Japanese Plane Tuning - Part 4 of 5 - Tuning the Sole

Getting good results from your Japanese plane requires a tuned sole. Here Mitch flattens a sole and adds small reliefs.

[@mrkoolio4475]

Timber…..love it

[@davidclark9086]

Another very informative video.

[@davidclark9086]

I just finished watching this again as I am prepared to set up my new plane for smoothing. The flattening of the sole is easy to understand and your method appears to be the best. But when show how to scrape you showed scraping before the blade between the two point and behind the blade as well. If you want to keep the area behind the blade level with the two contact points why scrape or remove wood there? That confused me.

[@NoNameAvailable23]

Hi David, sorry I missed a trick there. If you want a contact patch behind the blade, you only need one right at the back and the same size as the front patch (about 10mm wide). This will make the plane more well suited to jointing and straightening. However, if you are looking to smooth, this contact patch is not needed and can be removed. The area behind the blade only needs to be relieved by a portion of a mm (less that 0.5mm, often closer to 0.1mm). Bear in mind that when the dai moves, if the timber behind the blade drops and contacts the work, it will continue to drop further over time and will cause the blade and mouth to be lifted off your workpiece. Relieving the area behind the blade can help alleviate this issue, or give you more time between sole tuning sessions. Please give us a call if I'm still not explaining it particularly well. Enjoy bringing your plane to life!