RWW 34: A Tansu Exploration

This week I take a look at my latest obsession: Japanese Tansu. I am working on a small Tansu box right now and I wanted to share some of the insights and research I have come across during this build. I really just start to scratch the surface of all that can be said of this style, but hopefully this will be enough to spark your interest and have you take a look at a very different style of woodworking.

Since I can’t cover it all, here are some of my favorite links for Tansu:

Green Tea Design: a great site for some images of Tansu and different types. Also some stylistic thoughts.

Contemporary Tansu: Robert Freemond’s beautiful designs

Hida Tool: a great source for Tansu Hardware

Lee Valley: economical source for a wide variety of Tansu hardware.

An Amazon search for Tansu yielded some great books, the first being the Heineken book I mention in this episode.

Finally, check out this blog series at Dorset Custom Furniture about a Step Tansu design.

Oh yeah and anyone who didn’t get my opening comments this week, go out and rent a copy of Better Off Dead at your local video store and get back to me.