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Since I live in a condo, I can use only hand planes. Nothing electrical on the noisy side. Respect for the neighbours comes before my hobbies.
Here are pics of some of my valued japanese plane blades and cap-irons (tomoe osae). They are different from the common borg cheapies. They are hand-forged with blacksmithing methods sometimes secrets (transmitted only from master to apprentice) by master blacksmiths of renown, in that era. Many of these master blacksmiths are descended from famous samurai sword makers from before the Meiji Era (1868-1912). When sword making was banished, many master blacksmiths reprofiled on making high end knife and woodworking tools. Thus, an ancient art survived to this day. The largest part of these tools are signed either by the smith or the seller.
I found recently that they are the most suitable to work the softwoods I use to make picture frames for my daughter Emma. For these quality of tools, one millimeter of edge used up means some 2-3 years from the tool life; one such blade can last for 2-3 generations. They are used only for finishing, not for planing coarse surfaces. A common jack plane is fine for getting to shape.
Tougou (0-gou or #0) 73mm wide vintage steel blade. Forged and finely hand engraved. Keeps an edge for a very long time unless abused. Reasonable sharpenability. Tougou composition (as found on the web) is Carbon:1.4-1.5% Chromium:0.5-0.6% Tungsten:2.3-3.06% Molybdenum:0.05-0.08% Vanadium:0.16-0.2%. |
Tougou blade - back. Tougou Reigou steel was imported until the 30's from the british Andrews Company. Tougou steels are considered by most to outperform anything made before and after their era. Few contemporary master blacksmiths still posess stock and knowledge to forge this very difficult type of alloy. On the back there are soot remains from the adjustement of the plane. |
Laminated and marked subblade (tomoe osae). Still a quality implement, not some iron sheet stamped and bent to shape. |
Yoshihisa by Ishiguro Keijiro 50's vintage white steel 70mm wide blade. Forged and hand engraved. For the bio info on the blacksmith Ishiguro click here. |
Back showing the grain of the soft iron, called "kamaji". It is a very soft (softer than brass) almost pure iron, full of silica (slag) which aids in sharpening and protects from rust. This iron is mostly of British origin from before the 1856 when the Bessemer process changed the composition of the iron and steel production. It is recovered from ancient anchor chains, old boilers and bridge sections built until the end of the 19th century as today it is no longer produced. |
Engraving detail of the Yoshihisa blade; The characters of the centre are ISHIGURO YOSHIHISA, to the left HIDEN (secret method) JYUKUREN (high quality), and to the right TEION TEUCHI (low temperature, hand forged). |
Laminated but unmarked subblade. The subblade (tomoe osae) aids in stabilizing the high frequency vibrations induced in the plane blade in action and also as a heat sink. In planing usually high temperatures are attained and they are the main source of wear on the edge. The closer the chipbreaker is on the edge the better it absorbs excess heat. |
Overall image of the Yoshihisa based kanna (40°). The wood is Japanese white oak. Closer in structure to the European beech and harder and more elastic than common oak. |
Detail. |
It's useful to keep your blades in a box from a softwood without tannin and away from humidity. This one was a former pencils box found empty at a flea market. I carved a little to make a good place for the blades. |
Tachibana blade. It was sold to me by an reputed californian expert when I sollicited him a quality blade but not at a museum price tag. It is form a strong alloy (maybe Tougou, maybe blue steel) it was rusted initially (never used) and the edge had a chip. The price was reduced with 75% because of these flaws. It didn't had a oak body (dai). I made for it a dai from an eucalyptus chunk I had in my shop. |
A vintage blade bought very cheap on eBay. Good steel, the dai is light (not pictured), very easy to sharpen. Maybe it was forged after the Second World War when special steels were scarce. The cap iron (tomoe-osae) is a stamped chunk of steel plate but it does a good job. |
