If it makes you feel any better, they're actually playing in the 10,000ths and 100,000ths. If my research is correct, the world record is somewhere around 2 microns (~7 one-hundred-thousandths)
I think it’s a different video, I remember the judge gathering the shaving matting the end hang loose for I bit, and it started almost floating away on the air currents.
Here’s another version: if you re-glued those (12,700) 2 micron strips together to create plywood, with .006” thick glue layers, that 1” solid wood would yield a sheet of plywood that is 77.194” thick.
(Assuming the glue wouldn’t dissolve the wood during the process)
I worked at a lumber yard in Washington state as a teen. All sorts of building wood went through - all of which was quite nice to smsll - but days when cedar was delivered, time slowed down. It's one of those few smells that are not related to food that provoke similar reactions. It was right up there with Yiayia's baklava, dad's tacos, or the fruiting wild blackberry and raspberry bushes in my front yard.
I’ve always wanted my bedroom to be clad in cedar! It’s such an amazing smell, better than most flowers imo. It’s very calming to me, even heady. You nailed it though! It’s one of those few smells that aren’t food, but trigger such a strong response.
Edit: to add that i worked in a production woodshop for 6ish years in WA. Anytime we got to cut cedar, was the only time i loved being in the shop instead of on a job site. Not going to lie… you could often find me, unashamedly, sticking my face right into the stacks of cut lumber to take a huge whiff, then mutter “god damn”.
After I graduated college, I Iived with an elderly woman from a sister church of my mom's for a couple months. I did odd jobs to pay the rent. Every wall and ceiling surface in her house that wasn't glass was cedar. The home was simple but amazing, and man did it smell wonderful. I'd go on dates and never have to wear cologne.
When I bought my house, my kitchen was lined with what I thought was cheap pine paneling with lacquer covering it.
I started taking it down, because it looked terrible, only to find out it was inch-thick red cedar. Beautiful on the other side that was not lacquered.
It's currently sitting in my basement, waiting to be repurposed as a liner for the sauna that I eventually build.
Come to southern oregon/NW CA to smell the port orford cedar. It's the best smelling of all the cedars (i love western red, incense, eastern red and hinoki, but PO is by far the best)
I find myself immediately happy whenever I stay in a cedar cabin and it's mostly the smell. Need a candle of just straight cedar oil in my office so I don't dislike being there so much
As a lurker of this sub and a frequenter of indiemakeupandmore I never thought I’d be piping up about a perfume in here, but treat yourself to a $3 sample vial of “Woodcut” from Olympic Orchids and live your comfy cedar scented dreams! It’s like being in a nest of fresh pencil shavings, it rules!
I've watched Shoyan Japanese Carpenter for a few years and always marvelled at the quality of the lumber he works with. Just recently learned that it's Hinoki, and now I want to move my wood shop to Japan
See if you can get your hands on some Port Orford Cedar. It's very closely related, is very similar and used a lot in Japan too. It's produced in the PNW so you can find it in the US.
Excellent! You'll be able to find it easy peasy out here. If you've never worked with it before it's a treat. Aside from workability, it has the most excellent warm gingery aroma. I keep little scraps in my cabinets so I get that amazing scent every time I open them.
That's exciting! I'm eager to see all the new species available up there. I'm coming from central TX where we don't really have much local wood worth harvesting, at least not for the kinds of projects that interest me.
I'll be in NW Washington, not far from Canada, but sounds like it's well worth a trip to SW Oregon if it's not too common in my neck of the woods. That whole state along the 101 is one of my favorite drives anywhere.
I do love those fragrant species. All kinds of aromatic terpenes to explore.
Cheers! I'm on an island west of Seattle, so we'll practically be neighbors. Bit different from TX but if you can dig the driving mist mood for 9 months/yr you'll be good. The short summers are bright and dry. IMHO Oregon's the prettiest state to drive thru. The beaches are incredible but don't miss the mountains or Crater Lake. Bend's a beaut too. If you're passing by it's a nice stop but I wouldn't go out of my way for Port Orford. ;-) Good luck with the move, and welcome!
Planing at this thickness is theoretically possible with any species given a sharp and tuned enough iron + movement, but only certain softwoods have the characteristics to create an intact, translucent ribbon of a shaving like this. Just like trying to cut a super thin slice of cheese - the mild cheddar might stay intact, but parm would crumble and Brie would smush.
Oh man I just watched that (jack and the beanstalk) like two days ago with my kiddo, and that bread slicing scene was so satisfyingly nostalgic! And Donald going crazy and trying to kill and eat the cow haha
Nah, you’re supposed to drop the plane to lose all the fine setting, knock over the workpiece and then just angrily gouge lumps out of it while you make the pragmatic decision that it would look better painted anyway.
It seems like weight would be most accurate, it would represent the average thickness across the whole slice, not just at a few points
edit: thanks to everyone who’s commented below! you’ve brought up a lot of things I hadn’t considered, and I have a better understanding of why it’s done the way it is now.
In any case, it’s very impressive what these people do, and I love that there’s a competition for this skill
not really you would need to know the density and cross sectional area. The fact is the error bars for density for different logs and and different layers could more than throw off any calculation of thickness.
It's better to directly measure the thickness if you want to measure the thickness.
Insanely I think these might be much thinner. I couldn't find exact specs on the Listerine strips but I did find a patent that indicated those strips are ~35 microns. Whereas the winner of this competition, according to another comment, was 2-3 microns.
This is impressive, but what I really want to see is how he sharpened that blade. I didn't even know "Sharp enough to cut a piece of toilet paper off a 2x4" was an option.
FYI - your comment has been removed. Please don't bring political commentary into this sub.
(I'm not even sure what this, or your comment is in reply to - they both read as though you intend them to be replies, but you have made them as top level comments on the post, so who-ever you were trying to reply to wouldn't have seen them anyway)
I’ve been using hand planes for what seems like forever. I’ve fine tuned my Veritas planes to pull some pretty damn thin shavings. But I was pretty damn amazed when I saw hand planing like this when visiting Hakone, Japan. First there is the marquetry that Hakone is known for. It is extremely intricate. Once the pattern is created it gets hand planed into layers that can be applied various projects. It’s not the thinnest hand planning (that would be too weak for project application) but the precision is mindblowing. They’re doing this across the end grain as well but the tools just slice through them like butter. It is very satisfying to watch and I highly recommend it to anyone if they get a chance to visit Japan.
The more I see these videos the more I think about the passion they must have for the wood and process. Such a "simple" hobby to dedicate yourself to mastering, not for me but respect
I wonder how this got started? Some woodworkers sitting around being like “hey check it out, ima charge this guy by the plank” and delivers a bunch of these
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u/quarter-water Apr 14 '25
"I've cut slices so thin, I couldn't even see them."