Really enjoyed what you have done here. I am a 35 year experienced English furniture maker who has used japanese chisels and water stones all that time but now wants to use japanese kanna. This has been a very helpful introduction. Thank you. david savage
Hey, we were in contact some years ago, want to thank you again for your videos, you are a gift to the international woodworking community. God bless you!
Thanks for watching! Its good to hear that you found something of use and I am humbled that a veteran like yourself could learn something from my videos.
I thought I'd answer here for the benefit of other viewers. The plane is a Miyamoto blade set in a dai by Nimura. I got the blade directly from Nimura-san who had it (and others) in his inventory for a few tens of years. He cut a new dai and put them up for sale so I grabbed a couple. Nimura-san offered to engrave it so I chose "Kou-un Ryusui" which means roughly "going with the flow". He doesn't have any left now apparently but you can find Miyamoto planes for sale elsewhere.
I just "found" all of your videos, and I am working on watching them all. WOW!! I am enjoying them so much! Thank-you for making them, and keep making more.
Thanks for investing a lot of time and providing insights on how to set up a kanna. I just bought my first 2 x kannas yesterday and I will use your vids as my guide!
Sumokun, I bought some kannas in Japan (winter) and brought them back home (Australia - Summer) - should I let the kanna acclimate to the weather for a few days first in my garage where I will be working with the irons installed? I am considering giving the irons a coat of 3-in-1 oil right away.
If the humidity has changed dramatically, then I would leave them for a week or so out in the open before tuning them. I prefer to loosen the irons when leaving kanna to acclimate. Coating the irons in oil on a regular basis is a good idea to prevent rust but try to keep it light otherwise oil gets everywhere.
Thanks for watching! I've gotten a lot of requests for refurbing old kanna so I guess I'll try and push that forward in my list of stuff to do. Hopefully I'll be able to get round to it within a few months.
Greetings from KC MO usa. I watched all the kanna videos and really enjoyed them immensely. Hope you get to doing one on refurbishing used /old kanna. cheers ernie
Hi, thanks for watching! I will definitely do a series on refurbing an old kanna in the future. I can't promise when but its something I've wanted to do for a while now so most likely sooner rather than later.
Ciao Sumokun, I'm Oliver, I like to say i'm glad that there are people (like your self) spending some time to teach people quality information. The reason I'm writing this message to you is that for the last past 3 month I have become obsessed with planers, most of all Japanese one. I have been searching on line (e-bay) for proper second hand Kanna Blades. yet I must say their are a little to hight for me to reach in price. My all idea is to get a good blade and build the body of a planner. My question to you: is there any chance for you to be able to find me a blade good yet still in great shape, with a reasonable price? A blade which has been built in the Japanese traditional way? telling me the cost, and then go from there I live in England, in Hastings, and in my workshop I usually use Oak, Mahogany, Pine, and Teak. Sumokun.... I also like to say if there is specific English tools that you mite be interested, yet difficult to find in Japan.. perhaps I can help you in return. Please let me know Kind regards Oliver
Hi Oliver, I'm glad that there are people like you that find my stuff useful. We all get obsessed with planes at one time or another ;) I should be able to help you find a kanna blade, no problem. I have a load of kanna blades waiting for bodies of all kinds of sizes and quality/condition but I mainly focus on the medium to higher quality stuff because the lower end stuff is generally not worth the extra trouble to fix up and use. I do have some lower end ones which came as extras with some purchases so just let me know what you want and we'll go from there. If you send me a message with your email address, and maybe let me know what your budget is, then I can have a dig around and send some photos/descriptions to you.
Sumokun, thanks for your videos. I am looking for a kanna blade blue steel super or swedish steel. Any suggestion on where to find one at a reasonable price ?
+Marcello Marcantonio Hi, it really depends on your definition of "reasonable price" but you can try looking at the usual Western stores online. I can also get some but because there are so many smiths out there and different quality levels, not to mention "Swedish Steel" actually covers a large family of steels, I would need more information on what exactly you are looking for.
A question for you Sumokun...Is a Japanese rebate kanna set up differently than a square on smoothing kanna? Does the area behind the cutting edge remain shy of the plane of the area in front of the cutting edge? Or is it the same 3 points of contact, ie... leading edge, middle (in front of the cutting edge) and trailing edge?
