Carpenters revive craft of making self-turning tables in central Vietnam

Self-turning tables can now be reproduced by carpenters at an ancient carpentry village in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam.
This was once the traditional product of Van Ha Village in Tam Thanh Commune of Phu Ninh District.
But it had disappeared for decades long before young artisans studied to restore the techniques to make the product.
Without using any ball bearings or metal sheets, the table faces can turn around thanks to their special design.
A big pillar decorated like a flower vase is vertically placed on a joint of three legs below.
The table face is then placed atop the pillar, as illustrated in pictures attached to this story show.
The turning of the face is based on techniques, not magic or wizardry as rumored before.
To make the table face able to turn round with minimum force, a depression must be made at the exact center on its back side to smoothly match with the top part of the pillar of the table.
It still requires some more tricks and secrets that were not revealed by carpenters to make the table face sensitive to a minimum force, such as the placing of human palms on it.
Before, it was rumored that the table face turns clockwise if one or more people place their palms on it for three seconds, and it turns counterclockwise if palms are placed upward on the table face.
In short, placing either side of your hands is the force needed to make the sensitive table face turn around, and determining the direction is based on the psychological factor of the people impacting it.
Restoring ancient carpentry techniques
Senior carpenter Dinh Tham, now in his 90s, is credited as the authentic restorer of the ancient wood tables of Van Ha Village.
The village, which is believed to have been established in the 14th century, produced wood tables of this design centuries ago, and the last one was made 70 years back.
However, Van Ha carpenters at that time did not know that the tables could turn around by placing hands on it.
The fact was randomly uncovered by users in the 1990s when the techniques of creating the tables had faded with the passing away of skilled carpenters.
Then, they were rumored as magic self-turning tables.
In 2012, Tham was asked by clients to repair two ancient tables his father had made decades earlier. Tham managed to discover how to make the tables turn around.
He transferred ‘the technology' to the two most experienced young carpenters in the village, Pham Mien and Tran Ngoc Tuan.
Currently, they can create new tables, with new wood pieces, with turning table faces. Before, it was believed that only ancient timber could make it turn around.
In 2013, Tham and his young artisans introduced their products at an exhibition in Tam Ky City of Quang Nam Province.
Now, the turning tables of Van Ha Village are well known across the nation and many families wish to own such a table made with ancient techniques, even though they are much more expensive than a normal one.
New self-turning tables are presently carved with complicated decorations.
Tham said that all self-turning tables that were advertised as magical ancient furniture were produced by Van Ha carpenters. The oldest such table left till now is over 200 years old.
This was because the special design was owned by Van Ha carpentry village, he added.
Tham and his colleagues in Van Ha have sold dozens of tables across the nation.
Le Van Chuong, vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Tam Thanh Commune, admitted that the restoration of the tables is thanks to the contribution of Dinh Tham and other skillful carpenters in Van Ha.