Japanese Planes

[Philly]

Hey All,
Just recieved a Japanese wooden plane today from Tilgear. I have never used this type before-has anyone got any advice on set-up, tuning, etc. ( or useful links?)
regards,
Philly

 

[Gill]

Hi Philly

That's a nice gloat . Let us know how you get on with it. In the meantime, I found these links that might be useful:

http://www.shokunin.com/intro_planes.htm

http://japanwoodworker.com/page.asp?content_id=2659

Yours

Gill

 

[Alf]

Philly,

I take my hat off to you; you're braver woodworker than I I think Gill's nailed a couple of excellent links there. IIRC FWW did an article on them a while back, but nothing that isn't already covered in those two pages. I came across a picture on one site that I just had to share btw; now that's a shaving! If you want help from the experts, try WoodCentral. Pam Niedermayer and Wiley Horne are both enthusiastic Japanese tool users and know heaps. Pam's even been on a dai making class, and won the class plane-off! :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Philly]

Gill, ALf,
Thanks for the links and advice-much appreciated!
Typically, I found a great article in a Fine Woodworking book at home, the bench tools one.
Had a play with it on the weekend, it's somewhat different to the planes I am used to. You pull the plane toward you, as with Japanese saws, and this is a little strange. Got the hang of it quite quickly though. You set the iron by hitting the body with a hammer-at the back to decrease the cut and the front to increase. Interesting! (you won't see me hitting my Cliftons and L-N's with a hammer!) Didn't take long to suss it out though. The plane body needs a little work to fit the iron-only dissapointment I found was that the mouth of the plane was cut quite generously. I wanted to use this for final smoothing, not a lot of chance with a wide mouth. Took some pretty fine shavings though (although not with Purpleheart and its twisty grain!!). I'm thinking of making a Krenov style wooden plane, and the iron from this Japanese one would be perfect-it is Huge!
I'll post some photo's shortly.
Thanks again,
Philly

 

[Philly]

Update Alert!
O.k., spent some more time with the new plane-once the blade is set right it stays there and the plane cuts sweetly. The mouth is quite wide, as I said previously. This is a pity as this limits this planes smoothing usefulness to straight grained timbers. Maybe I should try one of the Gordon planes?
Have posted some pics as promised-take a look!
Once again, thanks for the advice,
Philly
http://groups.msn.com/ukwoodworking/han ... otoID=1311
http://groups.msn.com/ukwoodworking/han ... otoID=1312
http://groups.msn.com/ukwoodworking/han ... otoID=1313

 

[Drew]

Philly
the cut looks great, the shavings look great. But I dont think I could get the hang of pulling a plane towards me. :wink:

Drew

 

[Alf]

Nice 8)

 

[chiba]

Here's a forum lurker who should decloak at this point. 8) The best reference I've found in English on this is here:

http://www.dick-gmbh.com/gebrauchsanw/Japanische_Hobel_Kanna.asp

You may to retry it a couple of times as it seems a bit flaky. Anyway, bottom line is that you're in for a fair bit of hard graft, but the results are well worth the effort.

 

[Philly]

Chiba,
Thanks ever so much for the link-a great article!
regards,
Philly
p.s. Feel free to de-lurk whenever you want!