Hi! Thanks for the support! Much appreciated!

Hi, I don't think oil really does much to protect against wood movement due to humidity changes. I know it's a common thing among western wooden planes but I've never really seen it done with kanna. Sometimes I see people wipe over the dai with camelia oil but it's more for cleaning rather than moisture protection.

Hi there. This is quite a complex question so this might get pretty long ... So first off, it's quite hard to judge if it's "defective" or not based on a text description but generally speaking, a high quality blade will be roughly square to the sides straight from the manufacturer. It is quite rare however to get a perfectly ground blade since they are handmade so you should expect some deviation. The main thing you are looking for is to see how far off the edge is off square when measured from both sides. It should be relatively even. It won't measure 90 degrees since the blade is wedge shaped so what you are looking for is an even amount of off-squareness. On a good blade set, you are looking at maybe around less than a millimeter to be ground off of one corner to make things even. If it's more than that it's not the end of the world but the care taken in making the blade would be questionable. One millimeter might sound quite a lot but you should take into account the bevel angle. Generally the bevel angle of new blades is quite shallow. This allows for easier grinding to get the bevel angle you want and also allows for easier squaring up of the edge. It will look ugly at first with an incomplete bevel but with use it will get ground down during sharpening and become complete. This does require good sharpening discipline though. Now regarding your comment about skewing the blade in the dai, before you go any further, stop. You need to get the blade set figured out before you touch the dai otherwise you will risk getting a loose fit. Dai are generally made to a 90 percent fit to a specific blade set. The last 10 percent is for the user to finish up to get the kanna set up as the user likes and to also give leeway for fixing up blade defects like skewed grinds and non-flat backs etc. The blade is wedge shaped so if you remove material from the back, it will fit looser in the dai. This is why you need to get the blade dialed in before tuning the dai. When tuning the dai, you should aim for a good fit in terms of having decent contact between the blade and dai bed, and also have it sit relatively centrally in the dai so there is little to no skew at the edge when tapped in. There should also be a small amount of lateral adjust wiggle room (about 1mm gap on either side of the blade is plenty). The thing you have to keep in mind with kanna is that the makers are usually really old by now and maybe they can't pay as much attention to finish as they did back in the day. It is also generally expected the user will tune the kanna and tools in general, to suit their preferences so things aren't as square and straight as in say modern Western metal planes. If things are way off though definitely have a talk with the seller and see if there is another in stock to compare to etc. Hope that helped and feel free to ask for clarification if you need.

@@sumokun My many apologies for taking so long to reply back, especially after such a generously fast and detailed response. Thank you! First, yes, I knew pretty much immediately that I should pause on any serious work on the dai until I figured out what to do with the blade. Second - yes, the edges of the blade are obviously not parallel, and that makes it hard to measure and explain the degree of the slant. I’d explain it this way, after taking a few precise measurements: the high side of the blade edge is about 90 degrees relative to the side of the iron on that side; the low side is about 92 degrees relative to its side of the iron, so averaging about 1 degree off square on either side relative to each other. The high side is maybe 1.5 mm longer than the low side, so again averaging about .75 mm ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ respectively from where they should be if the edge were square to the notional center line of the iron. So it’s not *terrible*. I’m going to keep it, and work with it. But I’m a bit paralyzed as to how I’m going to correct it. The only jig that I have is the vice-type honing guide. That has a center wheel, so it’s hard to fit the blade and apply pressure in a way that reliably and measurably favours one side of the edge. If freehand sharpening, I could ‘favour’ my finger pressure on one side, and try to even it out, but I’d be afraid of how imprecise that is, and could over-correct, or just create an unpredictable and uneven camber. I was really hoping to freehand sharpen my kanna blades, and was hoping to avoid a new jig/guide. But maybe I need one. What would be your tool/strategy? Many thanks again, Ian.

@@Ian_Hay Hi, that does sound like quite a lot of deviation, buts it's not super out of the ordinary. So personally, I would use a K2 Grintec to set the proper skew and bevel angle. You can see it in my sharpening jigs video but it is quite expensive for what is essentially a one trick pony. If you don't want to get a new jig, then I'd first measure the bevel angle. I think you'd find that it is shallower than what is ideal (I:be never seen a new blade with a steeper angle). If that is the case, then that would allow you to freehand sharpen at the correct (steeper) angle and start off with only grinding the high corner/side. That should allow you to bring it down pretty quickly since it will be a skinny triangle of metal. Keep checking for "square" and you should be able to get a full edge quite quickly. Prioritise squareness rather than precise bevel angle at this stage. Once you get it square, you should be able to fix the bevel angle with a jig or freehand pretty quickly. Grinding down the whole bevel to the perfect bevel angle will just waste steel and take a ton of time so once you get about 1mm or so of bevel ground in across the width of the blade, stop and call it good.

