a lot of books on Chinese antiques out there, most of which we have on our amazon list already. And not to boast but I do think this list is about as complete as it gets. However, I find these ones have the most complete details in terms of specific diagrams of joinery and construction.

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How to avoid cracking and splitting in Chinese solid wood furniture

Lacquered Furniture? Then wood frame construction with MDF panels is probably the correct choice.

“Is that a crack?” About once a week, I am asked this question. Some of the times, its about furniture which has been purchased elsewhere. Other times its about our own furniture. It might have been custom made or simply the customer purchased it from from a moving sale. Some pieces might have traveled the globe and eventually landed in a dry climate – a once beautiful stable piece, is now turning into a cracking, splitting mess. But rest assured, at least once a week, I am asked this question.

Solid wood/old wood vs. veneer and composites

When making furniture,
the first question one must ask is, do you want solid wood or are composite woods also acceptable.

Solid wood furniture is strong, long lasting and can be re-sanded, re-finished and re-stained for years to come. That’s the good news. The bad news is, this comes at a price. Since wood is a natural, living, breathing material, it therefore has a tendency to swell / shrink, warp and/or crack as it ages, in relation to environmental changes in temperature and humidity. In door environments, in particular modern homes where dry electric heat is used, will accelerate this process. If the furniture is painted or lacquered, this presents an even bigger problem as the lacquer covering the outer surface will crack (often badly) when the wood underneath expands and contracts.

How to avoid cracking and splitting in Chinese solid wood furniture

Reclaimed wood waiting to be used in furniture making

One way furniture makers attempt to compensate for this by using aged wood and reclaimed wood. While all wood, including old wood continues to breathe and change, unlike new wood, old wood has (theoretically) already reached its critical drying point over many, many years. Unfortunately access to reclaimed wood depends on the supply of old wood (often from buildings) which may not always be available in large quantities. Aged wood may also have a certain amount of dents, nicks and other characteristics that come along with age. And because its still real wood, this means it will still breath and change to some extent.

A second method of compensation is by using air dried or kiln-dried wood. Air dried wood, which has been exposed to outside air for extended periods of time, is often harder, though tends to have a higher moisture content and may take months or even years to dry. Kiln dried wood can be ready to use in under a month, but is softer as the artificial heating process stops the wood from naturally hardening any further. The heating process may also cause defects in the wood such as the “honey comb effect.” Unfortunately many smaller factories do not have kilns as the process is costly and requires specialized technical expertise. Even large modern factories shipping 200 containers a month may find running their kilns to be expensive and technical. Therefore because Kiln dried wood must be either pre-purchased or sent out for drying, air drying is the most common method in use for smaller workshops.

Stacks of burlwood veneer 273x300 How to avoid cracking and splitting in Chinese solid wood furniture

Stacks of "burlwood" veneer ready for use in furniture making

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How to find 3d models of Chinese furniture.

Here’s a somewhat arcane post, yet one that’s incredibly useful for anyone who is either an interior designer, furniture designer or even just someone redecorating their home with one of the many 3d programs like Google sketchup. Which brings me to the topic of this post: where to find 3d models of Chinese furniture

So, here are a few suggested sites:

Free sites:

http://www.3dmodelfree.com/3dmodel/list425-1.htm

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

Paid Sites:

http://www.the123d.com/furniture_collections/asian_furniture_kit.html

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/330344

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_0=0&search=Chinese+furniture

Excellent diagrams on chinese joinery and chinese furniture construction.

This diagram from an article on the Woodworkers Institute website
shows how traditional Chinese joinery works

There is a great article on the Woodworkers Institute website which I stumbled upon quite randomly. I was actually researching some information on construction techniques for making dining room extension tables, when “lo and behold” I came across this two part article entitled Poetry in Wood.

“One of the reasons why joints were so complex in China, Japan and Korea was the climate. There are huge changes of temperature and humidity throughout the whole of central and south-east Asia, and many European colonists discovered the furniture they took with them from Europe fell to pieces because the animal glue softened in the high humidity and heat. The woodworkers of those countries found that it was necessary to make interlocking joints which had mechanical strength rather than rely on glued joints. I recall the world-record price 18th-century mirror that I worked on at Sotheby’s, pictured left, which had tiny bamboo dowels joining the 6mm-thick backboards rather than the European equivalent which would be a rubbed joint.

This is not to say that oriental furniture was not glued; it just didn’t rely so heavily upon glue. There is a similarity with 18th-century Continental chairs which tended to be pegged and glued as opposed to British ones which were only glued. One could perhaps argue that Continental colonial furniture stood up to high humidity better than British furniture! One of the roles of the furniture restorer in China was to replace and tighten the dovetail wedges used when the joints in furniture had become loose. One needs to remember that the whole assemblage of a piece of Chinese furniture depends upon the interlocking joints for stability. The top is not glued up, followed by the legs being glued on etc. The frame holds the top boards, the legs then anchor the frame, and the dovetail wedges anchor the whole lot together.”

The article is not bad, though the best part is the excellent diagrams illustrating some of the standard Chinese joinery techniques used in Chinese furniture making.

The full article is here: “Poetry in Wood” on the Woodworkers Institute website .

Dutch designer Maarten Baas in Shanghai: Interesting twists on Chinese traditional furniture designs

I stumbled upon this rather amusing post on designaddict.com which talks about Maarten Baas‘s, recent Jully 2008 exhibition at Contrasts gallery in Shanghai.

While participating in Contrasts’ residency program, which brings Western artists to China to study local artistic and cultural practices, Baas became fascinated with traditional Chinese woodcarving; this exhibition is dominated by the results of this interest. His work pushes the boundaries of this time-honored Chinese craft, while also revealing the designer’s playful imagination.

Needless to say, these are some very interesting interpretations on Chinese furniture. The plastic garden chair in wood is just brilliant.

Personally, I like his smoke series in which wooden furniture has been burned with the remaining charcoal’ed pieces then preserved with a coating of clear epoxy.

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