Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:52 Flattening the Back - In depth on Uradashi 00:19:42 Shaping the Bevel - Sharpening 00:22:59 Fitting the Dai - The Plane Body 00:32:09 Tuning the Bottom - The Plane Body 00:44:16 The Chip Breaker - Uragane 00:50:26 Fine Tuning, Troubleshooting, and Use 00:57:22 Final Thoughts Help support my channel through the following links: Cow Dog Merch (Hats and Tees): www.cowdogcraftworks.com/store For international merch orders please e-mail me directly through the website. Books that I find helpful and instructive on Japanese Woodworking: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks/list/1D7RACW0KO8NL?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfcowdogcraftworks_0JEE9NVZZP610BA23FQQ Dale Brotherton's Sharpening and the Japanese Hand Plane in Depth: hidatool.com/item/2620 Books in Japanese: Help You Understand Japanese Woodworking Planes: shop.kurashige-tools.com/en-us/products/new-help-you-understand-traditional-japanese-planis Help You Understand How To Set Up Japanese Woodworking Tools: shop.kurashige-tools.com/en-us/products/famous-japanese-woodworking-planes Accessible Japanese tools on Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks/list/2M7FE6DH0V4Q6?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfcowdogcraftworks_8Q2NYP8W84XFRW4C6K6T Sharpening supples available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks/list/2HMI0XMUARCTS?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfcowdogcraftworks_8Q2NYP8W84XFRW4C6K6T The Real Milk Paint Company's Impressive line of finishing products (Special Affiliate Link): www.realmilkpaint.com/ref/cowdogcraftworks/ For 10% off use coupon code: cowdogcraftworks -Starbond CA Glues (Special Affiliate Link): bit.ly/3A6I5h8 For 10% off use coupon code: cowdogcraftworks Support Japanese Craftsmanship in America and purchase planes and blades from Suzuki Tool: suzukitool.com/ If you want access to more tools, check out my amazon storefront: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks //Follow along: IG: instagram.com/cowdogcraftworks/ X: twitter.com/cowdogcraftwork Facebook: facebook.com/cowdogcraftworks Website: www.cowdogcraftworks.com
I believe I linked it in the right corner of the screen in an info card but Jim Blauvelt’s lecture from the Maine Japanese woodworking festival gives a great run down of the chip breaker.
How can any of us thank you enough for your generosity in sharing your (excellent) knowledge on this very tricky and controversial subject. This is most definitely a reference video on the subject. You have taken all the necessary time to show us the ropes- that is in a fashion only second to travelling to Japan itself for a master course. Through my several hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of watching RUclips videos of all sorts, from around the world, I have noticed that it's a big fashion to display your Japanese tools. I find this almost vulgar. Japanese tools are part of its culture, which is steeped in time, and there is a very ancient tradition and philosophy on how to prepare and use these tools. You DON'T just pull out your wallet, and put Dollars on a counter, and think you've done the trick. I'm actually a 66 year old cabinet maker and furniture restorer, and I got interested in Japanese chisels and saws- quite a while ago, but never scared to venture as far as the planes. Now I am curious about adopting this tool, even if I will continue to use my European and English planes (antique Stanley, Record, Norris, and also the modern Veritas (Canadian actually)). Here in France where I live, import taxes are insanely high, so a supplier has to charge extremely high prices. If we purchase abroad, the parcel is taxed at an even higher rate. I have a couple of questions please. I've never seen honing done on a steel plate (except the famous diamond plates that even the Japanese are now using). Wouldn't these be deformed by honing such hard steel as these plane irons? Can you recommend a model (not block plane size, but much larger and longer, for smoothing work)? I would like to start with a 60 mm blade, to work up to a 100 mm. Or maybe it's wiser to start with a block plane size. Once again, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. Greetings from France.
Wow so… thank you for your very kind words. They are very well taken and appreciated. To your point: kanaban (steel lapping plate for powders) are very antiquated and candidly using them with low grit powder as I did here is a great way for them to get out of whack pretty quickly. From speaking to experts and friends it’s not really recommended to use a grit lower than 10,000 on them to maintain their integrity. With that being said… you can also flatten them much in the same way you would flatten a stone. If you have money to burn diamond resins like the “diamond stones” from naniwa are an excellent replacement for these. As for your question on a plane to use, there’s plenty of excellent smiths: Yamamoto, Funahiro, Mizuno, etc. I do concur that something in that 60 mm range is great. I did my finishing work for a long time with a 60 mm and it served me quite well. Also if you do the chip breaker trick that I do you’ll lose a couple mm width so just be mindful of that.
