Has anyone used this Japanese plane?

[Ralph Barhorst]

I want to know if this will work on white oak? How much does it cost?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWQFlSa4prM

[Pam Niedermayer]

I don't know that oak will plane so nicely, but in general the planes work on it. They are very, extremely, unbelievably expensive, particularly the one shown, which looks to have about a 6" blade, or bigger.

Pam

[Jeff Willard]

The local Woodcraft has some shavings made by Rob Cosman on display (OOH! Cosman shavings! How much! ). That shaving makes them look sick. I could have wrapped my Christmas gifts with that shaving.

Just wondering? Where would one get a stone on which to hone that iron?

[Ted Jay]

To me that plane was for demonstration purposes only, and wouldn't be practical for everyday use, IMO. Unless your looking to collect wide board shavings...

This looks interesting though, Ive never seen this type of machine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp73o2nT5CU

[Pam Niedermayer]

Ted and Jeff, super wide planes are used every day, in this country and probably Japan, to plane wide posts and boards with no planing tracks.

Pam

[David Gendron]

I can plane a table top with a 2" plane without planing tracks, I don,t think they make a plane that wide??

[Michael Schwartz]

Wide planes like these are sometimes used in japan to slice veneers from segmented laminations for "puzzle box making"

I had a link, a while back with a video showing a plane about the width shown by the original poster, except it was much larger and setup, upside down. The lamination was held down by one person, and pulled across with a rope by another. Quite amazing to watch, trying to find a link.

I found a few sites with pictures showing the veneers being cut with much narrower planes, but I haven't found anything showing a plane as wide as I had seen in the link I had, but It was easily wide enough to slice a continuous veneer for a box.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_box

The process Yosegi refers to the type of parquetry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosegi

[Jeff Willard]

This looks interesting though, Ive never seen this type of machine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp73o2nT5CU

FWW's Workshop Book has a section about a guy that has a one-man sash shop with two of those in it. One set up for the top, the other for the bottom, inline. He bought them when the local Rossignol factory shut down. That was interesting though. I had never seen one in operation. Anybody remember the Uniplane?