What is this?

Pic #2 

Dean Lapinel

>

Re: Pic #2

wayne anderson

>Scrapers for metal. I have a whole set in a purpose-made box. Been meaning to give them a try. -wayne

Re: What is this?

mikew

>Hi Dean--they're bearing scrapers.

Take care, Mike

My WAG...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA

>Medievel sex toys? Naaaa...

Re: What is this? *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Yeah, bearing scrapers I was told, I've got a couple of them, too. I'd thought they were yarikanna, which would be much better, much more valuable. I plan to do my best to grind them into yarikanna (spear plane) act-a-likes/look-a-likes.

Pam


$500!

Re: What is this?

Ernie Miller

>Dosent the size differance give you a hint that they are not the same? how are they used and for what? Your not becoming a collector are you? Say it ain't so! Oh well at least you are not into western tools

Re: What is this?

Tony Zaffuto

>Pam,

Is the Yarrikanna a tool (size) that might be a good bet for cleaning the insides of dovetails? I've looked at a "spear point" tool in the Jappan Woodworker catalog thinking of that sort of application. If I remember correctly David Charlesworth spoke of the "spear point" tool in one of his earlier books, but not regarding use of cleaning up dovetails!

Thanks,

T.Z.

Re: What is this?

Robin Corell in Atascadero, CA

>I use a small yari kana I bought from misugi designs for doing exactly that. The one I have came unhandled and is close in size to a north west style bent knife. It was delivered in scary sharp condition and holds an edge extremely well. because it only has a bevel on one side it makes a better cut than a chip knife, and becaise of its size and the fact that it has a cutting edge on each side it is easier to manuver than a skew chisel.

Robin Corell

Re: What is this?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Sorry, I simply grabbed the first yarikanna example I could find, they also come much smaller, and much more expensive. I do collect very small boxwood tools, but not in any quantity, get one now and then.

As to the bearing scrapers I've got, they came with one of the first lots of chisels and stuff I got on ebay some 6 years ago, a daughter was selling her dad's chisels + in one swell foop [sic]. I figured her dad had served in Japan during WWII and had picked them up, but you guys set me straight.

Pam

Good idea. *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I don't use my smallish yarikanna (8" long, head 2", see below) that way, more for taking small bumps off a surface and/or putting small bumps into a surface, but it's not a bad idea if you're careful with the curve and don't gouge out the base.

Pam


Takahishi carving tools

Re: What is this?

Paul Kierstead

>Well, although you will never get $500 for such a thing if you don't ask for it, just asking $500 doesn't mean it is worth it (or will sell for it) either. Yes, I am Mr. Obvious. However, that is a very poor and sad specimen and I would doubt any Japanese craftsman would put his name on such a thing. I could be wildly wrong (been so lots of time before) but I am just sayin...

Re: What is this?

Ernie Miller

>Back to the real question how are they used? is the sole? flat and they are used to remove high spots? for joints or what?

Re: Good idea.

Ernie Miller

>Interesting? Maybe us westerners haven't evolved that fast.

Re: What is this?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Well, I'm not a yarikanna connoisseur, but Tomonori (mifuqwai) is a temple carpenter who, so far, has been quite honest (at least as honest as language skills allow) and right about the tools I've bought from him. He says he used this on a temple project. The soft iron is Kamaji (old wrought iron), which I guess is in short supply.

It's also a very big yarikanna, which may need to be shaped differently than smaller ones, which can be more precisely bamboo leaf shaped, delicate in the extreme. My inclination would be to guess that $500 is a good deal.

That said, it has been sitting there for months, so you may be right. I also want to be clear that I'm not shilling for Tomonori, his shpping charges eat me alive.

Pam

Re: Good idea.

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>It's reputed to have been the first Japanese plane, mostly for log dressing.

Pam

Re: What is this?

Tony Zaffuto

>Since the original post, I purchased two new items that are virtually identical to the pictures. The items are "machinist scrapers" and mine came from MSC. I've been meaning to try out using scrapers for sometime on plane bottoms (actually on the junkiest non-collectable with wide open mouth and chipped sides) to see how they work for flattening. Price for scrapers is cheap: about $3.00 to $5.00 each.

As an aside to scraper functions, I may try to alter one into a chisel--probably the triangular scraper into my version of a "spear-point plane/chisel".