This is all that oriental planes are now, simply a sharpened wedge driven into a block of wood.

When the hole works too loose, the Japanese carpenter inserts a piece of paper to tighten it, or he makes a new block.

The first improvement was the addition of a wooden wedge to hold in place the "plane-iron", as the cutter was formerly called.

In this form, the cutter or plane-iron, tho still wedge-shaped, was reversed, being made heavier at the cutting edge in order to facilitate fastening it in the wooden plane-stock by means of the wooden wedge.

Then a handle was added for convenience.