For Father’s Day, my family chose a gift that brought together two of my favorite interests: collecting wood planes and making useful wooden items. The present was a Kakuri brand Hira-Kanna (平鉋, a common Japanese plane) with a 42mm blade, along with a chopstick-making jig and six jarrah blanks ready to be turned into pairs of chopsticks.
The Hira-Kanna Plane
The Hira-Kanna I received is a type known as jö-shiko (上仕工), or smoothing plane. This plane is highly regarded in Japanese carpentry for producing the finest finishes.
Toshio Odate, in his classic book Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use 1
“The surface produced by this plane is of the best quality, very shiny and smooth. In Japan, the jö-shiko is the last plane used for both interior and exterior architectural work and other finished objects; the shokunin is judged by its finish. Most shokunin will have two or three smoothing planes of different quality, with one being especially good. This one would be used for important or highly visible surfaces… The cutting edge is almost straight, and is of the highest quality, sensitivity and sharpness; it protrudes only a little from the sole and can cut a tissue-thin shaving—the mouth of the block should be just wide enough for the shaving to pass through.”
In Japan, the standard of a craftsman (shokunin) is measured not just by skill but by the surface finish left by the plane itself—no sandpaper required.
The Chopstick-Making Jig
The chopstick jig that came with the plane is both simple and ingenious. It’s double-sided, each side featuring a tapered recessed groove and a sliding wedge clamp to hold the blank in place.
The process is straightforward:
- Place a 26cm-long blank (up to 1cm square) into the recess and plane one face.
- Rotate the blank 90° and plane again.
- Flip the jig, expose the third face, and plane.
- Rotate once more to finish the final side.
After these steps, the blank is evenly tapered and only needs light sanding and oiling to become a finished pair of chopsticks. Perhaps as I become more adept at using the plane I might be closer to the true Japanese craftsmen result and not need to sand the chopsticks.
Remarkably, it took me longer to properly adjust the kanna blade than it did to produce three pairs of chopsticks!
Chopsticks in Context
Chopsticks (hashi, 箸) are among the oldest and most enduring tools in daily life across East Asia. Archaeological finds trace their origins back more than 3,000 years to China’s Shang Dynasty (c. 1200 BCE) 2
.Japan adopted chopsticks in the 7th century, initially in ritual and ceremonial contexts, before they became standard eating utensils 3
Handmade chopsticks remain valued in Japan not only as practical tools but also as small works of craftsmanship. The act of shaping them with a plane, rather than milling them mechanically, connects to a long-standing tradition of precision handwork in Japanese woodworking.
Final Thoughts
This Father’s Day gift was more than just a new addition to my tool collection. It became an enjoyable project that blended tradition, craftsmanship, and utility. In less than an afternoon, I turned raw jarrah blanks into elegant chopsticks, all while experiencing firsthand how a finely tuned Japanese plane can elevate even the simplest woodworking task.
References:
1. Toshio Odate, Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use (Linden Publishing, 1984)
2. Chopstick – Encyclopedia Britannica
3. Chopsticks in Japan – Japan National Tourism Organization