Ive recently bought a japanese kanna from a hardware store in japan and ive recently noticed its good on pine or softer woods but not on jarrah, marri, etc. what could i do to the plane or what should i look for when buying a kanna for those hardwoods?
Thanks!
Black limba, Spanish cedar and walnut andon kumiko floor lantern. About 4000 pieces total.
I only have one i got used on Ebay that needed work so i sharpened to 25 degrees and a 30 degree second bevel. But not sure if thats best?
Hello!
I got a kanna plane as a gift, and yesterday it was my first time trying to plane anything by hand seriously. Somewhere in the process I noticed that I've already made a chip in the blade. It does leave a small streak when planing.
I assume I need to go get the blade sharpened now? Is the size of the chip something to worry about or is this a normal experience?
Checking the translation on the instructions on the hand plane with Claude, it claims that these are replaceable blades and I should buy a new set, instead of sharpen. But I trust Claude with such niche information about as much as I trust a sketchy fart. I've added the instructions and the brand in the second picture, maybe someone here can make sense of that.
This post backs the claim up though.
So, the question perhaps is a bit more complicated - is it worth trying to sharpen the blade that I have or should I just buy a new one? If it's the latter, not the former, perhaps someone knows where to get them in Europe?
It’s the first plane I ever bought, but I never managed to get it really sharp. I recently figured out the trick to hand sharpening, and it changes everything for me. The shavings coming off of this, and the incredible finish it put on the wood just blows me away.
This started with me trying to find information on Shigehiro and finding the research deeply interesting. I have started building out what is likely the only english source of information on Tokyo chisel makers. Im awating more copies of showa and meiji era wholesaler records which i have ordered copies of and await several books that will will be adding relevant sections translated. You can find the site at tokyonomi.com
I have also mirrored https://www.misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com/dougunorekisi.html and a full english translation. There were several pages i found that have never been crawled. I have not published the mirror for copyright reasons, but if it ever does disappear, it will be available here. I have also mirrored a great many dead geocities pages that are no longer available and backed them up also.
If anyone happens to have any books/ info on the Tokyo chisel cooperative i would be happy to recieve. Any old documents, books even adverts etc i would appreciate anything to add to the database. Im not looking for money, im doing this for my own enjoyment so any information you can give is much appreciated.
Im going to great expense to try to document as much of this as possible as a resource that is available for the future. I have a great many books from the 1890s - 1980s and a great many documents from the NDL library in japan.
I made this bellows for my blacksmithing work.
I'm still learning, so I built it while experimenting with the design.
I made a short video showing the bellows and the inside construction.
If you've built or used bellows before, I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions for improving it.
Here’s a short video showing how it’s built::
Hey if anyone is going to be in the PNW this Saturday, Port Townsend is having a Japanese Woodworking Festival put on by the PT woodworking school. There will be talks, demos and the entire event is free. I’ll be going and doing a talk on apprenticeship realities and doing some quick chisel sharpening demos with some modern techniques I picked up in Japan. Let me know if you will be going and please come say hi.
seems to be a rabbet plane, however the blade seems to be wider than the body, should i grind down the blade? also what else is needed to tune it? do i need to flatten the sole or 2 point contact such as a regular plane?
big chip and it looks like it took the hardened steel, should i do uradashi before trying to remove the chip?
won some planes in an auction, trying to make 1 out of many , found this one, it’s obviously missing the fence, but i can’t think of what that leading tip/blade is doing
I've always loved kanna (Japanese hand planes), so I decided to forge the blade myself and build the wooden body (dai) by hand. This is my own work.
Still learning — I hesitated a lot when marking the mortise for the blade angle, since reading the grain on the side face was harder than I expected.
Full video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/3QChsGD5Op0
Has anyone got any experience making a Dai out of something other than Japanese white or red oak? Especially interested in any timbers not native to Japan, exotics, etc.
Conundrum. I have a mid 20th century Japanese carpentry instructional text book. My first impulse is to reproduce it as a pdf in facsimile, meaning in the original Japanese text. I have not found an online PDF version as of yet. Copyright may be an issue here which leads me to consider Archive for distribution. While I could run the pdf through an online translation service or even, gasp, ChatGBT, online translations have always had difficultly in handling colloquial phrasing.
Hi. I just got Tsunesaburo 60mm plane. Back doesn't have any ura, it is absolutely flat ( I gave it a few strokes ). Do I need to perform Ura-dashi on it?
It is this product: https://www.dictum.com/en/tsunesaburo-smoothing-plane-blade-width-60-mm/718769
Hi everyone. I’m 21, from Italy. I’ve been training in woodworking since middle school (8 years across school and hands on courses) and I’m now in my final year of a specialized technical program (ITS) focused on eco-design. Alongside school, I’ve also worked with high end furniture/fashion brands (Hermès, Promemoria) and had a work experience in Spain.
For the past two years I’ve been trying to find a way into a woodworking apprenticeship or internship in Japan I’ve emailed a large number of companies directly, from very well known names to smaller workshops, and even found a woodworking school in Japan that runs its own furniture making workshop and hires students afterward, but it didn’t work out either.
One thing worth mentioning: through my school, a 3-month internship like this can be arranged so the host company doesn’t need to handle or pay for anything (no insurance costs, no paperwork on their end) my school covers that side entirely. I understand visa requirements can vary, but for a placement this short it’s generally straightforward.
I don’t speak Japanese yet (working on it now), which I know is part of the problem. This year is really my last real shot at making this happen before I’m done with school.
If anyone here has gone through this themselves, works at a company that’s taken on foreign apprentices before, or just knows how these things usually actually happen I’d really appreciate any pointers. Happy to answer questions about my background too.
Hi all I have assembled a Video on my YT channel to show the Foundamental steps to sharpen Japanese Chisels.
This is to both help beginners overcome geometry challenges and professionals to improve their bevels and discover the benefits of natural stones!
Who else loves going Natural?
I would apreciate so much your support in watching my work and there is a little giveaway in the video too! Follow the instructions in the video and be part of it !
Love you all guys Ciao e a Presto!!!
I’ve been working on a scaled down version of the first shoji in Des King’s beginner book for a few weeks now in hopes of wrapping my head around the many components that comprise a single screen. Finally glued and assembled it yesterday!!
Dimensioned via machine but everything else was hand tools (Japanese saws, chisels, gauges and my Stanley 5 1/2)! Only bought one new saw and made a point of abstaining from King’s recommended jigs just to see what I could get by without.
Not quite good enough to earn washi but I’m rather pleased with the end result given I didn’t know how the pieces I was cutting would function half the time.
Didn’t leave enough on the horizontal tsukeko for them to actually enter their mortises but I think even that would have been fine had I remembered to trim down the tenons. Thus, there are some open joints on the back of the rails and a crack on the bottom of a stile.
Not sure if I’ve ever witnessed my self improving in real time but each pull of the saw and strike of the chisel was better and more refined than the one preceding it.
Excited to try again after acquiring a few tools and making a few jigs!
I have a handful of blue-steel Japanese chisels, and have to date, sharpened them on flat stones by hand. I recently inherited a wet wheel sharpener and tried it out on one of the smaller chisels and while it was great for removing a (gasp) chip, it does remove quite a bit of steel. Am I weakening the tool or am I overthinking this? It's much less work, but I also don't get the mirror-level flat bevel that I'm used to.
The wheel is about 4" in diameter. Thoughts?
