Thread: Japanese kanna info

I believe you have this kanna:

千代鶴貞秀 - 鉋 - 乱菊

The maker has a good reputation but I don't know enough about it to judge its relative quality.

Edit: after a little more research here is another version of the same "Rangiku" plane by the brand Chiyozuru Sadahide. Same blue paper steel but different wood for the dai.

Japan Tool - Planes - "Rangiku" by Chiyozuru Sadahide

Internet searches for "Rangiku" and " Chiyozuru Sadahide" may give other clues. It seems to me like a kanna I'd like to have.

Yep GRadice is right.
CHIYOZURUSADAHIDE 千代鶴貞秀 - YouTube

Some info on the lineage of this name
千代鶴貞秀 - 職人紹介

If you haven't set up a kanna of this pedigree before it might be worth seeking some advice / assistance i've seen some of these high end tools get ruined from the incorrect grinding of the Ura which is a shame since the smith worked so hard to perfect it.

I purchased this with the understanding it was a high end kanna, but just recently someone tried to convince me it wasn't anything special. The makers mid-range kanna. Not to sure of it's true value now. I did a lot of research on the maker and he was considered a national treasure. I don't plan to use it as I have other kanna's that provide excellent results. Thanks for the info so far.

No worries. Chiyozuru Korehide is the probably the national treasure but all of them are/were very talented indeed.

I'm considering letting this Kanna go, if there were any interest, please let me know

So yamashita and maybe someone else I can remember dealt some of the makers' blades. I don't know if they did it while he was alive or if they did it with remaining stock after he was deceased.

What's collectible in japan and what's just sold to us as special can be different.

I haven't read Odate's book for a very long time, but I think he eventually got or was gifted one of these "it" planes. By "it", I mean that the target seems to be a moving target in japan or by dealer touting regarding who the it maker is. The value proposition for many seems to be marketing while they're alive at the tail end of their career, almost as if it's a relatable or relationship thing.

European origin folks are the main buyers of all of this stuff now, so maybe we are determining the value.

As far as quality, the variation between a good plane by an unknown maker - one made with care and not just made in quantity with cut blades and relatively thick laminations - the quality is little different between those makers and the "it" makers. it's sort of a curiosity to me as to how a skilled maker and one who becomes the apple of everyones' eye ...how those two diverge at some point. I've had mosaku's planes - mosaku wasn't a $1000 plane "it" maker, but one of later guys doing what appeared to be more work by hand - it was overhard...by a lot. And I've got three kiyotada chisels from different eras. One's overhard, or displays characteristics of it, another is probably a touch underhard, and a later one is kind of on the money.

What I'm leaning toward with this is not discouraging you from selling or anything but rather not to get too immersed in the idea that any of these planes are investments. Two people can give you honest assessments of exactly the same plane and they can be very different. It becomes really difficult, too, as dealers will get twice as much for the same thing as you will. Or more.