Thursday, February 10, 2011

Kyokumen kanna

One of my most used electrical tools is the plane with a curved sole. It is useful for shaping after roughly removing bulk. In this case shaping the bracket or pillar head piece I was lifting to offer up to a joint in a drawing the other day. According to my improvised knowledge of Japanese, kyoku means curve, men means plane or surface, kanna is a plane so this is a kyokumen kanna. Spokeshaves have a Chinese heritage here, so they are called Nanking kanna after the southern city in China, even though they do a similar job.