Handplanes are often associated with a high level of craftsmanship, smooth surfaces and beautiful curly shavings.
Choosing the first handplane may not be an easy task, there are many models to choose from and while each one has it’s funcion, some of them are quite versatile and can be used for various tasks. Continue reading this post…
When you buy a brand new Japanese chisel there is some work to do before it can be used.
Like with western chisels, the back of the blade must be flattened and polished to a mirror finish and it has to be sharpened to a very fine edge. Continue reading this post…
Choosing a set of chisels may be a fairly simple affair…. they even come in sets! But which one set should you get? I’d say none!
If you are on a budget, a set of three bevel edge chisels (1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″) will get most of the job done. It’s nice to have a few more sizes, but I’d rather have only these three and have quality chisels than have all the sizes available from 1/8″ to 2″ of lower quality steel. Continue reading this post…
I’ve been meaning to try a few Japanese tools for quite some time but only recently I decided to buy one. I chose to go with one of the most popular types of Japanese saws, the ryoba, which has teeth on both sides of the blade, one filed for crosscut and the other to rip along the grain (see photo above).
The other very popular Japanese saw is the dozuki, similar to the western backsaw, and is mostly used to cut fine joinery like dovetails. This is the saw to use when you want the finest cut. Continue reading this post…
