Japanese Tools Catalogue

[Philly]

Hey Team,
I received a catalogue from Dick tools in Germany the other day. There are some wonderful (or is that Wunderbar? :roll: ) Japanese tools in there, as well as L-N, Clifton and others. Well worth a look. Order yours from here:
http://www.dick-gmbh.com/frmain.asp?Ban ... i&Menue=22

Regards,
Philly

 

[chiba]

For the princely sum of 41 Euros, you can get a Japanese plane blade, chip breaker and block of oak, then make yourself a plane. That, by the way, is cheaper that I've seen them in Japan!

 

[Philly]

Chiba,
That is pretty cheap!
By the way, do you know how to close the mouth up on a Japanese plane- on the one I bought from Tilgear the mouth is quite wide ( about 2.5mm). Any suggestions?
regards,
Philly

 

[chiba]

Hmm, 2.5mm sounds like a lot. My big new 58mm bladed plane has a mouth opening (wood to wood) of about 11mm. With the blade seated to cutting depth the opening's only about 1mm. For old, worn planes the wood can be cut out and an insert added, but as yours is new it seems wrong to have to do that. I've read elsewhere (sorry - I forget the URL) that the openings do vary quite a lot, so maybe just get it set up and give it a try? Toshio Odate's book, "Japanese Woodworking Tools", is probably the best reference in English on this. Having just taken a quick look, he recommends a mouth opening of "just wide enough for the shavings", and also mentions adding a hardwood piece. Kind of serious - I'd give it a spin first then think about surgery later...

 

[Philly]

Chiba,
Yes, the mouth is really wide. In use the plane is really sweet-as long as its a straight grained piece of wood. As soon as i try any interestingly grained piece-big tearout! And yes, the blade is set for a really fine shaving.
So, it looks like i need to fit an insert-any ideas?
thanks,
Philly

 

[chiba]

Never done it, so I don't want to give you bad advice and ruin your plane. The other day I came across a dedicated Japanese tool forum where somebody might have, and I thought I had it bookmarked, but of course... :roll: Aha! Got it back...

http://ibiblio.org/japanwood/cgi-bin/ik ... nboard.cgi