Kumiko grid

I’ve been intrigued with Kumiko panels for a little while. Read a bunch and looked at some quantities of videos on how to do the different pattern.

One that comes along a whole lot as first patterns the asa-no-ha or the hemp leaf.

I finally took the plunge and got my feet wet and started my first grid work

It is based on the Panel 5 from Matt Kenney’s book The art of Kumiko.

It began with the construction of the jigs that Matt describes in the first chapters, both the angle Jigs and the table saw sled jig.

For the table saw jig, I did adapt to my table saw and chose a spacing of 1/2” for the keys. The variable spacing template also respects that spacing and went to 5 spacing

For the angle jigs, I did the 45, 22.5 and 67.5 degree.

For the grid so far, I only used the sled for the table taw which made it a breeze to cut the grooves or small dadoes and respect the appropriate spacing to make the above grid. Here are the solid piece of wood before cutting the small strips :

Blanks that served up to cut the strips.

The right side block had some errors in them for some of the spacing but was still good to cut for the smaller strips. Just made sure that I did respect the 1/2 inch spacing to make it even with the rest of the grid and make it consistent.

The wood I choose was bass wood. Being a bit softer, it makes it a little bit more forgiving to build the grids and smaller members that makes the internals of the leafs.

I used a flat bottom ripping in the table saw to that when making the grooves/dadoes, I would not see the small triangles, if any wood ever be exposed.

No time to make the internal smaller strips and fill in the squares !