With information from Toshio Odate’s book, and inspiration from Wilbur Pan, Derek Cohen, and David Finck, I decided to build a Japanese plane with a 2″ Hock iron I already had.  The Krenov style is easy to make, I wanted to sidestep the arcane multi-tapered blade-holding system of a real Japanese plane, and I wanted to try Japanese planes without having to buy one.

The body is made of a piece of hard ash I had around.  I made a so-called Krenov body, but instead of a cross pin, I made a wedge first, and glued in cheeks aligned with it.  The blade is bedded bevel down at 38 degrees, plus or minus, with a chipbreaker.  I contoured the sole as Odate shows.

I tried it out.  It works very nicely on soft wood like spruce and poplar, which is what I made it for.  It does alright on cherry.  I wanted to try pulling a plane, and it is a nice motion on the soft woods, but there’s little to hold on to when I have to pull hard through cherry.  I’m used to having a couple of handles to get behind.

The wedge shape needs refining, and the plane tends to catch shavings in the corners of the mouth.  Also, the blade recess is a bit wider than necessary.  The bevel at the front (short end) is too big, and interferes with the pulling grip.  But, I’m very pleased with it and think I’ll use it for the woods I made it for quite a lot.  I hope you enjoy making and using one, too.