Japanese Planes

We stock Japanese planes (kanna) from two makers, Tsunesaburo and Koyama, between them covering everything from a woodworker's first kanna to specialist tools for joinery and profiling work.

Tsunesaburo are a third-generation traditional Japanese plane making workshop from Miki city (Japan's Sheffield). The Tsunesaburo planes featured here have been recommended as suitable for intermediate level western woodworkers transitioning to Japanese planes for the first time. Whilst still being relatively affordable, these Japanese woodworking planes are professional quality 'lifetime' tools optimised for use on western hardwoods, the plane blades are laminated from blue paper steel and soft iron, mounted in carefully seasoned white oak bodies. With proper preparation and care they will deliver many years of excellent service.

For specialist joinery and profiling work, we also stock a range of Koyama planes, for woodworkers who have moved beyond flat surface preparation and want to explore rebate, rounding and compass planes and other task-specific kanna. Between the two makers, the range reflects the full breadth of what Japanese plane-making has developed over centuries.

New Japanese planes are normally delivered 90% finished, with blade fitting, final honing and sole preparation left to the new owner. Tsunesaburo planes are quite a bit closer than that, having been set up at the factory so that the blade will advance just far enough to take a cut. After allowing the well seasoned timber to acclimatise to your workshop, a tiny amount of scraping on the bed (literally microns) with a scraper chisel might be necessary to fine tune the setting.

Learning these Japanese plane set-up processes forms the foundation of the skills you will need for maintaining your Japanese planes throughout their working life. There is an excellent series of videos by Sumokun on you tube that explain the process in English (watch the first video, then the third, then the second).