@@sumokun thanks so much, again. I now own 4 kanna of various sizes and quality, so perhaps the K2 is a reasonable investment in the long run. I’ll watch your video, and do some research on it. The bevel angle on my new kanna is currently 26 degrees. The steel is Super Blue (青紙スーパー鋼), so I assumed it could tolerate a shallower bevel angle. But I’ll look at what an appropriate angle is for that steel on a 70mm smoothing plane. Thanks again.

(When I said ‘shallower bevel angle’, I didn’t mean shallower than 26 degrees; I meant shallower than typical, perhaps justifying 26 degrees).

If a workbench grinder is an option, then that will definitely be much quicker than a whetstone. Grinding on a stone by hand is not really recommended unless you have a bunch of time or the tool is only slightly out. When grinding by hand I usually go for about 10 minutes with frequent flattening. If you are set on doing it by hand, then only grind as much as you need to get the edge in shape. There is no need to do the whole bevel. The bevel will eventually get ground down through normal use. If you have a set of expensive chisels, or you just take pride in your tools, then I think hand grinding is better for the aesthetics and the whole spirit of owning fine hand tools. If you do use a grinder, then take light passes and frequently cool the blade. Aim for a hollow grind and then touch up on a stone. It'll look ugly but it will be the quickest way to get things prepped. Also don't get too aggressive with a small radius grinding wheel or you will weaken the edge and risk it fracturing during heavier cuts in wood.

Hi, so the wheel I used was something I found at the local hardware shop a long time ago and even at the time of filming, it seemed to be out of production. I have no idea what it was called but I looked high and low for it to no avail for several years. The closest replacement I found was something made by Ichiguchi called a "delight wheel". This is a Japanese product so I have no idea if you will be able to find it outside of Japan. I would guess the next closest thing would be a 3M abrasive wheel but those things are generally not as durable and leave deeper scratches. They'll work but you just need to do some extra work later. Hope that helped!

@@sumokun Thanks! It does look like Misumi carries them, will have to find out if they ship to Europe.

Hi, so after some digging around, it seems like fine-tools.com sells them overseas. Maybe give them a try.

Hi, I'm not sure about the current state of Japanese tool dealers overseas these days since I'm not really in the market but I'd check those places out first. It's a pretty common tool amongst kanna users in Japan so I'd expect any shop with a decent selection of Japanese tools to have it. If you can't find any leads and really want one, feel free to drop me a message and I can help get you one from Japan.

Thanks! I got these ones custom made for me in Japan but you can substitute with whatever you can get locally. The blades were certainly impressive to behold but in actual use, they weren't worth the extra expense over something off the shelf.

Hi Dave. The blade life really depends a lot on how well it was sharpened in the first place and also how and what woods you use it on. As a really general idea, I feel a decent kanna will last maybe up to 50% or so longer than a typical Stanley. I feel I can get away with a duller blade on a kanna on easy to plane woods too since a kanna is easier to pull over the work piece compared to a metal sole. As for not using sandpaper when tuning a kanna, it is a good idea to avoid sandpaper where possible for the reasons you state however grit that is trapped will not stick around for that long and after a few scrapings with a cabinet scraper or scraper plane, you will have pretty much removed all the grit.

Hi, that's definitely doable. It depends on your technique so you can't just blindly go at it with the no 5 but if you are conscious of where you are removing material and check frequently with something like a 1m steel ruler, you should be fine. Also try and take as fine a shaving as possible on the last passes to improve accuracy.

@@sumokun Thanks! Will give it a try then. I flattened a small wooden plane this way before, but wasn't sure it would work on the long (65cm) jointer.

Hi, thanks for watching! I know the common wisdom when gluing wood face to face is to make the end grain form an X pattern rather than an O, but with modern glue (like the Titebond here), seasoned wood, and good surface preparation, the chances of the joint opening up from humidity changes is pretty much zero. Case in point, I just checked the plane and its still straight and tight all over :) Keep in mind this is after 9.5 years of Japanese weather which ranges from 90%+ RH in the Summer to below 20%RH in the Winter so I think its doing pretty well. For this plane I had to glue it up like I did because there were some knot holes in the wood so I hid them on the inside surface. If I had the option, I would have done it the proper way. Anyway, good catch and here's hoping that future viewers will see your comment and do it properly!