Hi, if you're in France, you can order from Dieter Schmidt who has the veritas lapping plate ( about 40 euros when I bought it). In the UK, workshop heaven started recently to produce one which looks bigger (I didn't check since I already have one) and pricier. I learned the same technique, using the slurry of a 1000 grit stone. Others would use more aggressive stuff...or directly a diamond plate.
Thanks a lot for this excellent and instructive video. I know this subject as an amateur and own khana's. This fact that this traditional tool is 80 % ready and that you have to fine tune it is very unusual for most of people but what a pleasure when you succeed to get a decent shaving. What a silky surface, incredible. Your 59 mn so instructive video is a great help for those which may have some interest on japanese hand plane. Congratulations and thanks again for your time and experience sharing.
Gonna be honest, when Google recommended this video when I searched for "japanese pull plane blade squareness" and I saw it was an hour long I thought "naw" but holy cow this was helpful! I knew there was some finishing work needed for the planes (I messed up my first one just winging it from info on Amazon reviews), but this video really presented everything in a clear and approachable way. I love that it's taking the same plane through the entire process and that everything needed a little touch up so we could get it all in a "one take" kind of view
Hi, I live in Hokkaido and just purchased one and realized I do not know how to set it up and your detailed video was the perfect tutorial. Thanks much!!!
Thank you so much for making this video! I have been curious about starting to use Japanese hand planes and this is such an amazing resource especially since I'm not close to anywhere that hosts in person classes on set up of these tools.
Thanks for watching. Like I said in the video… definitely pick up the literature. I believe that the literature combined with the video will be a very powerful resource for most.
@@ellinwoodworksI’ve actually got the brotherton book linked in the description and pinned comment. Unfortunately for my wallet it’s not an Amazon link 😂 but it’s available at Hida tool online. I believe I also added the Japanese books as well but those come from a store in Japan.
just waiting for my first japanese plane to arrive had no idea you have to do the setting up stuff .so glad i watched this ,thank you so much for sharing cant wait for plane to arrive many thanks
Wow Chris, this is a comprehensive guide to setup a Japanese plane. I took so much information from it. Thanks a lot. BTW: After watching your video I have ordered a Japanese plane ;-)
This is incredibly detailed and very valuable information. I watched this video as soon as it was posted and you inspired me to sharpen that kanna I bought in Maine last year. A couple hours later and it's making nice shaving. Thanks buddy!
Thats what I desperately needed.... Thanks a lot for this detailed guide. I bought 2 "entry level" japanese Planes last week and now i know how to properly Set them up ❤ this is goin to be a Blast, cant wait for them to arrive 😊
Really nice work. This is by far the best one on setting up the Japanese plane. A jem of a video. Going against the grain with western or Japanese blade is the same. All about the sharpness and cutting angle. So for people saying you can’t do this or that with Japanese plane (or western), all of those have been done or been done for decades by people on all kinds of lumber. My only problem with Japanese plane is the availability of one in US (for a reasonable price) made of the right wood to make sure that it doesn’t fluctuate too much between the winter and summer.
Thank you. So for the most part they’re almost all either made from Japanese white oak (kashi) or Japanese red oak (hon akagashi). I do know a guy that lives in Canada that cuts his own dai from Osage orange. Suzuki tool is a great resource for getting Japanese tools in the states. Thanks for watching. ❤️
It dents the iron and displaces it which causes the hard steel’s shape to change. Also the hammer is not sharp. It’s a cross peen that is rounded and polished. Closer to a planishing hammer.
great presentation Chris, you're hired ! Your passion for this subject really shows through in this video, terrific tutorial and ending with superb results,,,,,,excellent stuff as always, thanks for putting in the effort
Thanks for watching Roger! My hope is to have this be more of a standing reference to give people some visual accompaniments to the instructive literature out there, hence the very clear chapter system. Thanks as always for your support. It’s fellas like you that keep me rolling through the sharing part of this journey.
@@CowDogCraftWorks you're welcome, I've just watched the build for your father in law too , that looked great after having to make a bit of on site tweaking. I bet he was pleased ,, nice one as we say in England
Glad I could help! I created pretty distinct chapters with links in both the pinned comment and description to help with reference for certain issues. Let me know if you have any further questions or need additional points of clarification.