Hi, that is actually a good question. Although there is no explicit mention of it that I can find, I think the common wisdom is to set the soles on flat planes up so there are 3 points of contact. Personally I leave them either flat or with a very tiny amount of hollowing. Its easy enough to try so I would recommend experimenting and seeing what works best for you.
Hi, ha-ganna are very picky tools. They have to be set up just right and be extremely sharp to work. Making one yourself is not so simple. If I were to do it, I would try and make the blade from a piece of bar steel stock and shape it to the angle you need similar to how Roy Underhill makes his screw thread cutter. Once you have that made, mount it in a body with a wedge like a Western plane. Making it the Japanese way is not recommended unless you really know what you are doing, in which case you probably wouldn't be asking me :p If you wanted to go one step further, I would look into getting a sheet of steel and bending it to form the blade but that would be pretty difficult.
Hi, your English is fine :) I got this plane directly from Mr. Nimura who is a famous dai maker here in Japan. He had the blade in his inventory for about 40 years so he cut a new dai for it and put it up for sale and I bought it.
Amazing videos, incredibly informative. Two questions, what kind of steel is the blade? And where did you get the hinoki stock in your 3rd video? It's impossible to find lol
Hi, the blade is Blue (not sure what number) and the hinoki was found at my local lumberyard. Its probably very hard to find outside of Japan but most people use Alaskan Yellow Cedar or Port Orford Cedar as substitutes in the West. Hope that helps!
Gotcha. yes, makes sense. POC and other quality cedars are produced in small quantities in the states as well. I suppose quality lumber is just hard to get a hold of, oh well. Another question. I purchased a cheap Senkichi kanna about $60 USD. It Performs decently, but I just wanted tohear your opinion. After fiddling around with it for months I've concluded that the steel, although laminated, is cheap, as it will always chip unless I throw a microbevel on it. The dai needs extensive tuning, and as I've purchased 3 of them because I messed up one of them, I've noticed they are manufactured very inconsistently particularly with large mouth openings. They perform well for a few minutes, go dull quickly, chip, and are crudely made. I can see how someone who isn't too picky would find it suitable. But by the same token I can also see how an experienced craftsman wouldn't waste their time with it. Does this all sound about right for cheap kanna? I can imagine a quality blade can hold an edge well on a single bevel, and the dai is made more accurately.
Yeah definitely. "Good" wood is getting harder and harder to come by but there is plenty of usable wood out there so I guess we just have to make do with what we have. Regarding Senkichi, they are a brand aimed at the DIY market and are really quite poorly made, as you have found out. Many people start out and get frustrated with kanna of that level and give up (me included). They can be made to work but that time is better spent on a "real" kanna. Granted the cost of a real kanna is at least double the price of a Senkichi, but if a tool cannot do the job you need it for, it is useless. The biggest problem I have with Senkichi and similar kanna is not that the steel is bad (it is but it can be worked around for a little while), it is that the dai are inconsistently made and along with the poor finish of the blade, it makes for a very difficult to adjust kanna. Setup is everything for a kanna and consistency plays a huge part of that. The badly finished blade and poorly cut dai make for a very wonky fit between the two so it is very hard to get the blade back in the same position after you sharpen it. For rough work it is OK but for finer, high tolerance work, it is simply a pain to use them. I would even take a beat up kanna made for trade professionals over a Senkichi level one. You will get better steel and the dai will need work but at least it will end up being a tool you can depend on.
Thank you so much for that detailed response. That's a big sigh of relief for me. No joke I have spent HOURS honing, removing chips, flattening, polishing, flattening the sole, scraping hollows on the sole and it has left me feeling that perhaps I'm just not skilled enough to use kanna properly. So it's really nice to hear you say that. However, I am glad that I learned kanna basics on cheap Senkichis because I would have died if I destroyed high end kanna like I did to a couple of my Senkichis. I'm totally new to woodworking, and I'm realizing jumping straight into kanna was quite an undertaking, but I've managed. I'm looking into getting my first real kanna on toolsfromjapan.com as they seem to have a nice selection.
