How to Use a Japanese Plane 1: How to Set the Blade

**ObairLaimhe** · 16th February 2013, 08:30 AM

yes here you see how far I got today.. I do see an increase of pencil carbon.. however as I continue scraping that away I am getting the blade edge closer and closer to the mouth. Right now I am about 1 mm from the mouth.. so I think I should stop and work the sole a bit. It is flat but needs to be hollowed for the 3 points of contact.

I think when I posted last.. the blade was hung up mostly near the mouth.. Your post gave me the courage to continue! in the photo you can see the brighter edge along the mouth.. this worries me a little as I hope there is not undue pressure if I were to advance the blade.. it tells me there is a slight ridge a few mm back from the mouth.. however if I remove this further I think the blade will be too loose. I had to glue paper into an old nearly worn out kanna.. but I don't want to have to do that to this very nice new one. However learning via internet, I'll do what I need to do.

As I said before.. it works well.. so maybe that is coming from zero experience with a well tuned kanna!.. I have been testing it a little and I do find that fine adjustment is getting easier. When I really had to punch the blade down of course it cut but now I can back it out more easily and get a rather fine shaving. #Most of my kanna experience is Shihou Sori Dai Kanna, or rounded, convex planes.. alot more forgiving.. so I feel better about this one. #100_1120.jpg

**Gadge** · 18th February 2013, 08:21 AM

ObairLaimhe,

It looks good to me. I think the brighter edge along the mouth is where the blade bevel is not touching the bed. I'm sure you will already know what I'm about to say but just in case: make sure you condition the sole with the blade and chip breaker in place (backed off a fraction) as the sole bows out in front of the blade when the blade is tapped into place.

Regards,
Gadge

**Naugas** · 19th March 2013, 08:32 PM

One thing I've never seen mentioned anywhere is how you adjust for blade wear on these Japanese planes? Since the blade sits directly in the body I guess you must thin the blade and grind the top surface?

By the way, is there any kind of Japanese plane where the blade is hold by a wedge?

**ObairLaimhe** · 21st March 2013, 06:12 AM

Yes, the blade is sharpened much like a western blade.. (but NOT on a power grinder!) however the long term care of a Japanese kanna blade is more involved.. such as carefully tapping part of the blade to push more useable surface area into position. That is called "tapping out". Look for threads here or videos on youtube such as "sharpening kanna blade"

As for wedges, the two most common kinds of kanna are either with a -wedge shaped- chipbreaker or without. The chipbreaker does wedge into place, however the plane can still be used without it. The friction that holds the main blade in place is created by the tightness of the slot in the plane body.. not the pressure of the chipbreaker. #

in my posts here and photo you can see that I was trying to determine how far to go in loosening the place for the blade.. and the concern, I think, is with not loosening too much and creating a useless plane-body or "dai" as it is called.

BTW, I am a beginner to the world of kanna and found much information here as well as Toshio Odate's book on Japanese tools and their use.. I routinely get this book from my local library as questions arise.#

**NeilS** · 22nd March 2013, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by Naugas

One thing I've never seen mentioned anywhere is how you adjust for blade wear on these Japanese planes? Since the blade sits directly in the body I guess you must thin the blade and grind the top surface?

Naugas, if I understand you correctly, your question is how do you keep the blade protruding through the bottom of the kanna as the blade becomes shorter from repeated sharpening. You need to periodically repeat the process that ObairLaimhe is undertaking.

Don't thin the steel in your precious blade to keep it protruding, instead remove a little more wood from your less valuable plane body (dai) to keep your kanna cutting.

You often see second hand kanna that are split around the mouth from hammering the blade to get sufficient protrusion instead of going to the trouble of re-adjusting the dai. The top of the blades in those kanna are often also mangled from this practice.

**Naugas** · 23rd March 2013, 01:32 AM

ThankS NeilS, that's exactly what I was wondering about!

I'm in the process of making a small plane out of an old chisel, and I guess I know enough to get started now at least. A very good and informative thread at the whole, and many thanks to ObairLaimhe too of course!

**snikolaev28** · 23rd March 2013, 07:28 PM

Try to see this youtube channel. I found that is very valuable for me as for kanna novice user. Sumokun - YouTube
Especiall because Sumokun can answer your questions.

**Sheets** · 27th March 2013, 06:06 AM