1. Sharpening
- A set of waterstones for sharpening. I've currently got a set of Norton stones, which I'll probably continue to use for the moment. The Sigma Power stones seem a likely step up.
- A way of reliably flattening those stones as they dish due to wear, such as a suitably flat diamond plate. I'm considering switching to an Atoma 400 grit diamond plate from my current process. Recommendations appreciated.
- A lapping setup: a suitable lapping surface and abrasives such as wet/dry sandpaper.
This assumes a dai pre-cut for the blade. Layout and cutting a mortise in a dai blank is obviously important, but something I would treat separately from this list.
- A dai naoshi scraper plane for sole adjustment. Interestingly, "Sumokun" (see References, below) recommends a cabinet scraper as an alternative for beginning kanna users, one that may already exist in their toolkits.
- A straightedge such as the Matsui for checking the sole
- A narrow flush cut saw (osaehiki-nokogiri) for adjusting the dai to the blade
- A 1/8" or 3mm chisel for same.
- A tool for adjustment of the plane bed. A chisel may be suitable in sufficiently experienced hands, but a plane float, extra-fine Iwasaki carving file, or small push scraper will probably more accessible to newcomers.
- A blue steel blade (kanna-mi) with chipbreaker (osae-gane).
- A dai. In my case, cut to ~39-42° for working with moderate hardwoods.
- Ideally these are a matched set with the blade's bevel angle matched to the dai's bedding angle to give a 10-15° clearance angle. See Chris' Chip off the Old Block (III) for more on clearance angle.
- A gennô or similar hammer for seating and adjusting the blade in the dai. Gennô (well, hammers in general) come in a wide variety of weights, and I haven't yet got my head (hands?) around what weight(s) are best for what kanna-centric uses.
- A funate-gennô or similar hammer for tapping out, when needed
- An anvil or hard block of wood, rounded, for tapping out. I'm leaning towards making a simple one out of ipe.
- Japanese Woodworking Tools - Toshi Odate
- Japanese Handplanes (DVD) - Jay van Arsdale
- Smile and Wave - series on The Carpentry Way blog, Chris Hall
- Kanna help you, perhaps? - series on The Carpentry Way blog
- Chip of the Old Block - series on The Carpentry Way blog
- The following videos by YouTube user 'Sumokun': How to tune up a kanna (pt. 1-3), How to prepare a kanna blade, Tips on choosing your first kanna (pt. 1-2)