Japanese tool study Group meeting on the 14^th of April

Present on the day

·        Michael Huntley

·        Andy Ryalls

·        John Tuffrey

·        Steven wheeler

Due to the fact that there were only 4 people present we decided to talk about

Master Nagatsun-san’s visit in July also the way forward with the JTSG.

The main comment was how little people reply or comment on postings and other issues.

We as a group believe that to preserve the future of our craft we must offer free advice and training especially in hard financial times to people who wish to enter the world of woodworking.  If we are not willing to do this then the way of the craft may be lost completely. It is important to pass on skills, as if it was saying a big thank you to all the many craftsmen that have helped us enjoy the great pleasure that working with wood can bring. I believe that the Japanese feel the same way and have helped me understand the way of the future as well as the way of the carpenter.

Please contribute and help our amazing knowledge grow.

These are a few of the things that went on.

We talked about and discussed conditioning Japanese tools.

If you own a Japanese Plane you will understand the pure pleasure they can bring into your tool box or workshop.  Made by a craftsman for a craftsman

Kanna Conditioning and tuning tools.

The Grintec K2

http://www.fine-tools.com/hilf.htm

A blade seating scraper used to scrap away the dai and set the blade.

Used like so

The blade is laminated and is very high quality, it can be used to scrap the sole as well. Notice the straight sides on the blade. 

The next tool is a chisel used for opening the mouth of the dai .

This too is a laminated blade ,but the sides are bevelled edged not straight.

The chisel is used like so

The next tool we  looked at was a hoop setting tool for Chisels. This is a great tool and highly recommended if you’re buying a new set of chisels.

Inside it is cone shaped to fit all sizes of hoops.

It is used to set the hoops at the right height.

Other tools we looked at was the new type of marking gauges, another quality tool that is highly recommended by myself.

We all had a great day and although we discussed joints and cutting them we never got round to making any, which just goes to show you never know what you’re going to learn or do at one of the JTSG meetings.

A big thanks for those who turned up and shared such interesting things and proved old dogs can learn new tricks.

Best Regards

Andy Ryalls

Tool Auction trip with a Japanese twist.

The 23rd of March was the first international tool sale of the year for me. I traveled up on the Friday morning eventually finding myself in a winter wonderland. Should I snow board or go in search of Japanese tools.  Lets do both

Something caught my eye on Bill Carters table umm whats this ,a bronze casting with Japanese tools, about 6inches long and 3inches wide very interesting . It was a shame there was know story behind the this lovely bronze.

Here's Bills stamps that he put on a boxwood mallet. What an interesting ,original idea.

This is the top.

                                          What a beauty

                         He does come up with some great ideas.

                           And here is one last picture for Berin.

I asked around my friends and it was not long before I heard the cry,
Andy I have something for you.

Just the job for conditioning the soles of my Kanna, a scraper plane or in English Tachi-Ba-Kanna ( standing blade plane ) but I like to call it a Dai-Naoshi-Kanna.
Heres the blade

It does upset me how many blades I come across that have been badly sharpened ,which is only rectified by sending back to Japan.

I recognize this stamp and have seen it before ,can anyone help ?.

                                   Next came this little fella.

 These bench stops are great for planing Japanese style.

                    Made in ebony with no sub blade ( Uragane ).

           And there's a shaving after a quick sharpen on the stones.

What do you think this is going to be used for ?,or do you know what it is ?.

 Well its a bearing scraper and i'm going to try and use it for de-burring Japanese saws after they have been sharpened.

Here is Master Nagatsu-san de-burring a saw after sharpening.

and heres a close up of the knife type tool.

This tool I use for scraping the bottom of my Kanna.

This other bearing scrapers I will use for fitting the kanna blades into the wooden dai.

Thanks for reading and please leave questions or comments part 2 to follow as soon as I have more time.
Andy Ryalls

I think we're going Japanese I really think so

Well this I believe is the future. Stanley have recognised the Japanese saw tooth pattern. But are staying true to the push stroke. Well it's all down to your taste buds , it's not for me as I'd like to think of myself as a craftsmen. I will stay true to the Japanese way as these saws have no spirit.
Regards Andy

The next JTSG

Here is a very quick saw box I made for my noko's. if you would like to make a Japanese tool box , come along on the 16th of March and bring some tools for a fun day.
Hope everyone is well and don't worry the weather can only get better.
Andy

Name stamps

It's a bit late ,but last year I had a new name stamp made at http://www.spanglefish.com/metalstamps/index.asp?pageid=327246 and just thought I would share it with the Japanese group.
I love the way the Japanese craftsmen stamp their work and tools. It does seem to be a world wide thing and makes you tools recognisable to you and in the future other people. There are many very nice stamps out there. Would people like to share their name stamps with a small post.
I find the branding of Japanese dai very interesting.
Having my stamp made for my Japanese tools just seemed like the right thing to do ,rather than using a more western approach. So I now have two stamps.
The Japanese style has an A and R in it and is a close resemblance to the craftsmen symbol.
Thanks for looking
Andy Ryalls

This is a good little read folks leading into the meeting on 10th of Feb

http://giantcypress.net/tagged/Japanese_saw_sharpening/chrono

Tsunesaburo factory news

Hi everyone
This weekend the  catalogue from the Kanna making factory Tsunesaburo    http://www.tsune36.co.jp/top.shtml arrived. Its ok to look at things on the internet or even PDF documents but to have a catalogue ,well for me it makes it real to see it in print. I like these planes very much here's mine below that I us every week. A big thank you to everyone at the Factory for making my woodworking such a pleasurable time. I must also thank Haruka Ohira ( どうもありがとうございました )                         for translating and making it possible to receive this catalogue. I will bring it along to the next meeting for people to see and talk about. 

Thanks for reading Andy Ryalls

Did the west pull planes or not c18 England

Andy

Watching a programme on BBC4 about Thomas Chippendale and this picture came up.............the joiner is pulling the plane! Although the shavings are coming out behind the blade.

The hand positions are quite precise, especially his left hand guiding the plane.

Cheers
Phil

Interesting Phil. The plane looks like it was meant to be pulled looking at the length of the in feed on the sole.

Sharpening Time

Over Christmas I had time to do a little sharpening, well I call it practice sharpening, because until Master Masakazu my good friend in Japan sent over some natural waterstones I did not know the true meaning of sharpening and its skill.

Up to now I have been sharpening using the Japanese man made Shapton waterstones. This is a 1500 grit stone with a 50mm blade it works for 70mm too.

For this amusing photo to happen your stone and blade need to be 100% flat oh and a little practice. The things that you need to remember when sharpening are:

Feel,touch,sound,sight and smell.

These gifts are the roads to your inner spirit ,thats why sharpening is a pleasure for me not a chore and the rewards of using a razor sharp blade is so emotional. It is your mind you are honing not just your blade.

There is something special about the earths natural materials and one of these materials are waterstones ( Toishi ).

Master Masakazu , Toru-san and Ohire Kogei have helped me by selecting these natural Koppa Toishi. I am very grateful to them.

They are finishing stones that create a lovely  looking hazy finish to the cutting edge.

The outer two I have just made bases for, I copied the middle one that Masakazu had made.

The stone is set in about 6mm to give max usable stone life. take your time and follow the shape of the stone base. It looks like they are set in a resin.

Heres the base profile. The timber is mahogany ( lian )

I will let you know how I get on with these treasures in the New year.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for watching.

Andy Ryalls