Firstly, apologies for using this (UK)terminology (setting-out), as I'm from a joinery background: we think this way.
However, a few or more years ago I built a Japanese teahouse with the help of a Japanese carpenter from Tokyo, who actually was a finishing carpenter who had worked in the Imperial Palace
(sic) and worked for the main Tokyo building carpentry company.
One thing I must say before I go on, is that this carpenter who didn't speak English, and I got on very well: we had a common language: our craft. He gave me his tools (chisels, saws, square,
hammers,etc: but not his ink-line which was inherited from an architect forbear) when he left our job.
The hammer is the best tool I have, bar none. I think of him most times I use it, and the planes he gave me too. The little wooden finishing plane (burnishing) beat a Mathieson on a bench test with a friend, for finishing.
But what I want to get down to is the method of marking out, based on centre-lines.
I have used this since on all my oak-framing, using "nodes" crossing centre lines with trigonometry. (I establish a line in the "beam" then square off it) Then I use offsets/scribes. It's damned accurate.
I take it others must do this, but I don't hear of it: do you guys use trig? I guess you must do but there's not much information here.
