A Kanna Revival

[C. in Indy]

I would have taken more pictures of the process, had I known I'd like the outcome so much. Here is an old used Kanna plane. Things I did to bring it to life were:

- A 'Frankenstein neck bolt' through the rear section to stabilize a split.
- Some careful grinding and honing to make the blade square and sharp.
- Augmenting the bedding area with some veneer pieces and epoxy, later chiseled to hug the blade nicely.
- Lots of trial & error scraping to bring the sole into tune.



It has been a fun addition to my tools. Nice features are:
- 40 degree bedding makes it a nice shooting plane.
- Low center of gravity, can be used sideways or upright, etc.
- No blade chatter; this thing is stout!
- Feels good in the hands.

Thanks to Wilbur & friends for the inspiration! It probably won't be my last one. I do like them with some weight to them.

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Great job. Love the curlies.

[Herebrooks]

Are you hollow grinding?

[C. in Indy]

Actually I'm not hollow-grinding. The prior owner had done a lot of flat-honing at around 20-25 degrees, and a very unfortunate accumulated skew angle as well. So I have just jigged up the blade to get back to a non-skewed, ~ 30 degree flat grind (just enough to re-establish the edge). This blade's hardened side is really really hard! That's the other thing I like, just how hard and lasting the blade is.

I'll post more on that dovetailed box, coming up.

[C. in Indy]

It was a rainy day, so I got the box finished (good cooperation from the liquid hide-glue and spray shellac). A hand-dovetailed Sassafras box, with a bookmatched QS Red Oak top piece (lightly rabbeted and loose-lying fit to the box):

[C. in Indy]

The next Kanna arrived this week.

Here is a tryout of the plane after repairs. Surface finish is just fine, and shaving width is 90% to target. I may re-adjust things after some more acclimatization. The homemade heavy-tip wood hammer has really enhanced my ability to enjoy woodie planes:




Here is the core of the repair. The "frog" part of the white-oak body was fully split, and had been linked back together with a thick staple. I cut out all of the split wood with parallel rip cuts, figuring the wood had assumed a new set which it would want to keep. Then I inserted a bit of ash wood to make the plane solid again. From there, quite a bit of truing and adjusting, but well worth the trouble:

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Very clever repair. Good rehab.

[Window Guy]

Nice job, looking good.


Steve

[Window Guy]

, never used one although I am fascinated by them.


Steve

[Wilbur Pan]

That’s awesome! For me, I learned a lot by buying used Japanese planes on eBay and fixing them up.

As far as using veneers to rehab the bed, I’ve found maple to work really well for this task.