In this series of photos (from our Juniper book), Hideki Nakayatsu turns a needle juniper on its side to work on the apical jin (jin can be either a dead branch or a dead top of the trunk). He is using is a draw knife to carve natural looking grooves in the wood. Though there are other ways to get grooves in deadwood (dremels come to mind), a draw knife is a tried and true old standard. This close up, though far from perfect, shows the grooves a little better. Deadwood naturally cracks and grooves along its length as it … Continue reading Jin & Shari #5: Carving Jin with a Draw Knife