@@sumokun a clever compromise. Cheers for the clarification

Hi, thanks for the comment. I know a traditional plane is made from one piece, hence why this one is a traditional styled one :)

Haha, thanks!

You should ask for a refund ;)

Hi. You definitely want to be fitting the blade first since if you don't do that, you won't be able to seat the chipbreaker properly. To be more precise, the order you should do things is mate the blade and CB together (show in the blade prep video). Then fit the blade but stop slightly short of final fit. Just get the fit close. Then start fitting the CB. You only really need to concentrate on the width of the CB area on the dai. The tightness of the CB against the blade should be pretty close as is. If it isn't, then hammer on the ears of the CB to adjust the tightness. It doesn't need to be super tight since it is not getting much force from the shavings. As you adjust the ears, make sure to check the fit of the CB against the blade so that it doesn't rock. After you can get the CB tapped down the dai and sitting about 0.5mm from the edge of the blade, go back to the blade fitting and finish it off. The CB should be able to be adjusted to final usage position (about 0.1mm or so from the blade edge) without affecting the blade fit etc. Then you can continue on with the sole etc adjustments. Hope that makes sense!

@@sumokun Wow , this is super helpful ! Shōsaina setsumei arigatōgozaimasu !

Thanks again!

Hi, so the original lens on the camera is like 130mm or so and the rangefinder cam is profiled for that exact lens so that the RF patch and the image on the film will match. If you replace the lens with another, even if it is the same FL, the optical characteristics will change and the RF patch will no longer match what is actually being projected onto the film. To fix this you need to reshape the cam so it works for the new lens. In order to verify that the changes to the cam match what will be projected on to the film, you need the ground glass. I hope that makes sense :)

@@sumokun Thanks for clearing my mind

Thanks! Hope you enjoy building yours!

Hi, thanks for watching and I'm glad you found this helpful :)

Hi, there are kanna for different purposes but not to the extent of Western planes. The workhorse is the standard length 70mm kanna and that is used for almost everything. There are longer bodied ones used primarily for shooting rather than flattening. The smaller sizes like 54mm and down are mainly used for much smaller scale work. Even for things like small cabinets etc, the 70mm is the usual choice. It mainly comes down to efficiency. The setup is important, as you say. Normally when you buy a kanna, it will come with a tight mouth and if you paid good money for it it doesn't make sense to open it up for roughing work so roughing planes are usually created from the worn out smoothers.

@@sumokun makes sense, thank you!

To be honest, I think your best bet is to trawl the usual auction sites. I haven't been looking at overseas vendors for a while now so I'm not really too up to speed but my impression is that prices in general have gone up. This is true of stuff in Japan too. I've mentioned this to other viewers too but buying cheap stuff from overseas doesn't make much financial sense because shipping will make up a large percentage of the total cost. If all you can find is $200~$500 for blade only, then I can probably help. I have a stash of blades and chipbreakers. On the dai front, you might be able to find a retailer of Japanese tools that is local that can help you get a dai cut. In Japan that is the usual method of getting a dai. You can also attempt to cut your own. I also have a bunch of rough cut dai (i.e. they need fitting to the blade) as well. These were all things I planned to use but just never got round to. Anyway, if you'd like to see if I can help, send me a mail to my youtube channel and we can discuss.

Hi, personally I like to flatten the whole back. Flattening the tip only makes paring a bit harder than it needs to be. The hollow of Japanese chisels should let you flatten the whole back relatively easily. When you do it, just make sure you flatten more on the edge end rather than the handle end to preserve the wedge-like profile otherwise you might find the hollow eating into the edge, and you can't tap chisels out like kanna. The best way would be to grind away on a coarse diamond plate followed by the usual progression through grits on Waterstones. I would avoid the kanaban and abrasive approach because it is both slow and difficult to control.

Hi, I haven't settled on a final recipe but I have found a blend of Japan Wax, Ibota and Perilla oil (all native ingredients) works well. You likely can't get those things but they can be substituted by Beeswax, Carnauba and Linseed oil respectively. The ratios between them really depend on the application but starting with a traditional recipe and tweaking for if you want a harder or softer wax is a good idea. I generally prefer a slightly softer mix on tools like chisels to give a bit more grip. You really don't want a slippery chisel handle.