Sage-Kama Desk – Build 4

Alright one more post to finish up this desk build. In the last post I more or less finished the desk, but after bringing it home and using it for a week or two, I found that it needed some additional support to prevent racking along the length of the desk. Front-to-back, the legs are engaged with the wide cross pieces that are tied into the desktop, as well as the stretchers mid-way down each leg, and those connections are pretty solid. But for lateral support I went pretty minimal, and used just one long stretcher to join the legs which you can see in the original concept image below left. With just that one stretcher, the desk had a bouncy feel to it, so I went back into Blender and after playing around with some different ideas I came up with the design below right.

In a way I think this all turned out to be a really good thing for the design of this desk. Seeing my original design alongside the new one with the back panel, I much prefer the design with the panel. Looking at things now, the original just looks too plain. Designing and making things is interesting in that way. Sometimes the addition of a certain element can dramatically change the overall feeling and your perception of a piece… sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. And it’s hard to know when to keep pushing a design and when to stop. In this situation having to consider the addition of more lateral support got me thinking of a few different ways of addressing the situation, but I soon landed on the idea of using a panel joined to two stretchers to create a rigid frame. And using a panel opens up all sorts of questions about what that should look like.

Around the same time that I was working on the revised design, I came across an antique carved ranma (transom window) that really blew me away. The style of ranma was something that I’ve seen several times; a thin wood board with beautiful grain and a simple pierced/carved design. I really love the simplicity of this style of ranma, and have wanted to attempt making my own, so this seemed like a unique opportunity to do just that.

The pattern carved in the antique ranma is a variation of a paulownia leaf (kiri-mon) motif which is quite common here in Japan, and has a long history of use by both common folk as well as the goverment. In some ways kiri-mon have become somewhat generic, but I really like the unique take on the pattern that the maker of the antique ranma above used.

Below is a more common kiri-mon pattern.

I played around with a few designs of my own for the pattern, but ultimately decided to imitate the pattern of the original, with a few subtle modifications to the sizing and shape of the cutouts.

Here’s how the panel turned out. Aside from kumiko work, this is probably the most decorative work I’ve ever done on a piece of furniture.

I cut out the pattern using a combination of a scroll saw; a router with skinny 2mm bit; and chisels and files.

The trickiest part about adding the panel and additional stretcher was mortising the round legs to accommodate the new stretcher. Laying out and cutting mortises into round stock is not the most straightforward task. What I ended up doing was securing the legs in a jig, which was simply a beam with a V-notch taken out of it to cradle the leg. From there I used a flat piece of wood through one of the existing mortises to orient the leg for layout and mortising. With the leg clamped to the jig I could pretty accurately layout the location for the new mortises.

After layout, I brought the whole setup over to the mortiser.

After rough mortising I used chisels to pare the tapered parts of the mortise to accommodate the wedge and half-dovetail joinery (sage-kama joinery). I also finished paring the sides of the mortises with chisels rather than trying to clean them out with a trimmer like I did on the original mortises for these legs in part 1 of this build.

With the mortises cut and the panel carved, all that remained was to make one more stretcher and cut a groove in both stretchers to glue the panel in. I contemplated different methods for securing the panel, but ultimately decided I would just glue it using hide glue. The overall width of the panel is only about 150 mm and it’s mostly quartersawn grain so I expect it will stay pretty flat and move very little over time. The panel and two stretchers now form a rigid unit that when joined with the legs provides a lot of racking resistance.

Here’s how the finished desk turned out.

I really like how the panel worked out. It has a strong decorative element, but being positioned low, it’s not something that is really in your face, rather it’s kind of a nice little treat that your eye catches when seeing the desk from a distance. Modifying the desk and adding the panel and extra stretcher have added a ton of rigidity to the desk so there is no longer any bounciness side-to-side

I do wish I could have matched the grain of the two stretchers better. The original stretcher is the lower one, and the new one is the upper highly figured one. When I went back to add the extra stretcher, this highly figured piece of oak was the only piece that I had left that was long enough for the job. It’s a beautiful piece of wood, I just wish the two stretchers had more consistent grain.

It’s subtle, and not terribly visible in the photo below, but I chiseled the top of each leg giving them a slightly faceted curvature. I like tactile details like that, and it somehow feels more appropriate for this design than just cutting the leg perfectly flat.

And with that the desk is done. We’ve been using it for a couple weeks now, and it’s been so great to have a desk space big enough for both my wife and I to work at. It’s a long overdue addition to our home. As a woodworker and furniture maker I think there is a ton of value in taking the time to make personal pieces from time to time. It gives you the opportunity to explore unique ideas, and to see how different joinery, construction methods, and designs fair over time. I’m really excited to see how this desk ages.

Thanks for following along on this build.