Traditional Lathes

[Jake R]

Hi everyone,

 

I was wandering if any of you know anything of traditional Japanese lathes, which presumably would have been used when making manju and kagamibuta netsuke.

 

After doing a little internet research, I can only find other people asking the same question, but with few answers. One reference I found seemed to suggest that the lathes used only had a headstock (which would facilitate carving out the bowls of kagamibuta), however I don't know whether these lathes would have more closely resembled pole lathes of Europe, or bow lathes of North Africa and Asia.

 

Any information would be great

 

Thanks

 

Jake

[Yuri]

Copy and paste this into Google images. (translation: Japanese treadle lathe): 日本の足踏み旋盤 . There seems to be mostly treadle lathes, but they also seem to have improved the design by adding another flywheel on the other end of the treadle shaft. One of the pages has a year that I can read, too : http://www.sanhaku.com/pg143.html scroll down. The year is 1875, and the lathe is Japanese.

[Yuri]

Actually, I came across this, too. A type of lathe that as far as I know didn't exist in the West, and the reason is that the technique is somewhat different. Explained in English, for a change.: http://japancraft.blogspot.co.nz/2008/08/japanese-pedal-lathe.html

[Jake R]

Thanks very much, Yuri! Those pages have really helped a lot, and I don't think I would have found them on my own.