Craftsmanship in Wood

Can anybody suggest a suitable length for a jointer plane for use with door components? I have seen available anywhere from 390mm to 600mm. I plan on using a 70mm bedded around 38 degrees. Are there any particular points that should be taken into account when making a jointer plane?

Thanks,

Vips

A fairly standard length for a naga-dai is 1.5 shaku, or around 45cm, which is about 17.75". The typical length range might be 15~18" (38~45.7cm)

Thanks Chris. Hope you had a great Christmas.

I shall start making a jointer kanna and also a 60 degree hardwood kanna according to your blog entry "Ramping up for action".

What wood are you using for the dai?

Nothing special. I have some Beech I've had for a few years which is relatively stable. What are your thoughts on Beech?

If I were starting from scratch to make a dai, especially a long dai, my first choice would be mesquite. The least movement in service of any wood as far as I know.

Beech is fine, and planes have been made from it, though perhaps a better choice in that regard (materials widely used for planes in the west) would be hop-hornbeam.

Just FYI beech dents easily, so you should use a mallet and not a hammer to adjust the plane.

As this is one of my first dai from scratch, I'll choose the beech given its low cost here. Thanks for the recommendations on the better woods, I'll definitely consider those when I have more experience.

As far as layout is concerned, has anyone made or considered a roku-dai with more material on the side used when edge planing? Would it be considered bad practise to laminate a harder wood on that side?

Some guys in Japan are making dai entirely from glue-up laminations, in the interest of stability.

That's very interesting! I have some wenge, ipe and ebony although I've only managed to work with the wenge so far given the low angle of all my tools. I was considering a side of wenge on the naga-dai, although I'm not sure how much better this will be than the beech itself. Some recently made panel gauges show the durability of the wenge to be adequate for tools.

As far as hardwood angles for kanna are concerned, with the above species, would a 45 degree kanna with chipbreaker be adequate or is there any reason to choose 60 degree without a chiobreaker?