This was a awesome video, a great companion to Odate and Brotherton's books. I feel more confident after watching this. I just got two beautiful block planes from Suzki-Ya. I decided i want true the soles on sandpaper on a glass plate. And a card scraper to relieve the hollows, After watching your and another video on RUclips. Because im familiar with the process and i already have those tools. But I also plan to oil fill them to stabilize them. And im not sure if i can set the blade and true the sole then oil fill after without it shifting or warping. I want to oil fill after because the oil might clog the sand paper. I just purchased them and live in Indiana. Thanks Tim
My only caution with a card scraper is the flexibility across its length. You want to make sure the relief is even across the full width of the block. I wouldn’t worry about oil clogging your sandpaper. Once the oil cures in the block it’s a bit of a non issue.
Thanks for this amazing video. I have a question. In case I scraped too much material from the body and the blade is loose, how can I adjust it? Is it possible to bend the pin?
It is possible to bend the pin but it won’t fix the fit issue. Some people will glue paper to the bed… like brown craft paper and scrape that to fit. I’ve also seen people oil the blade heavily then put epoxy on the bed and fit the blade in the body… let it cure… then remove the blade. I’ve never done that myself so do it at your own risk. 😂
I have a variety of stones but my low grit stones 3000 and under are nsk diamond resins. Not particularly practical from a cost perspective but they do cut very fast.
@@CowDogCraftWorks Those are expensive indeed, but resin bonded diamond stones are great. Fast cutting speed and flatness of diamond stones but the feel of a waterstone.
@CowDogCraftWorks Ive been following you guide to setting up my Japanese hand plane. I finished today and when I try and plane my wood. The plane cuts in to the wood and gouges it. Making it hard to move or getting stuck. I flatten the chipbreaker, with the gouging i the wood chips stuck. The only thing I didnt do was use the scrapper since I dont have anything. What am I doing wrong?
Could be a few things. For starters it sounds like your depth of cut is too deep. The blade should barely protrude from the body. If you’re sighting down the bottom toward the mouth it should resemble a thin hair at the mouth. You should be able to take effective passes first without the chip breaker.
@@dirdick43 also the other kiwa tips that were given to me was to open the mouth up a little further than you would with a smoother and the surface at that hole needs to be as smooth as you can get it in both directions. Any little splinters or choppy spots will cause shavings to hang up and jam. With all this being said… kiwa at any size are notoriously fussy.
Desmond King includes some details on setting up a kiwa kanna in his book “Shoji and Kumiko Design: Book 1 The Basics.” The first third of the book is all about setting up kanna.
I got mine from a friend but any steelyard or metal supplier will be able to cut you off a piece of steel. The key is that it needs to be a mild steel that is soft. That chamfer was peened over with a genno. It has to be soft enough to be able to absorb the energy of the strike and not reverberate and cause a crack.
This is the process for setting up a new plane… so… if you’re setting up a lot of new planes… that’s kind of your answer. But practically speaking what you’re referring to is the maintenance aspect. You dont need to tap out often. I believe in the video I mention that you only do it when your ito-ura gets wasted away from sharpening the bevel and you end up in the hollow itself. That takes a while… it depends on how much you sharpen and how much you work. I’m a fairly avid hobbyist and I’m tapping out maybe once a year as a maintenance measure. What you will do more often is tune the bottom of the dai itself, but once that’s established it’s a couple swipes here and there. Three points of contact is harder to maintain but a standard two points of contact smoother doesn’t take much to keep running. If I’m planing a lot and for a while I’ll have a couple planes set up and I’ll check the bottoms periodically because of humidity changes through the day. But any actual scraping is minimal at best.
The japanese planes are more specialized than your Stanley smoother which is fixed at 45 degrees, the 45 degree is a good compromise but a compromise nevertheless. That said, nowadays you could get different angle frogs so no big difference there. It's just people still have their old mindset. To be fair, for a DIYer, a softwood kanna on amazon is probably not going to work as well as their metal body planes on his/her maple edge trims.