Yeah Senkichis and the like are good for playing around with but definitely not representative of a proper kanna. Kanna are a bit more demanding than metal planes but I think if you are starting off with them, you might be ahead of people that are used to metal planes and then make the switch. TFJ does have a big selection but I would personally try looking into other avenues as they pretty much only have Tsunesaburos and they are a little pricey. They're fine but, especially for a first plane, I would look into getting a used one. Kanna are getting pretty expensive now and even though you have some practice with Senkichis, there is still a very real risk of screwing up. If you take your time you should be fine but I would be more inclined to save a new purchase for when you are really confident. If they were cheaper I would go straight to new but at ~$200 a pop for a borderline good quality new kanna, it is quite risky. It all depends on what used kanna you have available to you as well I guess. Good luck in your kanna journey though and let me know if you have any questions :)
Compl33tR4nd0mZ It was all self taught. Mainly reading web sites and books, and watching videos and of course, lots of trial and error. I still have a long way to go before becoming competent at wood working. There are a lot of things I still want to learn and improve on. Number one on my list of things to work on is probably sawing. I just suck at sawing :p
+Marcello Marcantonio Hi, sorry but I don't really buy anything from overseas so I can't really give any recommendations. Names that pop up here and there are Japan Woodworker, Hida Tools and Dieter Schmidt in Germany. A google search should give you more.
+Marcello Marcantonio well, asides from Sumokun's suggestions there is also a store named toolsfromjapan com which sells Japanese woodworking tools and they provide pretty wide spectrum of options, too.
Really enjoyed what you have done here. I am a 35 year experienced English furniture maker who has used japanese chisels and water stones all that time but now wants to use japanese kanna. This has been a very helpful introduction. Thank you.
david savage
David Savage
I know this video is nearly ancient history, but I had to drink 10 cups of coffee to keep my eyes open 10 minutes. God he is droll. WTF?
Hey, we were in contact some years ago, want to thank you again for your videos, you are a gift to the international woodworking community. God bless you!
Hi! Thanks for the support! Much appreciated!
Thanks for watching!
Its good to hear that you found something of use and I am humbled that a veteran like yourself could learn something from my videos.
I thought I'd answer here for the benefit of other viewers. The plane is a Miyamoto blade set in a dai by Nimura. I got the blade directly from Nimura-san who had it (and others) in his inventory for a few tens of years. He cut a new dai and put them up for sale so I grabbed a couple. Nimura-san offered to engrave it so I chose "Kou-un Ryusui" which means roughly "going with the flow". He doesn't have any left now apparently but you can find Miyamoto planes for sale elsewhere.
Best video series for tuning up a Japanese plane found on the net. Thanks for sharing.
I just "found" all of your videos, and I am working on watching them all. WOW!! I am enjoying them so much! Thank-you for making them, and keep making more.
Thank you! Really helpful for my job! I am restaurator in Italy.
Very good channel. Subscribed.
Thanks for investing a lot of time and providing insights on how to set up a kanna. I just bought my first 2 x kannas yesterday and I will use your vids as my guide!
Hi, thanks for watching! Good luck in your tuning and I hope you have fun ;)
Sumokun i need to go back to the hardware store and get a 3mm chisel. Might have to modify a paint scraper too
Sumokun, I bought some kannas in Japan (winter) and brought them back home (Australia - Summer) - should I let the kanna acclimate to the weather for a few days first in my garage where I will be working with the irons installed? I am considering giving the irons a coat of 3-in-1 oil right away.
If the humidity has changed dramatically, then I would leave them for a week or so out in the open before tuning them. I prefer to loosen the irons when leaving kanna to acclimate. Coating the irons in oil on a regular basis is a good idea to prevent rust but try to keep it light otherwise oil gets everywhere.
Sumokun thanks I'll do that and let you know. Hopefully no mean twisting occurs!
just got my first kanna!
just got the blade loosen!
just load this series up!
zomg i cant wait lol
+XerosXIII Hope you have fun ;)
Thank you for your videos and the time you take shooting them. I want to buy my first kanna and all the information is most welcomed.
Luis
Luis Carreira No problem ;) Glad the information is of some help.
Great video thanks for sharing and helping me understand these planes
Yes. Definetely wish from you how to refurbish old kannas. I have many and wish from you videos on how to fix old ones
Thanks for watching!
I've gotten a lot of requests for refurbing old kanna so I guess I'll try and push that forward in my list of stuff to do. Hopefully I'll be able to get round to it within a few months.
Greetings from KC MO usa. I watched all the kanna videos and really enjoyed them immensely. Hope you get to doing one on refurbishing used /old kanna. cheers ernie
Hi, thanks for watching!
I will definitely do a series on refurbing an old kanna in the future. I can't promise when but its something I've wanted to do for a while now so most likely sooner rather than later.
