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  Japanese Carpentry

Se-wari Kerfing

When lumber dries it tends to check, leaving unsightly cracks in the wood surface.  This makes the wood unsuitable for Japanese tea houses or sukiya-style residences.  How can you prevent sawn lumber from cracking?  Japanese lumber mills have developed a technique for controlling the checking, ensuring that cracks appear only on the least visible side of the lumber.  This time-intensive technique called sewari kurfing is usually applied to the high-quality wood used in timber frame homes, but it can also be applied to reclaimed lumber and pressure treated lumber.  Read this article to learn more.

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