Abstract
Recently， the author conducted site surveys of plane body manufactuers in Tokyo， Osaka and Sanjo in Niigata prefecture. In the past， plane bodies were all made by carpenters themselves. As times have changed， however， professional plane body manufactures called “daiya” have appeared and their products are now readily available.
One of the raw materials needed for a plane body is “shirakashi，” which is cut in autumn， winter and spring， and dried before processing. Materials split with an axe， as used in the meiji era， gradually gave way to mass —produced sawn ones in the Showa era. Some time before，“ daiya ” used to procure a bulky timber material from woodworking plants and cut it into blocks to make individual plane bodies. At present， completed blocks for unit plane bodies are circulating for immediate use.
The processing method has also changed. In the past， users bedded the plane blade into a half —finished Plane body， then perfomed final finishing. This process is known as “half finished plane body bedding. ” Now， however， the plane blade is bedded in a completely finished plane body， a process known as “finished -plane body bedding. ” Craftsmen who are skilled in the traditional manual processing of plane bodies have gradually decreased in number. As a result， the mainstream method today is mechanized
processing. However， manual work is still indispensable to the finishing of plane bodies.
