Senkichi Flat Plane with Base Blade Width 2.6 inches (65 mm), For Wood Sharpening, Steel Included, Depth 2.7 x Height 10.8 x Width 3.2 inches (6.9 x 27.5 x 8.2 cm)

So Satisfying in so many ways... Here's how impressed I am with this product: On receiving the plane I believe I observed the tiniest of cracks in the region where the iron slots into the body. In rushed my greediest consumer thought monkeys: "Return it! Return it!".. But as far as I could see it was the tiniest of cracks, so I thought why not fit the iron properly and take a whack at some shavings before I schlepp it back.. The iron was seriously tight in the body (which is where I'm thinking my miniscule crack might have come from). I beat on it for quite some time, released the iron and found it to be respectably sharp (but certainly no hairshaver) but more importantly imo the back was dead flat. I fitted the iron to the body properly (a bit, in a pilgrims fashion), took about an hour, started making paper out of a piece of alerce (!) .. and after a little tapping around on the plane, I'm extracting clean smooth full width shavings with thicknesses down into the .03 mm range, or roughly 1thou. I had high expectations of a japanese plane, properly tuned and sharpened etc. (and there are plent of positive recs on this one) but this exceeded all mine. I have no doubt I can tune the sole and sharpen the iron and start cutting some 20 micron tissue on this thing. I doubt I'll send it back. Whatever flaw this plane may (or may not have) it deserves a life in my shop. And that my friends is satisfying. Borrow my planing board but don't ask to borrow my plane. I gave 3 stars for ease of use because the plane arrives with the iron essentially sledged into the body, if you fumble that iron you're gonna bleed a bucket, and hey you tune it with a hammer. To recap, I'm at a loss as to how much respect this $50 tool deserves..

I bought this tool as an introduction to japanese wood planes, having had good experiences with Japanese pull saws.I chose this particular brand of plane based on reviews indicating that it's a beginner-friendly Japanese plane. My experience confirms this. Smacking the back of the plane with a rubber mallet (as sort of shown in the Japanese language instruction sticker provided with the tool), I was able to eventually get the blade and breaker out. Then, after an hour applying graphite to the back of the plane and progressively removing wood from the high spots of the plane bed with a bench chisel, I got the blade in a position where relatively thin shavings could be obtained.Importantly, the blade was stupid-sharp out of the box (I sliced my finger during setup) and the chipbreaker was pretty flat. I found it useful to leave the chip breaker off for setting the blade depth and then knocking it in after the blade was properly seated. While I'm sure even better results could be obtained by taking the time to further hone/flatten the blade and chip breaker and scrape some relief into the wooden body, I liked the fact that pretty good results could still be obtained by omitting these steps.

Edited as I keep discovering new issues:- This is my first plane, and it's a great one to practice on because everything needs a lot of adjusting to get it to work- Blade seems decent quality. It was nowhere near sharp so took a couple hours just getting the bevel square and smooth.- The sides of the block are not square to bottom. Not a huge deal until you need to join an edge square.- Lots of work smoothing the blade bed. By the time I got it level the blade was too loose and extended waaay beyond the mouth when set. Fixable by adding a few layers of paper but a lot of hassle.

After the initial set up of flattening the bottom, creating wave patterns, and of course sharpening, this thing is performing beautifully. I’m a beginner with woodworking so I got some cheap Japanese chisels, saws, and this. I figured cheaper tools would be better to learn proper sharpening and using techniques for when I chip the blades.Using this plane I’m able to do a great job of truing things without a planet or jointer. Which is great because my first projects were a planing board and some low sawhorses, as the start of building the work area suggested by Toshio Odate instead of a big workbench taking up space in my garage. Can’t wait to get more use out of this, plus I know I can use different wave patterns in the dai for different needs. For those who don’t know, this is not meant to be a plane for burnishing or getting the surface incredibly smooth. BUT, if you’re coming from sanding alone, this will yield much smoother results than that when tuned properly. Also, judging from the angle of the blade (mine is about 37°) these are meant for softwoods or most North American wood types.

Couldn't give 5 stars just because found crack on the body bottom part lengthwise 5 mm depth - it is really hard to notice, but I'm not sure if difference in the humidity in my shop will open the crack more.But if you spent time to set up the plane correctly, it will be essential tool in your wood craft hobby.