Newbie wanting Help finding japanese tool supplier in australia

[NewLou]

Gidday, could anyone help me find some australian suppliers of japanese handtools. I'm interested in buying a kebiki (japanese marking guage) and handsaws. any advise tips and places to check out would be appreciated...................thx

[Grunt]

There are several places that sell Japanese saws in Australia. Carbatec with branches in most states sell them as do Timbecon in WA. Here is the URL for Timbecon. (http://www.timbecon.com.au/products.asp?catid=12657&parentid=12471) Sadly Carbatec's website (http://www.carbatec.com.au) doesn't have the saws on them however they do sell them.


Grunt

[derekcohen]

I was unable to obtain a mortice japanese marking guage at Carba-tec. This one clamps with a screw lock. They now only stock the wedged marking guage.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[NewLou]

Thanks for that fellas have spent the last hour browsing the sites you recommended :-) i'll let you know how I get on.........................

[DanP]

Vic Carbatec have the full range of Japanes tools on the site.

Carbatecvic Jap tools (http://www.carbatecvic.com.au/shop/customer/home.php?cat=87)

Dan

P.S. Postage to Wagga from Melbourne should not be much different than Sydney.

[NewLou]

After a lot of looking about at suggested sites and browsing the net I've finally found something that caught my eye.................what do you guys reckon?? only thing is I think it will cost just as much to have it shipped over here :-(


http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=15.255&dept_id=12157

[derekcohen]

Newlou

That is the very marking gauge I was looking for early this year. Tried Carba-tec, to no avail (although they did have one in their catalogue). They checked for supplies elsewhere, but no dice. So I looked at alternatives (as well as reviews of similar gauges).

Two options locally: the first is that you can get a similar gauge (that is, it uses a knife rather than a pin to score lines - which is better when marking across the grain), one made by Crown. OK, it is not a Japanese marking gauge but it is essentially the same design. The second choice is the path I finally took. That is to buy the Veritas wheel marking gauge. http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=&ccurrency=3&page=42440&category=1,42936
This cuts a clean line across the grain, and is easily used one-handed. This is fantastic value-for-money. A much higher quality version (at several times the price) is the Tite Mark. http://www.lie-nielsen.com/tool.html?id=mark which is available form Mik International or Lie-Nielsen.

Having said all that, I am still taken by the Japanese marking gauges and, should I come up with a decent rationalisation (especially if I find a local supplier), will buy one. Marking gauges are like clamps - you can't have too many!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[NewLou]

Well kept looking about the net and various aussie suppliers. Eventually got my hands on the latest 2004 carba-tec catalogue n there she was page 74 traditional japanese marking guage CAT 1275-001.

At $29.00 (Australian) & a couple a bucks postage and handling I cant go wrong...........................thx everyone for your advise and help

One happy camper :-)

Now I just gotta decide which one I want ......................... Arrrrrrrrr the joys a buying tools!!!!

[jshaw]

Newlou,

This is probably not of much use to you now that you've found a local supplier but, for what it's worth, I bought some planes from Japan Woodworker in the US about 6 months ago. I got good, quick service and would use them again.

Cheers,
John

[NewLou]

Well fellas its been a while down the track. I ended up getting some dozuki z saws. 1 for cross cutting & light ripping (Very short spine) and one for fine joinery (Dovetails etc) which has a spine along the blade. I compared a number of different saws like a traditional dovetail saw (Jack) A fatmax crosscut/rip saw (Stanley) and a Tenon saw (Stanley) None of them stack up against the Japanese pull saws. The wood I tested them on was some really dense & hard blackbutt 45mm thick. At the end of the day i'm one happy camper in regards to my purchase......................Now what to do about a marking guage?? :-)