Japanese joinery plane sources

[Spencer Nelson]

I am woodworking in a cramped Brooklyn apartment, which restricts me to using hand tools. I have run into a few situations where that can be challenging with the basic chisel-plane-saw set. Two in particular come up often: sliding dovetails (I make a lot of things with shelves) and tongue-and-groove joints (for frame-and-panel situations). I can do these with a saw and chisel, but it's very time consuming and the results are usually sloppier than I'd like.

I happen to have gotten into this from the angle of Japanese woodworking, so my setup (viseless and on sawhorses along a beam with a planing stop) works much, much better with tools that pull rather than push, and that's also become my natural approach. I'll admit also that I feel that Japanese steel is superior, but I could be convinced that that doesn't matter too much for these sorts of tools.

That's the background, here's my question: what's a good source for Japanese joinery planes for these tasks? I am having trouble finding many of the ones that Toshio Odate describes, like the kikai sakuri kanna ('machine plow plane') which I'd like to use for grooves, or the ari sakuri kanna and sumi kiwa kanna for sliding dovetails. I can find them on ebay occasionally, but they tend to look pretty trashed. Where can I look?

[Brian Holcombe]

Yann Giguere of Mokuchi woodworking and Suzuki of Suzuki Tool. I would call and speak to them direct to explain your needs. Yann is hosting Kez next Saturday and will have vendors that sell tools.

[David Wong]

There are planes and a nice writeup on the Dieter Schmid fine-tools website. Another source is HNT Gordon joinery planes. They are expensive, but very high quality.

I have a Japanese dovetail plane that performs reasonably well. I do have some issues with keeping the side nickers from protruding past the cutting blade.

Beware of used plow planes. I started to rehabilitate a used Japanese plow but set the project aside. The sled portion was a little loose, so I decided to take the plane apart to address the problem. I found the plane to be very cheaply constructed. While disassembling the plane, I broke off 3 small brass screw. I’ll drill them out and replace them later when I put the plane back to together.

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The plane body is made up of 3 layers of wood. Some of the pieces in the middle layer are held together with common nails. Surprisingly, the two rods holding the blade in place are nothing more than larger nails.
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[Stanley Covington]

I am woodworking in a cramped Brooklyn apartment, which restricts me to using hand tools. I have run into a few situations where that can be challenging with the basic chisel-plane-saw set. Two in particular come up often: sliding dovetails (I make a lot of things with shelves) and tongue-and-groove joints (for frame-and-panel situations). I can do these with a saw and chisel, but it's very time consuming and the results are usually sloppier than I'd like.

I happen to have gotten into this from the angle of Japanese woodworking, so my setup (viseless and on sawhorses along a beam with a planing stop) works much, much better with tools that pull rather than push, and that's also become my natural approach. I'll admit also that I feel that Japanese steel is superior, but I could be convinced that that doesn't matter too much for these sorts of tools.

That's the background, here's my question: what's a good source for Japanese joinery planes for these tasks? I am having trouble finding many of the ones that Toshio Odate describes, like the kikai sakuri kanna ('machine plow plane') which I'd like to use for grooves, or the ari sakuri kanna and sumi kiwa kanna for sliding dovetails. I can find them on ebay occasionally, but they tend to look pretty trashed. Where can I look?

I know exactly the situation you are working in. Mine is much the same.

If you send me a list of what you need by private mail, I can try to chase them down. They are harder to find nowadays, since they have not been produced in quantity for 30 years. Routers have taken over the tasks most of these planes handled.

Having a few kikai shakuri planes of various widths on hand is a good idea. I have 4 routers and hundreds of bits in storage back in the States, but I don't have a router, and use only planes for grooves and moldings here in Japan. I really do prefer the planes except when doing curved work.

Dovetail planes are good, but they can be tempermental, and you can do almost as good a job with a saw, shakuri, and kote nomi.

Frankly, these planes will not be cheap, so if cost is a big issue, you would save money, and space, by buying the quietest 1/4" trimmer with a vacuum attachment you can find, and only running it when the neighbors won't complain. Festool's MK 700 is supposed to be pretty good, but I have not actually used it.

Stan