Thanks for the compliment :)
If you have any videos you'd like me to make let me know and I'll try and make some.
Ciao Sumokun, I'm Oliver, I like to say i'm glad that there are people (like your self) spending some time to teach people quality information.
The reason I'm writing this message to you is that for the last past 3 month I have become obsessed with planers, most of all Japanese one.
I have been searching on line (e-bay) for proper second hand Kanna Blades. yet I must say their are a little to hight for me to reach in price. My all idea is to get a good blade and build the body of a planner.
My question to you: is there any chance for you to be able to find me a blade good yet still in great shape, with a reasonable price?
A blade which has been built in the Japanese traditional way? telling me the cost, and then go from there
I live in England, in Hastings, and in my workshop I usually use Oak, Mahogany, Pine, and Teak.
Sumokun.... I also like to say if there is specific English tools that you mite be interested, yet difficult to find in Japan.. perhaps I can help you in return.
Please let me know
Kind regards
Oliver
Hi Oliver,
I'm glad that there are people like you that find my stuff useful.
We all get obsessed with planes at one time or another ;)
I should be able to help you find a kanna blade, no problem. I have a load of kanna blades waiting for bodies of all kinds of sizes and quality/condition but I mainly focus on the medium to higher quality stuff because the lower end stuff is generally not worth the extra trouble to fix up and use. I do have some lower end ones which came as extras with some purchases so just let me know what you want and we'll go from there.
If you send me a message with your email address, and maybe let me know what your budget is, then I can have a dig around and send some photos/descriptions to you.
thank you greatly for these videos!!!!
Thank you for watching :)
Sumokun, thanks for your videos. I am looking for a kanna blade blue steel super or swedish steel. Any suggestion on where to find one at a reasonable price ?
+Marcello Marcantonio Hi, it really depends on your definition of "reasonable price" but you can try looking at the usual Western stores online. I can also get some but because there are so many smiths out there and different quality levels, not to mention "Swedish Steel" actually covers a large family of steels, I would need more information on what exactly you are looking for.
A question for you Sumokun...Is a Japanese rebate kanna set up differently than a square on smoothing kanna? Does the area behind the cutting edge remain shy of the plane of the area in front of the cutting edge? Or is it the same 3 points of contact, ie...
leading edge, middle (in front of the cutting edge) and trailing edge?
Hi, that is actually a good question. Although there is no explicit mention of it that I can find, I think the common wisdom is to set the soles on flat planes up so there are 3 points of contact. Personally I leave them either flat or with a very tiny amount of hollowing. Its easy enough to try so I would recommend experimenting and seeing what works best for you.
Thanks for watching :)
ha-ganna plane how can i build it
or I make Ha-ganna 45°and 60° and 15°
thanks
Hi, ha-ganna are very picky tools. They have to be set up just right and be extremely sharp to work. Making one yourself is not so simple. If I were to do it, I would try and make the blade from a piece of bar steel stock and shape it to the angle you need similar to how Roy Underhill makes his screw thread cutter. Once you have that made, mount it in a body with a wedge like a Western plane. Making it the Japanese way is not recommended unless you really know what you are doing, in which case you probably wouldn't be asking me :p
If you wanted to go one step further, I would look into getting a sheet of steel and bending it to form the blade but that would be pretty difficult.
Hello, I wanted to ask you where you bought this plane?
Sorry for the errors I don't know English very well.
Hi, your English is fine :)
I got this plane directly from Mr. Nimura who is a famous dai maker here in Japan. He had the blade in his inventory for about 40 years so he cut a new dai for it and put it up for sale and I bought it.
Amazing videos, incredibly informative. Two questions, what kind of steel is the blade? And where did you get the hinoki stock in your 3rd video? It's impossible to find lol
Hi, the blade is Blue (not sure what number) and the hinoki was found at my local lumberyard. Its probably very hard to find outside of Japan but most people use Alaskan Yellow Cedar or Port Orford Cedar as substitutes in the West. Hope that helps!
Gotcha. yes, makes sense. POC and other quality cedars are produced in small quantities in the states as well. I suppose quality lumber is just hard to get a hold of, oh well.
Another question. I purchased a cheap Senkichi kanna about $60 USD. It Performs decently, but I just wanted tohear your opinion. After fiddling around with it for months I've concluded that the steel, although laminated, is cheap, as it will always chip unless I throw a microbevel on it. The dai needs extensive tuning, and as I've purchased 3 of them because I messed up one of them, I've noticed they are manufactured very inconsistently particularly with large mouth openings.
