Building the Daiza

[Smoke]

I have a stone. It needs a Daiza. I will make one for it.

This is how I make them, your milage may vary.

I started with a board of black walnut and traced the stone on the board. Once this is complete I cut out the inner portion with a router. I had some mishaps with router since I bought a new trim router with a super small table on it.

(Note to self, make larger table for router.)

Once the inner portion is complete, make sure the stone fits into the well that is carved out for it. Make sure it fits well, it is hard to go back and trim it once the out line is trimmed. If the stone fits well, make a second line about 1/8 inch from the stones out line. This is the line you will band saw the board to. This will give you the blank in which to carve from.

 

[Smoke]

Now all the work from now on is hand work. I still use power tools but it is hand carving. I first make a groove around the entire edge of the daiza. The bottom edge of the groove is about 1/8 inch from what will become the bottom. This must be as straight as possible.

I use a dremel like hand tool in a rotozip for extra power. I also have a foot switch to allow me to slow the bit down to allow it to cut better. Dremel burrs have very fine teeth and fast speeds just make them burn and not cut. Slow them down and they dig in real good. When making stands I also slow down my router when shaping wood with a solid state speed controller. Anyone using power tools on wood should be slowing down tools when possible to get better performance.

 

[Smoke]

Once this is done taper the edge all the way to the top edge. Make sure to go all the way around the top edge and fit it to the stone with the same margin all the way around. This will make the stone look better when it is seated.

When that is done, fit the stone in the daiza and look for the heavy spots. This will be the spots on the stone with projections from the main body of the stone, or under small hills that may rise from the base of the stone. The objective here is to make sure there is a foot under these visualy heavy areas of the stone.

Turn the stone over and mark out these areas so they can readily seen while carving.

 

[Smoke]

The feet on my daiza are real but there is no wood cut away from between the legs. I just carve away a shadow area between the stone and carry this thinning of the stand sell under the body of the daiza to give the impression that the stand is up on it's legs, while in reality it is sitting on a flat surface underneath.

 

[Smoke]

In these shots, it is easier to see what I am doing with these feet. The shadow areas give the impression that I have cut away more wood than I have.

Now the sanding. Oh how I hate this part. Sandpaper around dowels, marbles, whatever gets me to the part of finishing. After about 4 hours of sanding I am ready to oil the daiza.

 

[Smoke]

Ok on to the stone. I have had the stone for about two years. I was inspired by Victrinia's and Erics post on the stones they have collected and the daiza's they had made.

I was inspired to finish this one up.

The stone is a Karst stone of what I feel depicts the rugged southwest. It reminds me of some mountains seen in Utah.

So here it is all finished.

 

[Smoke]

Here is a picture of the Dolimites in Italy, and some mountains in Utah.

Hope you enjoyed my demo.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

wonderful demo ... very informative and inspirational .... makes me want to get started on making some of my own .... gunna need lots of practice

 

[woodguy]

Nice work Smoke. I really like the way you made the "feet".

 

[Bill S]

Beauty of a stone, and your handy work makes it fit better than a pink thong in the plumbers crack of a bonsai artist. Thanks for the guided tour, another great job Al.

 

[pjkatich]

Another job well done Al.

The stone and the diaza look great together.

Thanks for sharing the diaza making process with us.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[treekutter]

Great Al! I am working on my first daiza very timely. Thanks!

 

[Victrinia Ridgeway]

I'm experiancing extreme stone envy.... srsyl beautiful.... dang.

V

 

[artofthedaiza]

Looks Great Al!

 

[artofthedaiza]

Daizamaking

here are some tools I use to make daizas. The carver is a Foredom and the bits with the burrs on them are called Typhoon bits. They do not burn the wood and remove it fast.
The sander is a Black and Decker Mouse sander and works great!

 

[PaulH]

Very nice. Thanks.
Pretty much the way I make them except for the feet. I plan to steal that idea.

 

[berobinson82]

Google led me back to the forum when researching how to make a daiza. Thanks for the guide, Smoke.

 

[dick benbow]

Smoke would be interested in hearing your comments on tools and procedures when the stone's bottom is not cut flat and you have to deal with that. Do you use an ink paper to mark the spots that need more work?

If you were to quess the cost of all the equipment used here for your demo, could you come up with an approx cost estimate.

many thanks

 

[Tentakelaertje]

Hope you enjoyed my demo.

Yesyesyesyesyes, helps a lot!

Smoke would be interested in hearing your comments on tools and procedures when the stone's bottom is not cut flat and you have to deal with that. Do you use an ink paper to mark the spots that need more work?

many thanks

Bump on this. I'm very interested!