Kanna Practice

This my fourth post (old post - old post - old post) on my never ending journey to get a grasp on using Japanese Hand Planes.

Two years ago I started out hacking the timber pulling chips not shavings, I progressed to short broken shavings often with lots of tear out. Eventually I could pull shavings but not easily or consistently and often tear out was a bitch. Consistency had proven to be elusive.

So last year I custom ordered a Dai with a 42º bedding angle to fit a 70mm blade, that a repurposed from the first canna I bought whose Dai I FUBARED. Now because a kanna blade is not parallel a 42º bedding angle gives an effective cutting angle of 44.5º.

My logic was to see if increased bedding angle and a new Dai with a tight mouth would give me the advantage I sought in the temperate hardwoods I use.

The Dai arrived arrived two months ago and I let it acclimate (The Dai shrunk amazingly come from Nagasaki to Melbourne in the two months). On the weekend I fitted the blade. I have gotten better at the whole process of adjusting, achieving a more satisfactory result. Tight fitting blade, that is not to tight or loose. I also managed to maintain the tsutsumi without breaking it.

Here is the Kanna Dai, no crossbar and NO backing iron - no need it seems. I conditioned the sole with three contact points.

Attachment 435225

Here is the mouth at about 1mm - I had to open up the mouth because the it was to tight out of the box, I pared the inside leading edge angle of the mouth to 45º, so the shavings run parallel to the ura of the blade.

Attachment 435226

VicAsh

Attachment 435227 Attachment 435228

Rock Maple

Attachment 435229 Attachment 435230

Blackwood

Attachment 435231 Attachment 435232

Quarter Sawn Red Oak

Attachment 435233 Attachment 435234

I can now pull a full-width and full-length shaving in the micron range in a range of hardwoods. I will fit the crossbar and backing iron to see if it helps. However the shape of the mouth precludes the possibility of fitting the backing iron within ~0.1 of the edge of the iron. At best it would be 3mm back from the edge.

The surface finish is excellent on the VicAsh and the RockMaple the Blackwood and Oak was not glossy and would need a swipe with 400 grit before finishing.

Of note the plane no longer works on Cedars sweetly the increase in pitch seems to have compromised the cut.

The pedigree of the iron is unknown its good but cheap iron but I suppose a blade from Super Blue would be better but like the sound of Swedish steel. However I will use this blade for a year and see how I can incorporate Kanna's into my work then maybe I will drop $$$$ on a custom order kanna.

Overall we are moving forward, 分 by 分 :U