Cheap Kanna planes...worth a punt?

[Bodgers]

Anybody tried the cheap Senkichi brand Kannas?

I wanted to try some Kosegi at some point, but don't want to invest a fortune to start with so I am after the widest possible plane I can find for a reasonable price.

I found a 70mm Senkichi on Amazon/eBay for around £100. The blade is described as 'carbon tool steel' and looks to have the obligatory Japanese characters stamped in it with a patina, of sorts. Obviously, this isn't going to be close to a true white steel blade (upwards of £300) hand made by some master in Japan, but will it be good enough for taking a wide full width shaving?

The other alternative would be to be a used blade (of unknown origin) of the same width (I've seen some for around £130) and build the body...

 

[pgrbff]

A bit late I know but if you haven't found them yet there is a wealth of information available on the Japanese Woodworking Tools, Techniques and Interests FB group.

 

[D_W]

wanted to try some Kosegi at some point, but don't want to invest a fortune to start with so I am after the widest possible plane I can find for a reasonable price.

I found a 70mm Senkichi on Amazon/eBay for around £100. The blade is described as 'carbon tool steel' and looks to have the obligatory Japanese characters stamped in it with a patina, of sorts. Obviously, this isn't going to be close to a true white steel blade (upwards of £300) hand made by some master in Japan, but will it be good enough for taking a wide full width shaving?

The other alternative would be to be a used blade (of unknown origin) of the same width (I've seen some for

It's probably white 2. if someone made an ideal white 2 plane, I don't think the average person could tell it from white 1 (I couldn't).

At any rate, very few of the japanese planes are actually made by hand the way people think of "made by hand". They're mostly prelaminated material and clipped/cut by presses and dies. There are probably a whole lot of 300 quid planes like that.

I'd give that one you're pointing to a try if you're interested in japanese planes. I see them on amazon here in the states in 65mm format for $68. There's no reason they can't be a good plane at that - with the blade cut out of prelaminated material (unless someone is squashing them together in a factory) and using a machine cut dai.

With some luck, they'll be a touch soft vs. planes that need to be tempered back.

I have had planes from $60 to $800. The biggest faults with the really cheap ones have been geometric in nature, but all held an edge fine. Some of the expensive hand forged planes were overhard and chippy. The planes a step off of that hardness level were actually much nicer to use (less unexpected blade failure).