Shamisen Blog: Mortise and Tenon

It’s time for the Mortise and Tenon! My long awaited and long practiced adventure I had been preparing for. Cutting out the hole was actually much easier than I had thought. As I got lower in the hole, the hole became smaller ’cause I didn’t chisel straight down, I naturally sloped it inward. Of course, I sloped it waaaaayyy too much but that doesn’t matter at all. I just have to take more out, that’s all. At least it didn’t slope outward in the hole, that is what I was afraid of.

After I got through the hole, I turned the piece around and saw that the wood kinda splintered and peeled. That’s when I made the last strike or two with the chisel pushing out the last bit of wood in the hole, it was still connected to the wood on the other end which made it peel. It’s really hard to describe. I’ll just say that what I shoulda done was at the end before I broke through, I should turned it around to sever the wood from that end.

So I proceded to slowely chisel out the wood so that the rod would fit in snugly. When I got it about an inch from it’s destination, I got it snug enough to where I’d have to rock the Dou back ‘n forth to get it really tight. Unfortunatly, that wouldn’t work ’cause once the Dou is all glued together in a circle, it couldn’t be tightened by wiggling it. No, it’d have to be tight just by pushing it together. Well, to my delight, I got it absolutely perfect at the end! It was real easy to slide in and at the very last millimeter, it tightened down with little force. That was a good mortise ‘n tenon! Unfortunately, part of the hole slid in farther than the other side and when it’d be glued together, the neck would be slanted and the strings would be off the neck. I had no choice but to sand the stubborn end down which lost the whole tightness thingy. Fortunately, on the other end of the body, there will be another hole to where the rod will stick out. I’ll make that tight. Besides, I can also put in a shim to make it tight too.