Hey Owl,

Thanks for joining us and the comments.
The wax is used to prevent the wood from cracking. Essentially when wood is drying moisture evaporates from the "open ends" more quickly than in the middle, and this often results in the wood cracking. The wax prevents that.
However, I have found it to be largely unnecessary as long as you leave some room for the wood to crack. So, when I cut the wood, I leave a 2+ inch stub between the two frame branches, and later cut it, and make sure the handle is longer than I'll need it and later cut it. By doing this I haven't yet had any branches cracking on the spots I wanted not to crack. However, this could possibly be because I'm in San Francisco and it's not so dry here. At the same time, one of my early branches cracked a little bit even though I had some light wax on it (but did not leave any room for cracking).

_________________
__________________________________________
Tenkara USA, founder
打仁得流, テンカラ大使
About me and Tenkara USA

Ah, alright! I see now. The wax prevents moisture from rapidly leaving via the very end of the thing. But yes, ok....your method of allowing for the cracking makes much more sense. Any time you can eliminate a step out of a somewhat complicated process, it's a good thing. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

Daniel, thank you for this thread, you're an inspiration. Next time I go on a hike I'm looking through the plethora guava trees I pass the perfect local wood for a project of this kind.

_________________
Illegitimus Non Carborundum

Ahnkochee, How do you think the Strawberry guava would work? Have lots of those around.
I was also thinking of trying the Hau bush. I have 2 hiking sticks I made from Hau and they are light and strong.
Stan

_________________
Why let the truth stand in the way of a good fish story.

Wow great stuff! Daniel those nets (and fish) are beautiful. I have built a typical Brodin landing net with the laminated strips of wood bent around to make the hoop but these nets are way cooler. luckily the winter is around the corner and I'll be looking for the perfect branch! Keep you posted.

Corbin

I'm new to all this, but I find the nets really inspiring!

Just to show you what you can do with this simple technology - here are a few pictures of a building I worked on a few years ago with a similar structural system. It is a Mikmaq health centre in Nova Scotia.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/in ... d_id=11560

We used a big steam tube and bent the heated trunks around a wooden jig that was built out of plywood with blocking set at the desired curves. Each set of trusses is different and it's an easy way to make adjustments as you go. The branches were saved and used to make the chords of the truss.

Maybe you could take this technique to your next project?

hi

_________________
Sergey
Vladivostok
Russia

yet

_________________
Sergey
Vladivostok
Russia

Nice Classic, the knotholes will make for great character.

And svdm, welcome to the forum. The use of techniques for making things related to a Tamo are wide ranging. Thats really interesting about the building.

_________________
テンカラのイモリ
Tenkara Mushroom

All,

Little late on this conversation but I very much enjoyed the trip! Lots of great information and I really loved the pictures. You have produced some very elegant works of art and functions!

Truly inspirational!