A break from holiday madness

[Brian]

Nothing quite like sharpening to relieve holiday stress, and with the Kanna now in hand I can take that further toward some tuning.

Was planing a junky 2x4 to show my father the effects of a handplane on wood, since he's been slowly getting interested in woodwork (my father is a metal worker), even I found it surprising that junk wood like this with practically 1/4" growth rings could become shiny.

[HBjorch]

That's very nice indeed. Nothing like a little escapism from the holiday pressure. I'm very new to this world of Japanese carpentry, what kind/size of kanna is this, if I may ask?

[Brian]

Yokoyama Kunio in Tougou-kou high carbon steel, 70mm wide.

Spent a bit more time fine tuning the sole this morning, since I setup my Dai-naoshi-ganna, nice improvement over scraping with a hand scraper like I did initially before the proper tool arrived.

Chris' blog has some awesome write-ups on setup for both blades and dai, worth a read.....or many many reads. I followed along with Chris' write-up as closely as I could and turned out nice fine shavings without much issue.

Yokoyama Kunio's blades are fairly rustic, but I was able to maintain a nice looking ura by following along closely, which included taping out and removing some twist. I can say, with certainty, I would have not been comfortable doing the twist-removal or even known to do so, without having read the write-ups. I had not seen that sort of thing anywhere else, but it is quite possibly the biggest of the reasons why I have a nice fine landing around the ura.

[Scott]

Brian, I wonder do you mean Yokoyama Kunio maker and Togo-Reigou steel? You guys have mentioned a man who sells tools here, http://www.japan-tool.com/ and that is a kanna I have and wonder if it is the same. I got mine from Shawn in Seattle.

[Brian]

Same maker, he uses a variety of different steels. Tougou-Kou is a modern version of Tougou-Reigou, and so slightly less expensive since it is more available.

So Yamashita may have been the original seller.

[shawn M]

The togou-Kou is a really nice kanna! the edge lasts long and is not too difficult to sharpen.