The issue I’ve found with the Amazon planes is the poor quality of the chip breaker. The blades and the body are generally acceptable, although not of the same quality as something like what I’m setting up in the video. But your point is certainly well taken. I know for me personally as a woodworker and not a machinist… I can better dial in a wood body and adjust it as necessary… than lapping a steel body or trying to lap a frog’s bottom to ensure perfect mating parts. I have an excellent Stanley bedrock 604 that was restored by Mark Webster… and I was very happy to pay him to do all that detail work in metal that I had no desire to do.
Video Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:52 Flattening the Back - In depth on Uradashi
00:19:42 Shaping the Bevel - Sharpening
00:22:59 Fitting the Dai - The Plane Body
00:32:09 Tuning the Bottom - The Plane Body
00:44:16 The Chip Breaker - Uragane
00:50:26 Fine Tuning, Troubleshooting, and Use
00:57:22 Final Thoughts
Help support my channel through the following links:
Cow Dog Merch (Hats and Tees): www.cowdogcraftworks.com/store
For international merch orders please e-mail me directly through the website.
Books that I find helpful and instructive on Japanese Woodworking: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks/list/1D7RACW0KO8NL?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfcowdogcraftworks_0JEE9NVZZP610BA23FQQ
Dale Brotherton's Sharpening and the Japanese Hand Plane in Depth: hidatool.com/item/2620
Books in Japanese: Help You Understand Japanese Woodworking Planes: shop.kurashige-tools.com/en-us/products/new-help-you-understand-traditional-japanese-planis
Help You Understand How To Set Up Japanese Woodworking Tools: shop.kurashige-tools.com/en-us/products/famous-japanese-woodworking-planes
Accessible Japanese tools on Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks/list/2M7FE6DH0V4Q6?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfcowdogcraftworks_8Q2NYP8W84XFRW4C6K6T
Sharpening supples available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks/list/2HMI0XMUARCTS?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfcowdogcraftworks_8Q2NYP8W84XFRW4C6K6T
The Real Milk Paint Company's Impressive line of finishing products (Special Affiliate Link):
www.realmilkpaint.com/ref/cowdogcraftworks/
For 10% off use coupon code: cowdogcraftworks
-Starbond CA Glues (Special Affiliate Link): bit.ly/3A6I5h8
For 10% off use coupon code: cowdogcraftworks
Support Japanese Craftsmanship in America and purchase planes and blades from Suzuki Tool: suzukitool.com/
If you want access to more tools, check out my amazon storefront: www.amazon.com/shop/cowdogcraftworks
//Follow along:
IG: instagram.com/cowdogcraftworks/
X: twitter.com/cowdogcraftwork
Facebook: facebook.com/cowdogcraftworks
Website: www.cowdogcraftworks.com
I also meant to say thanks for the extensive explanation on the chip breaker - way more than I've seen before and very very helpful.
I believe I linked it in the right corner of the screen in an info card but Jim Blauvelt’s lecture from the Maine Japanese woodworking festival gives a great run down of the chip breaker.
And you will also see me in the background of the video creeping around getting knowledge. 🤣
How can any of us thank you enough for your generosity in sharing your (excellent) knowledge on this very tricky and controversial subject. This is most definitely a reference video on the subject. You have taken all the necessary time to show us the ropes- that is in a fashion only second to travelling to Japan itself for a master course. Through my several hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of watching RUclips videos of all sorts, from around the world, I have noticed that it's a big fashion to display your Japanese tools. I find this almost vulgar. Japanese tools are part of its culture, which is steeped in time, and there is a very ancient tradition and philosophy on how to prepare and use these tools. You DON'T just pull out your wallet, and put Dollars on a counter, and think you've done the trick.
I'm actually a 66 year old cabinet maker and furniture restorer, and I got interested in Japanese chisels and saws- quite a while ago, but never scared to venture as far as the planes. Now I am curious about adopting this tool, even if I will continue to use my European and English planes (antique Stanley, Record, Norris, and also the modern Veritas (Canadian actually)). Here in France where I live, import taxes are insanely high, so a supplier has to charge extremely high prices. If we purchase abroad, the parcel is taxed at an even higher rate.
I have a couple of questions please.
I've never seen honing done on a steel plate (except the famous diamond plates that even the Japanese are now using). Wouldn't these be deformed by honing such hard steel as these plane irons?
Can you recommend a model (not block plane size, but much larger and longer, for smoothing work)? I would like to start with a 60 mm blade, to work up to a 100 mm.
Or maybe it's wiser to start with a block plane size.
