Of the special sort for our unique variety of weird.
Needed a break from gift wrapping;
[OP]
Contributor
Of the special sort for our unique variety of weird.
Needed a break from gift wrapping;
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
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Where's your bathrobe? We were promised a bathrobe dammit!Originally Posted by Brian Holcombe
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Thanks. What is the iron in the plane? An aside question - what brand of holdfast is that on your bench? I wonder if all holdfasts are pretty much equal or do some hold better than the lower cost "Tools for Woodworking" brand I use?
David
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Contributor
Patrick,
I am wearing my official planing shirt....an oxford collar button down, recently pressed.
David,
Yokoyama Kunio made the blade, it's Tougou-kou steel.
The holdfasts are Lie Nielsen, they're the only variety I've used but work quite well in my experience.
Last edited by Brian Holcombe; 12-24-2015 at 12:56 PM.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Member
Brian:
You always bring in the cheer. Thanks for this. I've always been amazed at the shavings that people can take with Japanese planes. I'm afraid I'd never figure them out. I'm still having trouble with a LV smoother I bought. I still can't seem to get that thing set up correctly, let alone a Kana.
jeff.
[OP]
Contributor
Jeff,
Anytime!
I love the Kanna, but the #4 remains my go-to for most situations. If you need help with the smoother I'm happy to offer opinion/suggestion.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Member
As has been said many times - it's usually the archer not the arrow (provided that we consider sharpening to be part of "archer" :-)
Well-smithed white steel takes a ferocious edge, but you can shavings like that with any of LV's blade offerings (O1, A2, PM-V11) as well. The key for me when I was in your boat was to figure out how a truly "sharp" blade looks and feels. Once you have that reference to aim for it's easy enough to figure out how to get there.
Contributor
Oh I see a defect in the shaving,Wait never mind it was a cookie crumb on my iPad screen.😋
Contributor
Beautiful shaving.
Did woodworkers of yore use shavings like decorations on their Christmas trees?
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
Thanks for the therapy Brian. Must get around to trying one of those planes!
[OP]
Contributor
The pleasure is mine, of course, thanks Gents. Happy holidays.
Jim, my wife takes them once in a while for decoration.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
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No bathrobe? Perhaps a nice red velvet smoking jacket and blue cravat would finish out your planing sartorial ensemble nicely.
How is your Yokoyama performing? Nice kezurikasu. Good for the soul, I am sure.
I have a Yokoyama plane just like yours. My blade crumbled immediately and badly when new, but after 3 or 4 sharpenings it settled down and hums as it shaves wood.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Last edited by Stanley Covington; 12-24-2015 at 7:39 PM.
Member
How do you set the blade so fine?
With a hammer?
I am afraid I would tap too hard and have to keep starting over.
I can get the blade sharp, but is there a trick to setting the blade depth?
Martin, Granbury, TX
Student of the Shaker style
[OP]
Contributor
Don't forget the monogrammed slippers.
I've had the same experience, it was a little chippy right off bat, but after a couple sharpenings it is awesome. It turns out walnut gorgeously and actually has been the reason for my wanting to do a few projects in tight grained softwoods for built-in type stuff around the house.
This stuff is quite addictingEven taking swipes on junk-wood from the local retail giant was enjoyable.
Martin,
I set it with a mallet, you get the hang of it pretty quickly. I just take light taps when I'm getting close and if I set it to far just a few light taps on the back of the dai will lighten the cut. The adjustment can be extremely fine, for novelty I was taking shavings then measuring their thickness with a micrometer (this stuff actually relaxes me, believe it or not) and light taps were worth about .0002"
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Member
That is a generous offer that I may take you up on. I'm sure it is just user error at this point. The blade is pmv11 which may be giving me a bit of a harder time sharpening (compared to my bevel up A2 irons in my LV jack and jointer). Also I'm having a bit of a hard time getting the cap iron/chip breaker to mate correctly. It is one of the "old" pattern LV smoothers so has the stamped chip breaker that has a lot of "spring" in it as things are tightened down.
One of the weird things about that model is that end of the lever cap pushes on the "hump" in the cap iron when everything is in place. I may be overtightening things and that the lever cap is causing a bit of a gap between the cap iron and the iron when things are tightened down. I don't think so, but it is hard to tell.
I think at this point it is just a bit more time on the stones to get things tuned in correctly. It works better now than it did, but still not there yet. So get the blade sharper, get the chip breaker front flattened correctly at the right angle so it mates to the iron better, and I'm probably there.
If I have trouble I'll let you know.
LV no 4.jpg
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