Diving into Kanna

John Whitley
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Diving into Kanna

Sun May 18, 2014 5:34 pm

I'm preparing to buy my first kanna. As part of that process, I'm attempting to piece together the knowledge and a list of tools I'll need to have a successful start. This isn't a "shopping list" per se, but rather an attempt to form a complete resource for a would-be plane user to get started, using myself as the test case. For example, I've already got coverage of a lot of the items below. I'd appreciate a spot check on what I've got so far. I'm hoping this thread can evolve into a resource to shortcut the intro phase for others.

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.
2. Dai (plane block) preparation and adjustment

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.
3. The Kanna and blade adjustment
  • 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.
4. References
Last edited by John Whitley on Sat May 24, 2014 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Thu May 22, 2014 10:02 pm

I appreciated this post a lot and wanted to see if any other members wanted to chime in before I did. I'll wait a little longer.
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Yxoc
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Fri May 23, 2014 12:14 am

Sorry, I have read this quickly but didn't comment. Purely because I am not quite in that space yet to be purchasing a Japanese. But credit and Thanks to John for gathering this info into one place as a useful reference guide.

Derek
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sat May 24, 2014 4:59 pm

I can say a few things about your list.

My good friend in Germany, Werner, who has pulled a 2~3 micron shaving, told me that he bought the VanArsdale video and thought it was so poor that he returned it. I haven't seen it myself.

An Atoma 400 is probably too coarse for the finishing stones. An Atoma 1200 is more suitable. I've been happy also with the DMT Diaflat, though others don't seem to like it so much.

The wet dry sandpaper gets old after a while. The paper doesn't last too long, it is messy and the paper curls up when it dries making it less usable. I've tried and retried it, but am done with that.

A chisel will serve well for scraping the dai. Cheaper still is a sanding block. The scraper plane is a dai naoshi, not a 'dai noishi'. Easy to mix up the terms, I know.

You can grind a file to make a burr on the end and use that as a scraper for fitting the blade.

Using a wooden hammer damages the blade and dai less when making adjustments

I think it is good to try a few things and see how you like them.
John Whitley
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sat May 24, 2014 6:56 pm

Chris Hall wrote:I can say a few things about your list.
My good friend in Germany, Werner, who has pulled a 2~3 micron shaving, told me that he bought the VanArsdale video and thought it was so poor that he returned it. I haven't seen it myself.
I have it, and have watched it. I've got very mixed feelings about it. I've watched a lot of good (and not so good) professional and amateur tutorial videos in different disciplines. The scripting wasn't nearly tight enough, making many points unclear to those who are not already familiar with the material. In other cases, there wasn't time to properly discuss some topics. Instead of simply omitting them, or referring the viewer to external resources, some overly abbreviated and hand-wavy discussion would work its way in. For my part, I noted these and moved on since I'd done a lot of homework prior to viewing this. That said, seeing someone walk through the kanna setup process end to end has a huge amount of value in gelling the pieces of the process into a coherent whole. The primary value in that DVD for me lie in the ability to watch someone experienced perform, versus the rather laborious and often incomplete text of the presentation. To someone less prepared than I was, I think the often laborious and/or incomplete text could easily be a big barrier. To the more experienced, I think this video would be very frustrating as neither the visual nor the text sides are going to provide much value.

All told, I'd definitely recommend the free series on YouTube I linked to over the van Arsdale DVDs to a newcomer to Japanese planes. The presentation is clearer, is focused on the needs of the beginner, and uniformly has better visuals and scripting for the presentation.
An Atoma 400 is probably too coarse for the finishing stones. An Atoma 1200 is more suitable. I've been happy also with the DMT Diaflat, though others don't seem to like it so much.
Ah, thanks. Good to know.
The wet dry sandpaper gets old after a while. The paper doesn't last too long, it is messy and the paper curls up when it dries making it less usable. I've tried and retried it, but am done with that.
Agreed. At this point I use sandpaper (or cut Diablo grinding belts) exclusively for one-off lapping projects. E.g. that's what I used to evaluate and rehab my current stable of Western planes and chisels.
A chisel will serve well for scraping the dai. Cheaper still is a sanding block.
You can grind a file to make a burr on the end and use that as a scraper for fitting the blade.
Well noted. I happen to already have an Iwasaki extra fine carving file, so I'll probably go with that.
The scraper plane is a dai naoshi, not a 'dai noishi'. Easy to mix up the terms, I know.
Thanks for the correction. I'll fix that (and a few other odd typos) in the original post.
Last edited by John Whitley on Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Yxoc
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sat May 24, 2014 7:53 pm

Diamond stones are a conundrum. In my limited experience they have a short lifespan for their exorbitant cost. I initially had a Duosharp double sided stone; coarse/fine. I found that the cutting ability wore away very quickly, and whilst it was not precisely flat to begin with, some poor care on my part led to a bit of corrosion lifting the thin metal plate off the plastic substrate in areas making it useless.

I also have a diaflat plate now which I use for all my stone flattening and for occasional grinding of metal. I contacted the company and specifically enquired as to its suitability for abrading metal. They replied that it was suitable for such. Nevertheless, I suspect that using the plate for metal abrasion will likely shorten its lifespan. It is extremely coarse, however I have found that to be quite good for stone flattening because the surface does not get clogged so quickly with powdered stone. Other things I like is its large size, good heft and it is flat. I am not a heavy enough user to comment about its longevity but it's still going strong for me.

I don't have any experience with the Atoma stones.

Derek
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Chris Hall
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sat May 24, 2014 8:22 pm

Apparently there are two models of Diaflat, one coarse and one not so coarse. I'm not entirely sure which one i have. I also like the size and heft, and find the coarseness isn't such a factor if you lighten up on the final strokes. It is too aggressive for grinding blades though - I've tried it and it will take chunks off the edge if you're not careful.

The other DMT stuff doesn't last and isn't especially flat.

The Atoma seems pretty flat but it isn't as tough and large as the DiaFlat. I've already damaged the surface on the Atoma a little bit working blades on it that needed a lot of metal removal. Maybe the best policy is not to use the diamond plates for anything other than flattening stones. Sounds good in theory, but when faced with removing a lot of material, the idea of working the blade on the 800 stone for an hour or whatever loses appeal kinda quickly. :|
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Yxoc
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sat May 24, 2014 9:08 pm

Maybe the two types of Diaflat are recent offerings? I am pretty sure there was only one kind of plate available when I purchased mine. I agree with your assessment regarding moving a lot of metal - If using western chisels with homogenous metal, a grinder is used to remove a lot of metal and leave a hollow grind. It seems to me that for flat bevel tools, the diamond plate is the only equivalent of a 'grinder'. I suppose you could use a belt sander, but would that heat up very quickly, what's the coarsest belt you can get?
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Chris Hall
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sat May 24, 2014 10:54 pm

There is a crappy stationary vertical belt grinder in the building where I work which I use for tasks such as grinding the mimi on planes blades. I find it a lot less likely to overheat the blade than the typical grinder. I think it uses 80 grit paper, though it would accept 100 or 120, etc., I'm sure.
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Yxoc
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Re: Diving into Kanna

Sun May 25, 2014 8:33 pm

Ah, I see. Do you grind the main bevel with it, is it flat enough?

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