Once again, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Greetings from France.
Wow so… thank you for your very kind words. They are very well taken and appreciated. To your point: kanaban (steel lapping plate for powders) are very antiquated and candidly using them with low grit powder as I did here is a great way for them to get out of whack pretty quickly. From speaking to experts and friends it’s not really recommended to use a grit lower than 10,000 on them to maintain their integrity. With that being said… you can also flatten them much in the same way you would flatten a stone. If you have money to burn diamond resins like the “diamond stones” from naniwa are an excellent replacement for these.
As for your question on a plane to use, there’s plenty of excellent smiths: Yamamoto, Funahiro, Mizuno, etc. I do concur that something in that 60 mm range is great. I did my finishing work for a long time with a 60 mm and it served me quite well. Also if you do the chip breaker trick that I do you’ll lose a couple mm width so just be mindful of that.
Hi, if you're in France, you can order from Dieter Schmidt who has the veritas lapping plate ( about 40 euros when I bought it). In the UK, workshop heaven started recently to produce one which looks bigger (I didn't check since I already have one) and pricier. I learned the same technique, using the slurry of a 1000 grit stone. Others would use more aggressive stuff...or directly a diamond plate.
Thanks a lot for this excellent and instructive video. I know this subject as an amateur and own khana's. This fact that this traditional tool is 80 % ready and that you have to fine tune it is very unusual for most of people but what a pleasure when you succeed to get a decent shaving. What a silky surface, incredible. Your 59 mn so instructive video is a great help for those which may have some interest on japanese hand plane. Congratulations and thanks again for your time and experience sharing.
Thank you. Very much appreciated. ❤️
Thanks for this video! You are doing a phenomenal job on teaching and explaining these "mystery" planes! :)
🙇🏻
Gonna be honest, when Google recommended this video when I searched for "japanese pull plane blade squareness" and I saw it was an hour long I thought "naw" but holy cow this was helpful! I knew there was some finishing work needed for the planes (I messed up my first one just winging it from info on Amazon reviews), but this video really presented everything in a clear and approachable way. I love that it's taking the same plane through the entire process and that everything needed a little touch up so we could get it all in a "one take" kind of view
This means the world to me. Thank you. I’m very passionate about this craft and the tools and I’m happy you found value in it.
Hi, I live in Hokkaido and just purchased one and realized I do not know how to set it up and your detailed video was the perfect tutorial. Thanks much!!!
Awesome. Glad you found it helpful.
An excellent and very extinsive explenatory on the Japanese plane. It is very well worth it to watch all 59 minutes. Also for a western planer👌
This is awesome to hear. Thanks for watching.
Thank you so much for making this video! I have been curious about starting to use Japanese hand planes and this is such an amazing resource especially since I'm not close to anywhere that hosts in person classes on set up of these tools.
Thanks for watching. Like I said in the video… definitely pick up the literature. I believe that the literature combined with the video will be a very powerful resource for most.
@@CowDogCraftWorks I've got the Odate book on order and will definitely keep an eye out for the other one. Thanks!
@@ellinwoodworksI’ve actually got the brotherton book linked in the description and pinned comment. Unfortunately for my wallet it’s not an Amazon link 😂 but it’s available at Hida tool online. I believe I also added the Japanese books as well but those come from a store in Japan.
Thank you for this video. This is the most in debt easily explained video I've seen about Japanese hand planes.
You’re most welcome. It’s my pleasure to try and help folks out.
just waiting for my first japanese plane to arrive had no idea you have to do the setting up stuff
.so glad i watched this ,thank you so much for sharing cant wait for plane to arrive many thanks
Very excited for your Japanese tool journey
Daaaaaaaaaaang this is the first time everything makes sense and ALL the questions I have had are answered. THANK YOU
That’s awesome to hear. Thank you for watching. 🙇🏻
Great, thorough and easy to understand video. Thank you very much!
Thank you!
Wow Chris, this is a comprehensive guide to setup a Japanese plane. I took so much information from it. Thanks a lot. BTW: After watching your video I have ordered a Japanese plane ;-)
My dude! This is what I like to hear. Be sure to tag me once it gets set up. Would love to see how it goes.
I will show you the result.@@CowDogCraftWorks
This is incredibly detailed and very valuable information. I watched this video as soon as it was posted and you inspired me to sharpen that kanna I bought in Maine last year. A couple hours later and it's making nice shaving. Thanks buddy!
