Tachi Kanna - Sole Flattening Planes

In Japan, the soles of planes are traditionally flattened with a Tachi Kanna plane. A straight and flat sole is very important to achieve the results fine wooden planes are capable of. Because of the perpendicular set of the blade, the plane is essentially a scraper. This enables the user, without fear of tear-out, to remove even the tiniest imperfections in the sole of the plane.

This plane is very versatile and can be used for many other applications, such as in place of a scraper or a scraper plane, though the blade is not dressed to have a burr. It can be useful for cleaning up imperfections left by a smoothing plane, for instance. Anyone who has struggled to smooth tear out in difficult grain, or slight tracks left in the wood, will treasure this plane.

The iron is made of a laminate, with the cutting edge of "Blue Paper Steel". This steel is perfectly suited for plane blades. We recommend that the blade be flattened and honed on a fine whetstone before use, and it may also be necessary to increase the size of the mouth, particularly in the width. The body is of fine- grained white oak.

The planes we offer are the regular straight type, with blade setted at 90° to working direction, and the "Isuka" angled type with blade setted at 83° to working direction. Because the iron of the latter is held at an angle of a few degrees, the plane has a surprisingly gentle cut. It does not suddenly grab and begin cutting across the entire width of the wood. The shaving develops first of the left side and then widens over the entire width of the blade, therefore the plane can be much more precisely guided and the cut more easily controlled. However, you can also achieve this effect by holding the entire plane a bit angled to the working direction. We stock this plane in different blade sizes. Maker: Master Nomizu in Sanjo, Niigata Province!

Note 1: Japanese planes cannot be put to work as shipped. They require some tuning before you can start planing. In Toshio Odate’s book: Japanese Woodworking Tools. you will find detailed instructions on how to tune a Japanese plane!

Note 2: Because in Japan the air humidity is much higher than in central Europe, the plane body will shrink, mostly in width, if stored for longer periods, especially in rooms with central heating. This wouldn’t matter if the opening for the blade was 1 to 2 mm wider than the actual width of the blade. The opening for the blade is, however, very tight because the manufacturer does not allow for the fact that a certain contingent of his planes ends up in countries with a drier climate. The risk is that the body of plane cracks along its width when the wood contracts, because the blade naturally doesn’t change its dimensions. To prevent this happening we remove the blade from plane of the body prior to warehousing, so that acclimatization can proceed without risk of damage. This means that the blade will only again fit into the plane once you have increased the width of the plane mouth. The floats from Iwasaki are particularly suited for this task.

Tachi Kanna - Sole Flattening Plane
Regular Type
with blade 90° to working direction

Blade width	Total length	Total width	CodePrice
30 mm	150 mm	46 mm	Code 310490Price ^∗ € 95.00
36 mm	163 mm	52 mm	Code 310491Price ^∗ € 97.00
42 mm	168 mm	59 mm	Code 310492Price ^∗ € 99.00
48 mm	168 mm	64 mm	Code 310493Price ^∗ € 109.00

Tachi Kanna - Sole Flattening Plane
"Isuka" Type
with blade 83° to working direction

Blade width	Total length	Total width	CodePrice
30 mm	150 mm	46 mm	Code 310495Price ^∗ € 114.00
36 mm	163 mm	52 mm	Code 310496Price ^∗ € 115.00
42 mm	168 mm	59 mm	Code 310497Price ^∗ € 119.00
48 mm	168 mm	64 mm	Code 310498Price ^∗ € 129.00

Tachi Kanna - Sole Flattening Planes

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