For fine adjustment, the plane maker rubs the back of the plane iron over an oil-soaked pad. When he then strikes the iron into the groove and releases it again, he can clearly see where it makes contact with the plane body and where material may still need to be worked off. This contact surface for the plane iron is slightly convex. Such marking and readjusting is done up to 30 times, so take your time to give the iron a perfect fit in peace.

To reduce friction, the sole is slightly hollowed out in Japan. In a standard smoothing plane, a 1-1.5 cm wide strip is left at the "rear" and in front of the plane mouth, and the rest of the sole is worked down to "paper thickness." This is particularly easy with a special dai-naoshi-ganna (literally: a plane for tuning the plane body). In this plane, the iron is almost at a right angle to the sole, similar to our toothed planes.

The width of the plane mouth depends on its use. If you use the plane for smoothing, keep the slot between the cutting edge and the front edge of the plane mouth as small as possible. When initially setting it up, start with a narrow mouth of about half a millimeter; you can always widen it later if needed. When working with a chip breaker, the mouth here has an inclination of 80 degrees in cross-section.

Soak the sharpening stone in water for 5 to 6 minutes before use. This makes it noticeably easier to grind smoothly.

After use, dry the sharpening stone thoroughly. If it remains wet for a long time or is wrapped in a damp cloth, it will become soft and lose its original durability.

This causes weathering and cracking on the sharpening stone.

The sharpening stone should not be exposed to direct wind, such as that from a fan. Because this causes cracking.

If you leave it at an extraordinarily high temperature (e.g. in a closed car outdoors), the sharpening stone could break.

The extreme temperature difference causes cracking.

This changes its property, and the grinding ability may decrease.

If dirt remains on the sharpening stone and is not removed, the sharpening ability is impaired.

If the dirt adheres stubbornly to the sharpening stone and cannot be removed, or if the surface of the sharpening stone is severely deformed, the sharpening stone must be restored before it can be used again. There are two methods for restoration:

1. You can realign the sharpening stone with a sharpening stone dressing block.
2. You can rub the sharpening stone to be restored against other sharpening stones with different grits (depending on the type of sharpening stone, you should use a coarse or medium-grit sharpening stone as a counterpart).