Hell yeah. Yours was a little guy too right?
@@CowDogCraftWorks I think it's 45mm?? It's about the same size as the one your working on in the video
@@JTWoodworks nice! Yeah smaller is faster to set up but there’s definitely not as much room for error.
@@CowDogCraftWorks I know. You said that in the video 🙄😂 Seriously though, the video helped a lot
@@JTWoodworks 🥰
Thats what I desperately needed.... Thanks a lot for this detailed guide. I bought 2 "entry level" japanese Planes last week and now i know how to properly Set them up ❤ this is goin to be a Blast, cant wait for them to arrive 😊
Awesome! Tag me on Instagram or on here when you get them up and running. Love to see it.
I will👍 ill make a reel about it I think. But not a guide 😅 just some visuals
Hell yes
Really nice work. This is by far the best one on setting up the Japanese plane. A jem of a video.
Going against the grain with western or Japanese blade is the same. All about the sharpness and cutting angle. So for people saying you can’t do this or that with Japanese plane (or western), all of those have been done or been done for decades by people on all kinds of lumber.
My only problem with Japanese plane is the availability of one in US (for a reasonable price) made of the right wood to make sure that it doesn’t fluctuate too much between the winter and summer.
Thank you. So for the most part they’re almost all either made from Japanese white oak (kashi) or Japanese red oak (hon akagashi). I do know a guy that lives in Canada that cuts his own dai from Osage orange. Suzuki tool is a great resource for getting Japanese tools in the states. Thanks for watching. ❤️
Thank you this information.
You’re most welcome. Glad you found value in it.
A smooth planed surface is the payoff. The work up to planing is just fun. Excelent work on the video!!
Thank you! Hope it’s an excellent reference source for those looking to break into j tools or those looking to level up to intermediate practice.
Интересно что даёт эти подстукивания острым концом молотка по сточенной части железки?
It dents the iron and displaces it which causes the hard steel’s shape to change. Also the hammer is not sharp. It’s a cross peen that is rounded and polished. Closer to a planishing hammer.
great presentation Chris, you're hired ! Your passion for this subject really shows through in this video, terrific tutorial and ending with superb results,,,,,,excellent stuff as always, thanks for putting in the effort
Thanks for watching Roger! My hope is to have this be more of a standing reference to give people some visual accompaniments to the instructive literature out there, hence the very clear chapter system. Thanks as always for your support. It’s fellas like you that keep me rolling through the sharing part of this journey.
@@CowDogCraftWorks you're welcome, I've just watched the build for your father in law too , that looked great after having to make a bit of on site tweaking. I bet he was pleased ,, nice one as we say in England
@@rogerwoods1351 yeah he was psyched. I think he liked being in the video more than anything to be fair. 🤣
@@CowDogCraftWorks he'll be asking for royalties😂
@@rogerwoods1351 he gets a free shirt every year 🤣
Nice! I’ve been looking for a thorough tutorial on setting up these planes. Thanks!
Glad I could help! I created pretty distinct chapters with links in both the pinned comment and description to help with reference for certain issues. Let me know if you have any further questions or need additional points of clarification.
This was a awesome video, a great companion to Odate and Brotherton's books. I feel more confident after watching this.
I just got two beautiful block planes from Suzki-Ya.
I decided i want true the soles on sandpaper on a glass plate. And a card scraper to relieve the hollows, After watching your and another video on RUclips. Because im familiar with the process and i already have those tools.
But I also plan to oil fill them to stabilize them. And im not sure if i can set the blade and true the sole then oil fill after without it shifting or warping. I want to oil fill after because the oil might clog the sand paper. I just purchased them and live in Indiana.
Thanks Tim
My only caution with a card scraper is the flexibility across its length. You want to make sure the relief is even across the full width of the block. I wouldn’t worry about oil clogging your sandpaper. Once the oil cures in the block it’s a bit of a non issue.
@@CowDogCraftWorks okay I'll be careful of that.
Thanks for this amazing video. I have a question. In case I scraped too much material from the body and the blade is loose, how can I adjust it? Is it possible to bend the pin?
It is possible to bend the pin but it won’t fix the fit issue. Some people will glue paper to the bed… like brown craft paper and scrape that to fit. I’ve also seen people oil the blade heavily then put epoxy on the bed and fit the blade in the body… let it cure… then remove the blade. I’ve never done that myself so do it at your own risk. 😂
Which sharpening stones did you use? Are those the Naniwa diamond ones?
