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Here's a tip. Go to Yahoo Japan Auctions and look for smaller, odd shaped stones that don't attract a lot of attention. Look for pics of the slurry. If the slurry is black, it's mostly metal swarf which means it's a hard stone. You can find some real gems for a good price if you know what to...

You should see them go bonkers over natural sharpening stones. Some people over there will pay hundreds, sometimes a thousand or more for a stone. There's an Ohira shirosuita on Yahoo Auctions right now and it will fetch a minimum of $600. That's obsessional :lol:

Do yourself a favour and get Atoma brand diamond plates. They wear slower and sharpen more consistently. Buy the 1200 plate and a 600 replacement sheet, stick it to the other side of the aluminium base and you have a 2 sided diamond plate. You can also use the 600 side to flatten stones.

Well, I didn't choose this nickname for nothing. You are correct, I work on boats professionally from time to time (among other things). When you're working with hard, White Oak all day long a soft chisel just won't do because you'll be back to the grinder after half an hour of chopping. A full...

An experienced sashimono will prefer a full hardness white steel blade almost all of the time. And they don't have to be very expensive if you don't care who's name is on it.

Why do you assume a high quality Japanese chisel is high-end and very expensive? That's exactly the point I made. They're used as general purpose tools. I have a few cheap Stanley chisels for when I need something I can abuse and when I'm working on solid wood I use my Japanese chisels.

The new Stanley Sweetheart 750 chisels are also 59-60HRc. They're pretty popular with furniture makers over here who don't want to lay down the money for Lie Nielsen. Even Narex is right around 58HRc. I don't know where that 54HRc comes from that this "expert" is talking about. That's what a...

Of course this is all highly subjective and all depends on what you grew up with. A typical Japanese chisel of good quality is 63-64HCR, I prefer them even harder at 65-66HRC. The Japanese have been using chisels of this hardness for centuries with great success. I think the reason why modern...

Some highly skilled blacksmiths in Japan (who no longer produce) did wonderful things with Swedish steel and the blades rivalled the best white steel blades. Konobu still makes blades from Assab K120.

Just a quick comment on Kiyohisa. There's an old and grumpy blacksmith in Niigata who's work is a little bit better than what Kiyohisa turns out and he charges half of what Kiyoei charges. The ease with which he works shirogami-ichi-go is a joy to see and he will happily do a full hardness...

Merbau is fun stuff. Years ago I did a refit on a boat and the client wanted a Merbau floor throughout the entire boat. Nothing is straight and square on a boat so the only way to make the floor parts fit quickly was with a jigsaw. I could cut maybe 2 pieces to fit and then I had to switch to a...

I bought it about 2 years ago to try it out. Threw it in the bin a week later.

That little ECE block plane would be great if the depth adjuster knob, that doubles as the hand rest, would stay in place when you use the plane. It's the main reason I stopped using it.

When I started my company almost every yacht interior was made from Teak and the quality was great. I could get quarter sawn, thick teak planks with no rot with a nice straight grain for a good price. Nowadays it's mostly plantation Teak. It's too young, too green and when I get wide planks I...

Here's a plane I would buy. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Record-vinta ... SwqfZaXQGY Clean it up, flatten the frog and sole, lubricate all the moving part and you have a very nice plane that will perform just as well as any Lie Nielsen or Veritas.

The nice thing about the Veritas blades is that they're almost the same thickness. The old standard Record and Stanley blades are 2.2mm and the Veritas is 2.5mm so you can just drop it in your plane and go. You don't have to file open the mouth or mess around with the y-lever.

We're a minority :cry: I do have a lovely Record No3 from the early 50's with a Veritas replacement blade that's a dream to use.

I'd love a Veritas No3 and would gladly pay $240 for it. A No3 is such a useful size. It's lighter which means it's easier to use and manoeuvre and because it's narrower you have less resistance. Combine this with the excellent Veritas adjustment and you have my dream plane.

I've mounted several stones on Teak with Sikaflex marine adhesive. This was about 10 years ago and the Teak is still split free and straight and it's impossible to get the stone off without ruining it. I've found this to be the best method.

It was code red here today in large parts of the country which basically means it was too dangerous to go on the road. Airports were closed, there were less trains and lots of car accidents. It wasn't that bad up here in Friesland were I live for most part of the day but at 03:00PM I told my...