The Japanese plane or is a plane

Plane (tool)

A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood. When powered by electricity, the tool may be called a planer. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber or timber. Planing is used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on...

 pulled towards the user rather than pushed in the manner of western style planes. They are made of hardwood

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

 , 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.

Types

• is the usual type of flat plane used for smoothing wood. There are several types, depending on the level of finish.
  • is used for the first planing.
  • .
  • .
  • is used for finishing work.
• is a shoulder plane
  Shoulder plane
  The shoulder plane is a plane tool with a blade flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. Like a rebate plane, the shoulder plane's blade extends, therefore cuts, to the full width of the tool. The shoulder plane is used to trim the shoulders and...
  
  . The blade is angled and inserted into the centre of the plane block at an angle.
• is a groove plane used for cutting kamoi and shikii (see fusuma
  Fusuma
  In Japanese architecture, fusuma are vertical rectangular panels which can slide from side to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors. They typically measure about wide by tall, the same size as a tatami mat, and are two or three centimeters thick...
  
  ).
• is a plane with a convex base used for scooping out curved surfaces.
• is used to plane the surface of other planes. Its blade is held at 90 degrees to its base.
• is a spear-like plane, the original plane used in the most ancient buildings. Its use has been revived in Japanese temple carpentry.
• is a spokeshave
  Spokeshave
  A spokeshave is a tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts - often for use as wheel spokes, chair legs ,, self bows,and arrows. It can also be used to carve canoe paddles.-Modern:...
  
   with two handles.
• is a push style kanna. These planes existed historically in Japan.

The name changes from kanna to ganna are due to rendaku

Rendaku

is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word...

.

External links

• Japanese plane at the Takenaka carpentry tools museum