I have a variety of stones but my low grit stones 3000 and under are nsk diamond resins. Not particularly practical from a cost perspective but they do cut very fast.
@@CowDogCraftWorks Those are expensive indeed, but resin bonded diamond stones are great. Fast cutting speed and flatness of diamond stones but the feel of a waterstone.
@@michael.knightso these don’t stay particularly flat between uses. But they cut very very fast. For more flatness the naniwa diamonds are excellent.
@CowDogCraftWorks Ive been following you guide to setting up my Japanese hand plane. I finished today and when I try and plane my wood. The plane cuts in to the wood and gouges it. Making it hard to move or getting stuck. I flatten the chipbreaker, with the gouging i the wood chips stuck. The only thing I didnt do was use the scrapper since I dont have anything. What am I doing wrong?
Could be a few things. For starters it sounds like your depth of cut is too deep. The blade should barely protrude from the body. If you’re sighting down the bottom toward the mouth it should resemble a thin hair at the mouth. You should be able to take effective passes first without the chip breaker.
Great job mate
Appreciate it my dude!
Nice work dude 🙂🙂
Thank you!
Excellent work! I would be interested in any tips for setting up specialist kanna (kiwa, sori, sakuri) you've parsed from those Japanese books...
Actually a quick one I picked up for kiwa recently… not from the book… but get you a luthiers reamer for that side hole.
Thanks for the kiwa tip. I have ongoing issues with mine and I'm the sole guy here using Kannas ... So self learning . thanks
@@dirdick43 also the other kiwa tips that were given to me was to open the mouth up a little further than you would with a smoother and the surface at that hole needs to be as smooth as you can get it in both directions. Any little splinters or choppy spots will cause shavings to hang up and jam. With all this being said… kiwa at any size are notoriously fussy.
Desmond King includes some details on setting up a kiwa kanna in his book “Shoji and Kumiko Design: Book 1 The Basics.” The first third of the book is all about setting up kanna.
Good quote on the whiteboard lol
One of my favorites from the group
Where did you get your “anvil” from?
I got mine from a friend but any steelyard or metal supplier will be able to cut you off a piece of steel. The key is that it needs to be a mild steel that is soft. That chamfer was peened over with a genno. It has to be soft enough to be able to absorb the energy of the strike and not reverberate and cause a crack.
@ thanks for the info, greatly appreciated!
I find this very overwhelming. How often do you need to go through this process?
This is the process for setting up a new plane… so… if you’re setting up a lot of new planes… that’s kind of your answer.
But practically speaking what you’re referring to is the maintenance aspect. You dont need to tap out often. I believe in the video I mention that you only do it when your ito-ura gets wasted away from sharpening the bevel and you end up in the hollow itself. That takes a while… it depends on how much you sharpen and how much you work. I’m a fairly avid hobbyist and I’m tapping out maybe once a year as a maintenance measure. What you will do more often is tune the bottom of the dai itself, but once that’s established it’s a couple swipes here and there. Three points of contact is harder to maintain but a standard two points of contact smoother doesn’t take much to keep running. If I’m planing a lot and for a while I’ll have a couple planes set up and I’ll check the bottoms periodically because of humidity changes through the day. But any actual scraping is minimal at best.
The japanese planes are more specialized than your Stanley smoother which is fixed at 45 degrees, the 45 degree is a good compromise but a compromise nevertheless. That said, nowadays you could get different angle frogs so no big difference there. It's just people still have their old mindset. To be fair, for a DIYer, a softwood kanna on amazon is probably not going to work as well as their metal body planes on his/her maple edge trims.
The issue I’ve found with the Amazon planes is the poor quality of the chip breaker. The blades and the body are generally acceptable, although not of the same quality as something like what I’m setting up in the video. But your point is certainly well taken. I know for me personally as a woodworker and not a machinist… I can better dial in a wood body and adjust it as necessary… than lapping a steel body or trying to lap a frog’s bottom to ensure perfect mating parts. I have an excellent Stanley bedrock 604 that was restored by Mark Webster… and I was very happy to pay him to do all that detail work in metal that I had no desire to do.
“69 degrees… nice”
Niiiice.
'promo sm' 😱