Japanese Lie Nielsen

Ok, somehow I deleted the previous text.


Anyway, I got a new japanese plane, 200 euros after shipping and taxes (40eur). Out of the box, a light hone, and scraping a tad the bed, is making 20microns shavings. The japanese dude I read likes 7 microns.

And it looks gorgeous.

It's a really small and light plane. It works out of the box. The iron has marks on its back, like saying "you see, I was made by hand. That means you can do the same. Just get some charcoal, iron, steel and time... mostly time". That was also what Henry Miller recommended at the end of his tropic of cancer.

I still need to Fit the chip breaker, but that will be another day. Today burgers and beer to celebrate the beginning a good friendship.


EDIT: I got the previous post back thanks to a faithful reader

One of the reasons of picking up this job in Austria was that here you get 14 salaries. I was happy with the 13th you get in Holland, so getting one more here is even better. I wonder if I can manage to get 15 salaries in Chile next year.

Anyway, having some spare cash, I checked around for something sexy. I may build a guitar next year with Opa, in fact, I may start next week that I'm doing a short visit, so I wanted something that could take care of the tropical woods. I want to plane the top and the bottom a la Tanaka.

I chose some swedish steel from the 50s. I really like both the girls and the writers from the 50s, so why not give it a try?

This was the description of what I bought (thanks google translate):

Core Hitoshi Yamamoto Yoshi-raku Kensuke work * leopard * Hira鉋
* Tailor-made goods * charcoal Put * Wataboshi type
* Miki Yamamoto plane Manufactory is a special customized products flat plane
* 1955 circa Swedish special steel * co-back

Sounds nice, isn't it? I got it in 54mm since it was 22000 yen for everything, and I like round numbers. Also, a thinner blade will be easier to pull on hardwoods. (And I saw that Tanaka has a few 54, so if it's good enough for him, should be plenty good for me.)

All in all, cheaper than the veritas block plane I was looking at, and 2/3 the price of the lie nielsens I used to fancy. And hand made.

Refurbishing old tools is nice. You get to love them after you fix them. But this is different. It comes pristine, and it will show every mistake you make. Maybe the beginning of a good friendship. (I also like the movies from the 50s now that I think about it.)