The Japanese plane or kanna (鉋?) is a plane pulled towards the user rather than pushed in the manner of western style planes. They are made of hardwood, usually Japanese white or red oak. The laminated steel and iron blade is stout compared to western planes. Tapered in length and thickness the plane blade is its own wedge as it fits into a correspondingly shaped mortice in the body of the plane. Thus dispensing the need for a separate wedge to hold the blade in place, as is the case in most other traditional wooden planes. The chip breaker is held in place with a simple nail inserted some distance away from and perpendicular to the axis of the main blade. The chip breaker is not tapered like the main blade, instead it has bent "ears" that bear down on the plane blade. Chip breakers in Japan were introduced relatively recently during the Meiji period. The soles of a Japanese planes also have different configurations intended for varying applications. The apparently simple design disguises a great deal of complexity.
Read more about Japanese Plane: Types
Famous quotes containing the words japanese and/or plane:
“The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)
“We’ve got to figure these things a little bit different than most people. Y’know, there’s something about going out in a plane that beats any other way.... A guy that washes out at the controls of his own ship, well, he goes down doing the thing that he loved the best. It seems to me that that’s a very special way to die.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)