Troubleshooting Customers' Planes

We've unearthed some lock-down era plane support that we sent to customers in video form. In case they're helpful to you, we'll just pop them here.

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Over the years we have helped plenty of customers get their planes tuned, whether in our classes, over the phone, or occasionally via video correspondence.

Below are three videos that we actually filmed during lockdowns in 2021. Two planes were tuned by us in new condition, while a third was returned to us because the customer just couldn't get it to sing.

If you have a plane that isn't quite doing what you want, check out the below videos to see what we consider a good starting point to be. Pay special attention to the second video regarding the chipbreaker, as this was a bit of an "ahah" moment for us, as well as the customer.

Super Sharp Birthday Present

This customer asked us to prepare and tune a Japanese plane as a birthday present. In this video, we run through a few of the things they will need to watch out for as the plane ages and the timber moves.

Their choice of a 58mm Kakuri plane (this is the Aogami blade version) was an excellent one for a first plane. It's large enough to do the smoothing work of a #4 western-style plane, and will out-perform any similarly priced tool on the market today.

Setting a Chipbreaker

This was the first of the beautiful Aogami #1 mamehiraganna that we brought in and tuned.

This customer had previously had difficulty with the blade in their plane dropping too far, so as well as getting it humming we also have an example of firming up the fit by gluing paper to the bed.

With the great fit of the chipbreaker, this plane was equally happy planing with or against the grain. These sorts of results are also within your grasp - pull your plane out and get tuning!