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DAIKU-ness,becoming and being a daiku, has played the unifying role in my personal path and development for almost 30 years. It started for me when I happened upon a demonstration by a Japanese Tea house carpenter, Makoto Imai of Gero, Japan. He had returned with his family to live and work in the Bay Area after a previous work stint re-constructing a temple brought from Japan. This chance encounter became an important window for me to look through and contemplate what I saw outside my own world; it became an opening for fresh air and ideas to circulate and re-invigorate some of what we as a culture are rapidly leaving behind as we move ahead with modern progress; and most significantly, it became the window that mirrored back to me, my own true image of myself-allowing me to experience the results of my intentions thru the exercise and development of skilled work.

Because I had no steady teacher, my Japanese tools have always been my teacher. Through the care and use of these finest of hand tools and the ideas they inspire with their use, I have been able to build a life for me and my family, and share a human-scaled lifestyle activity with people around the world.

California Daiku is a young seedling from an ancient and venerable forest that has taken root and joined forces with fertile soil. We, too, like our unknown ancestors, will transform the wind into useful forms that enhance and connect us with sustainable values present in the world of Nature, the work of Craft, and the appreciation of friendship.

Price: $50.00 USD + $6 USD regular shipping (or $10 USD for international shipping). Click the buttons below to order through PayPal, or contact us for other types of payment. This 2 DVD set includes over 2 hours of instruction about the ideas and working concepts for setting up and using wooden-bodied Japanese planes called “kanna”. Starting with a brief introduction of the tools used for working lumber into boards prior to the invention of Japanese pull planes, the chona, yari-ganna, and Chinese push planes are outlined. Also discussed are the different grades of planes – roughing, smoothing and burnishing, including a discussion of the use of different angles of blade in the block, and beam planes used in Japan.
In real time, viewers are taken through all the basic steps and adjustments usually necessary for using and maximizing the results with this tool. The core of the presentation is the adjustments needed to be made in a new plane before it can be used properly. Topics also thoroughly covered are sharpening the blade, relationships of the parts of the plane, adjusting the sole of the “dai” (the wooden plane body), and guidelines for setting the blade for effective planing. This presentation concludes with an important section on Ura Dashi, tapping out the hollow grind and re-establishing the ‘land’ on the top side of the blade which is lost during the continued sharpening process.

Introduction	Making shavings
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