Help with kanna plane

[Trinidad Rivera]

Hello woodworkers! My name is Trinidad and I love this Sawmill Creek forum. Back in October I decided to try my hand at a little woodworking.

Being lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, there happens to be a japanese hardware store here in the downtown area. I headed there and quickly broke the $200-$250 budget I had initially set for myself.

Among the things I bought was a 65mm kanna plane. It cost $135.00

Included with it was a blade and chip breaker. Here it is in it's newly-purchased state.

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I was very much aware that the kanna plane, blade & chip breaker were going to need some tuning. I bought Toshio Odate's Japanese Woodworking Tools, and I watched a ton of youtube videos on how to tune a kanna plane. Probably not the best idea for my very first woodworking project to be the tuning of a precision instrument. But hey, you don't know what you don't know you don't know, right?


Well, I went to work on the kanna plane, very much unskilled in the art of working with wood.


It's now been about a month, and I finally took a wood shaving for the very first time. It was nothing respectable, but at least it actually shaved some wood. I had not been able to do this at all up until now. However, I am having some trouble that I am hoping I might be able to get some advice on.

I believe I have pared away too much on the bed where the blade sits, as well as most likely pared away too much in the blade grooves that guide the blade through to the mouth. I tried adding a thin piece of paper, but maybe it is the fact that I have pared away too much in the grooves that is really giving me this problem.

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(current state of the kanna)
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When the blade protrudes through the mouth, it always comes out uneven. One side of the blade protrudes further, and also one side of the blade seems to be coming out higher than the other side.

It is also very loose from side to side when pushed in as far as I can with pressure from my hand and no hammer or mallet tapping.

I tapped out the blade, I've grinded it flat, ground the meme ears sections, sharpened the blade, the chip breaker sits flat on the blade. There is something I am obviously missing.


I am including a link here to an album I have uploaded with higher resolution photos of the kanna, as I was only allowed 8 images on this post.

https://imgur.com/a/LjoXPK9


Any help or suggestions would be greately appreciated.

I have enjoyed this adventure into amateur woodworking, this forum and it's community have been awesome to read.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Generally you never touch the abutments (top side of the grooves, that the back of the blade bears against) and any adjustment is done by scraping or paring the bed surface only.

My suggestion is to use masking tape on the bed surface to build up the loose side. you can use multiple layers until you get an even tightness on both sides. If this works, you can make a more permanent solution by gluing some veneer onto the bed, then re-scraping it in. You want it to insert with firm hand pressure to a point where it is a bit shy of protruding from the sole, but only taking a few hammer taps to get it at the proper shaving depth.

Another thing to look at, since you seem to have removed material from the abutments, is the fit between the back of the blade and the abutments. Ideally you would have perfect contact between the blade back and the abutment along its whole length, but you really have to have it down near the mouth, otherwise you may have issues with chatter.

[Trinidad Rivera]

Robert, thank you very much for your advice. I will follow your directions and see if I can get this going. I did remove some wood from the abutments, I now see why I should not have touched the abutments at all. If I am not able to make this repair with the abutments and the masking tape on the bed surface, would you suggest having another dai made for the blade?

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Hmm. I'm not an expert by any means, but I have tuned a few of them. I think you already know you shouldn't have touched the abutments. The back of the blade, unlike regular plane blades, need not be flat. Seems you removed quite a bit of blade. For a temporary fix, you could try to put your chipbreaker in a vise and peen over the feet a bit more, That may get you some more tightness. Unfortunately you can't put wood back, but you could, as mentioned, glue a laminate or if you know an index card is enough, glue that in. You may not need any more than that. Don't think you can fix the abutment gap. All of these are temporary. Good luck.

[lowell holmes]

Well, make another post and attach the additional pictures.