The replacement sheets are a brilliant idea, but in the UK I can source Atoma plates at a lower cost than the replacement sheets, which doesn't make much sense.
These look a lot like Sukemaru, are they forged by Yoshio Usui? I have a couple of sets by Sukemaru and they are excellent, they get just as sharp but hold an edge much longer than white or blue steel when chopping hardwood.
Hi, Man! great video. I need to upgrade my chip breaker on a same hand plan as yours here or quite similar. do you know of an online source for me to get one? This helped so much and i got it to work really great. but before i watched your video i cracked my chip breaker. Any help appreciated.
My own technique for cutting squareish stock is to rotate the wood 45 degrees such that you see a single line across two faces and then cut to that line, rather than cutting across one face and then moving to the adjacent face. If you can cut to that line then by definition, your cut will be square.
What kind of machine used in the old days, to do the numbers and lines? Now they do it with laser. But before that? Someone can tell me? Greetings, from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Why has this video not blown up. Crazy. Anyhow that was beautiful to watch and very well edited. Thank you. Looks like the Wood is Cedar. Do you know if it was Cedar?
Awesome set of 3 videos. I have recently (after 30 odd years of furniture making with western pattern chisels) bought a 30mm Japanese chisel. I have managed to sharpen it with the help of this video, and of course I promptly cut myself 😂
I just lay my speed square up against the side of the saw like I do with my skilsaw. Straight cut every time. Careful not to cut up your square though. Cause these Japanese saws will do it.
Great video, thank you for your great demonstration one question I’ve got a question for the people that use Japanese chisels is do they last as long as Western chisels. I know that Western chisels are fully flat on the back but since Japanese chisels have a concave design on the back does that affect how long they last? Thank you very much for any help you can provide God bless.
I find it is very trade dependant. Carpenters almost always do use ink (0.4mm felt tip pens are popular with Greg and his company), but I have seen many Japanese furniture makers and shoji screen makers work in pencil.
I am not sure whether you still read comments on a video 3 years old but if so, when you dressed the back of the block could that not be done by removing the blade and chip breaker and then flattening the whole back using the sandpaper rather than the 2 part process shown?
Hello from France ! I find your videos very instructive and clear, thx for that ! A quick remaining question : some people recommend using diamond plates only with dedicated « lapping fluid » (like the Trend lapping fluid for instance) and to avoid water. Any thoughts about that ?
Great video Mitch! I am quite familiar with making western wooden planes, but you illuminated a critical difference of the Japanese plane blades - they are tapered the opposite way of western (old) blades that require a wedge. That fact makes so many things make sense now. Western blades are fatter at the cutting edge to make the wooden wedge lock it into place by mechanical lock against cutting thrust, not just by friction.
For the kakurikana that you demonstrated last, what do you do when, after repeated sharpening, the blade is too short to reach or extend from the sole to cut as desired? I have a fair bit of experience with western tools, but am just learning about Japanese tools now. I am puzzled by the lack of a wedge to hold the blade and tapping the blade to whatever depth of cut is desired. I do see that the blade is tapered and self wedges into the plane, but don't understand what is done when the blade shortens. Thank you for the excellent video.
I love my Japanese saws for joinery. But man, ripping with a bent over posture like you demonstrated looks miserable, and you only did it for a few seconds. Are you sure it primarily uses your abs?
This seems awfully complicated, is there any benefit in that construction method? A simple wedge between the pin and the two irons would make it so much easier to set up as it wouldnt need a perfect fit in the body that might suffer from changes in humidity. I assume what gives japanese planes their good performance compared to european planes is the thick iron and not how its bedded in the body.
That seems like a good method for the outside surface. I’m assuming that the counterpart for the inside is some sort of grit, compound or polish infused matching dowel or other wooden object? Or do you simply do the inside with a flexible strop?
Hi Matt, the short answer is both. Diamond plates in general are coarser than waterstones, but deal with funky alloyed steels better. The #1200 atoma is the finest in the range, but I would say that it is still coarser than most #1000 waterstones out there. So, if you are happy with that finish, sharpen on them to your heart's content, or use them for an initial sharpen and then move to something finer like a waterstone. The fact that they are great for lapping waterstones is almost a coincidence - but an amazingly helpful one.
@@JapaneseToolsAustralia thought so...👍 on My atoma 1200 the leading knife edge rides in-between the "grid pattern" scattering of diamond chips on stone surface. It's irritating & damaging
I generally use western chisels, oils stones and hollow grind on bevel. I like hollow grind for ease of touch up sharpening. I do have a set of nice japanese chisels (not used much as yet), sharpening bevel on the flat. I would like to ask whether you think i can hollow grind the bevel on these, or is that a big no-no?
Hi Harry, there are pros and cons. If you put that hollow grind in with a high speed grinder that throws sparks, it can be very easy to ruin the temper of the blade with heat from the grinder. High carbon steel in Japanese chisels is much more susceptible to this than the alloyed steels of Western chisels. It can be done, and I know skilled Japanese carpenters that do so, but the chisel edge spends more time in a water bucket than on the wheel to manage the temperatures. Otherwise, if you are using a slow speed water-cooled wheel such as a Tormek or imitation (record/scheppach etc), this is not such a risk, and I use a Record brand one here in the shop if there is a big chip or angle change that needs doing. Having said that, I usually move from the wheel to waterstones, and my hollow grind is greatly reduced even before the chisel gets used and probably gone after three sharpens. Hope that helps, and that you enjoy using your chisels!
@@JapaneseToolsAustralia Thanks so much for your quick and thorough response. I use a low speed wheel, dry, stopping every few passes to cool (either in water or more often pressed on cold steel). My good bench chisels are Swiss Made brand, but i have a few irwins and stanleys when i need imperial measurements (e.g. mortices... i digress). Another part of my concern with aggressively hollow grinding the japanese chisels is the fact that it seems i'll soon whet the bevel right back to the hollow back. These chisel edges only have about ⅛" of edge material before the hollow. How do you maintain a flat back on a japanese chisel?
... i guess my question partially answers itself. I reckon the only way to maintain a flat back is to continually lap the back when you get to the hollow. Is that correct? My hesitation is simply that the hollow seems very deep, almost as deep as the layer of carbon steel.
@@harrypitt yes, that is right - lapping it maintains the flat perimeter. As you point out, the more aggressively you sharpen, the more often you will need to lap. The depth of the hollow varies a lot between chisels and makers. It is possible to lap the end behind the cutting edge harder than the neck end, which saves some time and effort. If you have a large chisel, it is also possible to "tap out" the hollow using a process called ura-dashi. There have been some impressively fierce internet debates about whether or not this should be done on a chisel (it is normally reserved for plane blades), but I have done it on a particularly tricky carpenter's chisel - and I'd do it again if I were backed into the same corner. Bear in mind that there is nothing new here, as Japanese carpenters have ben doing it for a couple of hundred years, and many Japanese chisels have been sharpened and used down to a nub.
Well, in this learning journey with the pull style planes, I have discovered that the irons taper not only in thickness, but also in width. That would make it difficult to line up the plane blade in any jig. I do 'rough' out my angles first on a slow speed grinder that I use for my turning tools, and a 80 grit CBN wheel. It still seems to be that I will need to set the blade in the plane body and then see how far out of square it is to the opening and the plane body.....
