Deciding on a Japanese Smoothing Plane help.

[Tony Shea]

I have made the decesion finally that I want a Japanese smoothing plane. There is something about them that facinates me in just watching and reading about them. Japanese tools in general seem to carry a different aura about them that I like. But their planes I have no personal experience with other than a Muji smoother that is ok.

My trouble is in picking one out. There are just endless options about from an endless amount of makers. Two aspects that I do have is I want something 65mm-70mm and of Blue Steel. Supper Blue steel would be nice but certainly doesn't need to be. I mainly work with hardwoods such as cherry, maple, oak, etc. But do use a few exotic very hard hardwoods like cocobolo's, bubinga, rosewoods, etc.

The place that really gets hard for me to make a decesion on is the brand/blacksmith/maker of the plane. There are many of them out there and I just have no idea of the reputable ones such as I know LN and LV make great western planes.

My budget is in the $300-$400 range and less if there is something real nice below this. I've searched around here a bit before posting this but really couldn't find much for discussion in way of which brands I should be looking at. Any help, opinions and experiences would be great.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I have made the decesion finally that I want a Japanese smoothing plane....

I'd email Stu Tierny and tell him exactly what you said (actually, he may have already read it). My guess is he'll recommend a Tsunesaburo plane, which is very good (I have several and really like them); but he may have others to recommend.

Tuning skills are important, but there's lots of help available here.

Another option is on ebay right now. Check out japanblades for his NOS planes, there's one for $285 that looks real tasty, I wish I needed one. I haven't heard of any of these makers, but Alex Gilmore speaks well of the planes; and he knows whereof he speaks.

Pam

[Jim Koepke]

+1 to what Pam says.

I think there are not a lot of folks on this side of the Pacific using Japanese planes to make a suggestion.

You can find Stu's site at: toolsfromjapan dot com

I am still chuckling from the picture of a plane blade with some shaving soap and facial stubble.

I am fascinated by what little of the Japanese philosophy I know of tool use and pulling a plane toward the user since the spirit of the wood is being released and the user is "pulling the spirit toward themselves."

Just the same, I like my funky old Stanley/Bailey planes.

jtk

[Stuart Tierney]

Tony,

I've got a nice picture of a slab of rosewood, planed clean in both directions from a 45* bedded Tsunesaburo plane. The gentleman who bought the plane pulled the blade, sharpened it, tapped the blade back in, tapped the chip breaker in and adjusted the amount of blade sticking out, then got to planing. About 5 minutes work, if you're ham fisted. I'll ask him if I can put the pictures up on my blog for general consumption.

His only complaint? the 70mm width was a little bit too much work for him. He's now looking at a narrower plane to get the grunt work done.

If this typhoon hurries up and passes over, I'll be able to get a video thrown together to show how much 'trouble' a Tsunesaburo plane is to get up and running. Especially the very, very cool one I have waiting. Blade doesn't need tapping out like most, blue steel, two bodies (38* and 42*) with the blade already adjusted for both. The kanna part of the video will be very short, maybe a couple minutes...

It's so cool, I got profuse thank yous from Tsunesaburo over it. It's quite possibly the very first plane they've shipped out in that way and represents exactly what we concocted together. A kanna that will do the grunt work, and then do the smoothing work by switching the body over. Just wait for the video, you'll see what I mean. ;) )

Apologies for the infomercial.

Stu.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Tony,

I've got a nice picture of a slab of rosewood, planed clean in both directions from a 45* bedded Tsunesaburo plane. The gentleman who bought the plane pulled the blade, sharpened it, tapped the blade back in, tapped the chip breaker in and adjusted the amount of blade sticking out, then got to planing. About 5 minutes work, if you're ham fisted. I'll ask him if I can put the pictures up on my blog for general consumption.

His only complaint? the 70mm width was a little bit too much work for him. He's now looking at a narrower plane to get the grunt work done.

If this typhoon hurries up and passes over, I'll be able to get a video thrown together to show how much 'trouble' a Tsunesaburo plane is to get up and running. Especially the very, very cool one I have waiting. Blade doesn't need tapping out like most, blue steel, two bodies (38* and 42*) with the blade already adjusted for both. The kanna part of the video will be very short, maybe a couple minutes...

It's so cool, I got profuse thank yous from Tsunesaburo over it. It's quite possibly the very first plane they've shipped out in that way and represents exactly what we concocted together. A kanna that will do the grunt work, and then do the smoothing work by switching the body over. Just wait for the video, you'll see what I mean. ;) )

Sounds very cool. I do have one suggestion: make a blade stub to put in the dai not being used to store the real blade. I made mine from desert ironwood. Purpose? To keep the empty dai from reforming due to humidity.

Pam