They perform well for a few minutes, go dull quickly, chip, and are crudely made. I can see how someone who isn't too picky would find it suitable. But by the same token I can also see how an experienced craftsman wouldn't waste their time with it.
Does this all sound about right for cheap kanna? I can imagine a quality blade can hold an edge well on a single bevel, and the dai is made more accurately.
Yeah definitely. "Good" wood is getting harder and harder to come by but there is plenty of usable wood out there so I guess we just have to make do with what we have.
Regarding Senkichi, they are a brand aimed at the DIY market and are really quite poorly made, as you have found out. Many people start out and get frustrated with kanna of that level and give up (me included). They can be made to work but that time is better spent on a "real" kanna. Granted the cost of a real kanna is at least double the price of a Senkichi, but if a tool cannot do the job you need it for, it is useless.
The biggest problem I have with Senkichi and similar kanna is not that the steel is bad (it is but it can be worked around for a little while), it is that the dai are inconsistently made and along with the poor finish of the blade, it makes for a very difficult to adjust kanna. Setup is everything for a kanna and consistency plays a huge part of that. The badly finished blade and poorly cut dai make for a very wonky fit between the two so it is very hard to get the blade back in the same position after you sharpen it. For rough work it is OK but for finer, high tolerance work, it is simply a pain to use them. I would even take a beat up kanna made for trade professionals over a Senkichi level one. You will get better steel and the dai will need work but at least it will end up being a tool you can depend on.
Thank you so much for that detailed response. That's a big sigh of relief for me. No joke I have spent HOURS honing, removing chips, flattening, polishing, flattening the sole, scraping hollows on the sole and it has left me feeling that perhaps I'm just not skilled enough to use kanna properly. So it's really nice to hear you say that. However, I am glad that I learned kanna basics on cheap Senkichis because I would have died if I destroyed high end kanna like I did to a couple of my Senkichis. I'm totally new to woodworking, and I'm realizing jumping straight into kanna was quite an undertaking, but I've managed. I'm looking into getting my first real kanna on toolsfromjapan.com as they seem to have a nice selection.
Yeah Senkichis and the like are good for playing around with but definitely not representative of a proper kanna. Kanna are a bit more demanding than metal planes but I think if you are starting off with them, you might be ahead of people that are used to metal planes and then make the switch. TFJ does have a big selection but I would personally try looking into other avenues as they pretty much only have Tsunesaburos and they are a little pricey. They're fine but, especially for a first plane, I would look into getting a used one. Kanna are getting pretty expensive now and even though you have some practice with Senkichis, there is still a very real risk of screwing up. If you take your time you should be fine but I would be more inclined to save a new purchase for when you are really confident. If they were cheaper I would go straight to new but at ~$200 a pop for a borderline good quality new kanna, it is quite risky. It all depends on what used kanna you have available to you as well I guess. Good luck in your kanna journey though and let me know if you have any questions :)
Thanks for this video. I wonder if you could PM me the name and contact info for the maker. I'm in Hokkaido and I'd like to order one.
tnx mate
SUMOKUNさんのチャンネルが面白いね!また来ます。がんばって！
ありがとうございます！
SumoKun, did you grow up in the UK? I think I recognise your accent :-)
Haha, yes, I did grow up in the UK ;)
Oh awesome ! where did you learn to be so good at woodcraft? :D (like at college or apprentice etc?)
Compl33tR4nd0mZ It was all self taught. Mainly reading web sites and books, and watching videos and of course, lots of trial and error. I still have a long way to go before becoming competent at wood working. There are a lot of things I still want to learn and improve on. Number one on my list of things to work on is probably sawing. I just suck at sawing :p
Sumokun Oh that's awesome, well good luck to you!
Could you suggest some online western stores. I don't know any.
I work hard wood and softwood and need a jointer and a very fine smooter plane.
+Marcello Marcantonio Hi, sorry but I don't really buy anything from overseas so I can't really give any recommendations. Names that pop up here and there are Japan Woodworker, Hida Tools and Dieter Schmidt in Germany. A google search should give you more.
+Marcello Marcantonio well, asides from Sumokun's suggestions there is also a store named toolsfromjapan com which sells Japanese woodworking tools and they provide pretty wide spectrum of options, too.
中國人不懂日本木工工具利益去地買在唔係用係復製十倍買出.