kanna 鉋

A plane, used to shave away the surface of timber to get a smooth finish. In Japan, where most buildings in pre-Meiji architecture were made of wood, a planed wooden surface with a very fine grain was highly valued. Various types of wood were selected and left exposed in their natural form. Thus the plane became an extremely important tool. There are many different varieties and shapes of planes depending on their use. These included the smoothing plane *hiraganna 平鉋, the corner-cutting plane *kiwaganna 際鉋, the side-shaving plane *wakiganna 脇鉋, and the grooving plane *maruganna 丸鉋. A relatively hard wood such as white oak shirakashi 白樫, or Japanese oak nara 楢, is used for the base of the plane or plane stock, kannadai 鉋台. The cutting blade is inserted at an angle of 30-40 degrees into the base. The blade edge protrudes very slightly from the sole. When planing timber, the plane is placed on the surface to be worked, pressed down firmly and pulled towards the body with both hands. The pared off fine shavings kannakuzu 鉋屑, exit from the throat haguchi 刃口 of the plane.