Kanna for softwood finish?

Carey
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Location: Central Cal Coast
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:44 pm

Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:55 pm

At the moment I'm using a block of Goncalo Alves as an anvil, a 180 gram funate genno, and sometimes a
General automatic center punch with the spring set quite tight, which is *very slow* but precise, when I'm
not feeling confident with the hammer.

Seeing what Chris went through with that 'En' makes me leery- I'm probably not up to that kind of work, which is why I tried to get a bit of assurance from the vendor. Maybe the quality of the steel and forging would be worth it, though. A Nakano blade I got awhile back, said to be WS #1, required the least work of any new blades I've had so far. As always, I value the opinions and suggestions shared here.
Carey
Raw Log Import
Location: Central Cal Coast
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:44 pm

Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Thu Apr 27, 2017 11:04 pm

Adding: I have rehabbed quite a few blades, and have so far only cracked one (knock on wood). It's quite
a nice blade, and as penance I cut it back ca. 4mm with the coarsest well-working stone I had, a Bester 1200.
It came out well I think, though I sure wished I hadn't cracked it... in a couple of weeks when I have a good internet connection, I'll try to post some photos of this and maybe a few other blades. A 42mm ko-ganna
in particular- I'd love to get another, bigger blade from its maker, but can't identify it. Very hard but somehow not chippy.
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Brian
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Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:18 am

I would imagine you'll need to put forth a similar amount of effort. I think the most important step is straightening them, before you delve into anything else. What Chris points out as looking for 'gata-gata', or teeter-totter as I call it on my blog, is a critical first step. Once that is done, the rest is ura-dashi as you have been doing.

If you don't have a granite reference plate, I would recommend getting a small one. Try my method with granite and marking fluid to check for contact, I find it helps things go smoothly. As much of a challenge as the Kunio blade's are, the last one I setup to Ito-ura in probably 15-20 minutes time.

I have an old Kikuhiromaru, that is something like 35 years old, that blade was a real challenge to get right. It taught me a lot about ura-dashi, that is for certain. The lamination on it is very thick and extremely hard, probably up there at Kiyotada level hardness, the blade is like a piece of glass. Kunio and Konobu are very hard blades but both smith's are able to make the laminations thin enough that they move when tapped. So as long as you are supporting the blade properly and checking your work properly, you'll accomplish your goal (IMO).

Nakano WS1 is a really good blade, I've pulled an 8 micron shaving with one (in practice, rather than actual competition :( ).
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Brian
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Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Sun Aug 06, 2017 12:22 pm

In the spirit of the advice given here I decided to use synthetics for this years NYC Kez and was pretty happy with the result. I was #2 in thinness but my shaving lost a small area of about 1" so disqualified. Anywho I was happy with my progress and found I was able to do quite well on a synthetic stone when using a blade at the extreme end of the hardness scale that I was otherwise having difficulty with when finishing with naturals. Before o put away my test stick I may put a little more time into experimenting.

My efforts made in chasing away any sign of a burr even when viewed at 40x made for an improvement over last year.
Carey
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Location: Central Cal Coast
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:44 pm

Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:01 pm

Congratulations on your fine result at the Kezurokai this year, Brian. I attended once here on the West Coast and luckily got to see Kamijo-san at work. I felt like going home and lying down for
a while after that. Your synthetic experience is good to hear about. I've been exploring that too, with inconclusive results so far, though it seems like I still get better edges, on average, with a
Jyunpaku than my few naturals. I did get a couple of new, harder, naturals recently and think my results are improving with them, and I enjoy using them more.

Here'a a koganna by Yamamoto-san I recently got; it'a a 58mm Hiroshige, said to be VAR White Steel #1, not yet set up (hope the image appears):

/Users/macuser/Desktop/Hiroshige 58.JPG

It looks like it will be a pretty straightforward job, and I look forward to its test-drive.
Carey
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Location: Central Cal Coast
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:44 pm

Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:03 pm

Looks like the photo didn't show up- back to old draw board.
Carey
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Location: Central Cal Coast
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Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:20 pm

Trying again with image:
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Hiroshige 58.JPG
Hiroshige 58.JPG (691.55 KiB) Viewed 6528 times
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Brian
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Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Sun Aug 06, 2017 11:52 pm

Beautiful plane! Very nice, I'm sure you are chomping at the bit to set that up!

I went back at it today to test my natural to see if I couldn't repeat or improve the process. The natural seemed just a tad better, but I can't confirm just yet. The two are neck and neck to the point where I am starting to think that there are other ultimate factors to consider such as the dai.
Carey
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Location: Central Cal Coast
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Re: Kanna for softwood finish?

Mon Aug 07, 2017 1:06 am

Thanks, I have a pretty good feeling about the plane. Time will tell.

Your comment about burr removal above fits with my experience, and I'm giving it (even) more care than I have in the past. Right now I'm mainly using an old Shapton 12k on the ura side,
and using a (natural) slurry to cushion and give some of the gentleness of a natural, while still cutting as a synth can. This is partly because I don't like getting stray scratches on the ura if
I can avoid them, but also I seem to get sharper, and more consistent cutting of the burr with this stone. Point well taken about dai conditioning...

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