new toys from Japan

[Wilbur Pan]

If these were western chisels I would just flatten/polish the area right behind the edge. BUT for these should I work the whole back or just the area near the edge. I don't want to unnecessarily shrink the hollow, but I also encountered a japanese chisel once that had been worked so hard just behind the edge that a ridge had been created between the polished are and the unworked area. I've never had that happen on a western chisel. Is that "ridge" something that is more likely to happen on one of these because the hollow decreases the amount of steel being worked? Or was that ridge in the one chisel I encountered just the result of it being worked WAY to hard?

FWIW, when I sharpen up my Japanese chisels, I work the bevel and the back, and I tend to work about 1" worth of the back, much like you would when preparing a western chisel. Except for when the chisel is brand new, I use my finest grit waterstone on the back during this process, so any worries about creating the ridge you describe are pretty minimized. Overall, I don't worry too much about reducing the hollow prematurely.

BTW, I see that you're in Philly. If you want to make the drive up to central NJ, I'd be glad to show you some of this in person.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks guys. I didn't have any real time in the shop to speak of last night but I did manage to hone up the 18mm. I put the whole back on my 8k running parrallel to the stone to see where I was starting from. It showed a slight concavity down the length, which I consider a good thing, and a low area just behind the cutting edge, which needed to be honed out. Put as much of the chisel as would fit on my 800 perpendicular the length (so normal) and worked the back until the whole area behind the cutting edge was being hit. This went very VERY quickly...like maybe 40 strokes on the 800, until the whole area behind he cutting edge was hit.

Took the chisel to my 8k and then to CrOx on my hard urethane strop and got it widdling hanging hairs in no time. I probably won't continue to work the whole back in the future as the back should never need to be put on anything other than my finest stones, but it is nice that came as flat as is did and that the biggest out of flat that it is is a concavity down the length, again, a good thing.

Anyway, WOW such nice steel. I've only ever has one other chisel (a vintage, Buck I think, parer) that I could get to cut hanging hairs. More importantly this KI did indeed grease through both super soft white pine and hard maple end grain. There were 2 streaks in the otherwise burnished end grain indicating that there are either a couple deeper scratches/mill marks or micro chips in the edge that I didn't fully hone out. For most chisels I would probably just let them get worked out in subsequent honings but because the plan with these chisels is to rarely need to drop them below 8k (on bevel or back) I'll probably go back and work them out sooner than later...shouldn't take more than a minute or two though.

Thanks for the advice guys...yeah, really not that different from a Western chisel, but I'm glad I asked. There's just so little steel on the back I can see how lack of care or too heavy of a hand in the wrong place could yield a less than ideal result, in a way that it wouldn't on a western chisel. And Dave, thanks for recommending these things to me...really just such nice chisels.

Wilbur, yeah, one of these days I'll come crash your workshop...lord knows when, time is always hard to come by. If nothing else I'll bring my Kanna along as I never did get that thing working very well.

[Tony Shea]

Wilbur, yeah, one of these days I'll come crash your workshop...lord knows when, time is always hard to come by. If nothing else I'll bring my Kanna along as I never did get that thing working very well.

That's too bad you haven't got your kanna working that well yet. I don't use my kanna's a lot as most of my planing is rough and finish planing is a very short process. But when I do use them I am in awe every time they touch the wood. It can become a bit of a problem as I want to plane more wood than I should be just because of how well they work. There is no other plane in my arsenal that can take such a thin and full width shaving as my kanna's. I have some decent LN smoothers (no infills though) that are beauty's but still can't leave the same surface behind as the kanna's. I highly recommend figuring them out Chris, you will not be disappointed.

Does KI offer any of their paring chisels in a multiple hollow configuration? I run into issues some times while paring a corner with my Japanese chisels with the single large hallow. I'd like to get myself a couple decent Japanese parers with multiple hollow backs.

[Chris Griggs]

I don't know if KI makes multiple hollow parers... (though I'm pretty sure they make multiple hollow bench chisels). Hopefully Stu will see your question. If I were to get a KI parer larger than my 18mm I too think the option for multiple hollows would be nice.

I had the Kanna working ok for a while on softwoods, but it always chattered a bit on anything harder than poplar. I went through a whole thread here getting it setup and trying to get my technique right. I never did really figure out if the chatter was my technique or something in how I setup the plane...though I am pretty sure it was the plane chattering not the blade itself. Anyway, I eventually put it aside, as my Bailey planes just work so well. I may figure it out someday, but I got bored of half blindly trouble shooting it.

[Wilbur Pan]

Wilbur, yeah, one of these days I'll come crash your workshop...lord knows when, time is always hard to come by. If nothing else I'll bring my Kanna along as I never did get that thing working very well.

Any time. We'll get that thing going.