KAKURI Japanese Block Plane 50mm for Woodworking, KANNA Smoothing Plane Manual Hand Planer Tool for Finishing Wood, 9.5 x 2.5 x 2.3 inches, ECO Oak Body, Made in JAPAN

Got this thing today. It was very sharp out of the box ---just needed a little more on the diamond stone and stropped. Take your time --tap the plane body with a light hammer to adjust the blade . Tap the plane blade to square it up ---and go! Cutting see-thru even strips of wood. Finish feels almost like plastic it cuts so smooth. This is not a plug-n-play plane. Do the research...learn how to adjust. It cuts smoother and thinner than my $250 dollar plane. Now.... my big plane is used for flattening....but this thing will leave the surface like glass. Something about the steel take and holds a beautiful edge. May not lasting as A2 steel ---but my goodness ---it's like planing with a straight razor. I'm not an A2 fanboy. O1 is better for me. THIS steel ---is even better in my opinion. Doesn't have to be all high tech steel. It just works.

My first Japanese handplane, and I found this one easy to setup and start messing around with. It's good enough to convince me I may need another one to experiment with, but make no mistake it's not replacing my western planes. I somehow lucked into an old Stanley 605 and put a Hock blade in it and I've never seen thinner hardwood shavings than that combination can make, including YouTube videos of Japanese competitions. That said this has definite benefits on softwood and is WELL worth $17!A $17 Japanese plane couldn't possibly be worth its weight right? I mean the whole culture and tradition surrounding Japanese planes involves LOTS of man-hours invested hand tooling every piece... and obviously that costs more than $17... so what on earth is this thing?Well basically it appears to be a machine milled block (dai), and a die cut chunk of steel for a blade. That's really it, and there's nothing magic to it, but there are some small details that make this plane nearly ready to go right out of the package!I snapped some quick photos to illistrate what I'm talking about. The body is all just milled, but it's very flat from the front to the mouth and then ever so slightly relieved behind the mouth just like it should be. The mouth is all just milled, but because the blade is also just a stamped out piece the fit is already very close to what it should be and I expect will be exact after I work on the blade just a bit. I'll come back and finish this review after I hone it up and take some shavings, but so far I'm very pleased. I feel like I paid for a build your own plane kit, and got what looks like a truly functional tool!I have a Stanley 60 1/2 and was considering a new blade for it, but for less than the cost of an aftermarket blade I grabbed this and the Moore and Wright 4003 square I'm using as a straight edge in the pics. If this holds an edge and works endgrain well, it's a 5 star product at twice this price.Update: planed some yellow pine 2x4 without even sharpening it, just filed the blade and chip breaker a smidge to get a fit I liked in the dai and went to town. I knew the technique was backwards from a western plane but I didn't think about how much easier it would make it to line it up planing an edge to get a clean entry onto the board face. Normally with a block plane or Stanley 3 or 4 I might get a little sloppy on the first 1" or so of a board edge, but with this the start was perfect and then the very end got sloppy. Even with a factory sharpened blade it has a very cool burnishing effect on pine that I don't see with any western planes. I'm very satisfied with this purchase even if I only mess around with this on my little pine shop shiznit projects. For the price, size, and weight this thing will probably be with me anytime I do something in softwood. Interested to see how the edge holds up.

For the price and size, this is an excellent plane, but be aware that some care will be necessary to bring it up to snuff, and it will never serve as a proper smoothing plane. The bed is very slightly off on this plane, and so it was necessary to carefully shave a tiny bit off to even it out. I had to take my time on this so as not to make it worse. I also had to take a little time to clean up the edge of the iron. Not a surprise for such a low price.I use this as a block plane, both pulling (like it was intended) and pushing the plane. Because it is a bevel-down iron, one would think that it would not be effective on end grain, but the bed angle is different from a western plane and the iron itself is thicker than a western plane iron (although it is *very* thin compared to a quality Japanese plane iron). The cap iron/chipbreaker is a little flimsy, and so I wonder how long it will hold up; still, after several months of frequent use, I have no complaints. I have trimmed a lot of different hard woods (birch, mulberry, walnut, poplar, including the end grain of all of those) with this plane and it has handled them with ease. It slices easily through soft woods.In comparison to a modern block plane, this is a little better: it is lighter than a metal block plane, the iron is noticeably thicker (so there is no chatter on tough woods), the bed angle is higher (making it easier to push through difficult grain), and the iron holds an edge for a lengthy period without need of additional honing. I don't like the uncomfortable shape of Japanese planes, but since I only use it as a block plane and not a smoother, that isn't a problem. It's *great* for cleaning up dovetails after glueing, since it handles end grain so cleanly.

This wood plane is a strictly traditional design. I have used them for many many years. Western people often don’t understand how to adjust these wonderful planes. All you need to do is take a small hammer and tap the sides alternating left and right to move the blade away from the surface, and likewise tap on the end of the blade to move it towards the surface. Very easy to see, adjust and refine. Once you get used to it you will curse the silly screw knobs of western planes. The steel seems quite good on this plane, stays quite sharp, takes a fine edge. One should always flatten the shoe of a wooden plane when you receive it. Wood is a natural material and will move overtime. Simply place a new sheet of sandpaper down on a saw table or a piece of glass, something you know is very flat, and give it a good rub for a minute. It won’t take long. (Withdraw the blade first, dummy!) You can then add some paraffin or beeswax to the bottom to ease it along the surfaces you will be using it on. This should not affect your finish. Just a pro tip from an old guy.