JHENG,GUO-REN   50 years of experience in making planer knife

The various crafts that were once closely related to people's lives have gradually disappeared as society continues to evolve. In the past, to become a master planer of "le a cao", one had to have a basic knowledge of woodworking and the daily planing volume had to reach the standard of 10,000 cao (the unit of calculation: one piece of cypress straw is called one cao). A skilled master can even plan 30,000 cao a day. Becoming a skilled "le a cao" planer not only tests your skills, but also your physical strength.

Q1:What material is the planer knife made of?
A: Cypress. When cypress wood is cut down, it is sent to the firewood factory to be processed into scraps. After processing, it becomes smoother, and then the lines are drawn according to the length.
Generally, carpenters abandon the "cypress straw" of planing wood to obtain a shiny surface on the wood. To make the "cypress straw" used in hats, every thin slice shaved from the cypress wood had to be preserved and not broken or damaged, and each slice had to be of uniform thickness, which was a test of technology at the time.

Q2:Mr. JHENG, where can I buy a planer knife?
A: Those who are familiar with the use of Taiwanese planer knives are all master carpenters. Planer knives are all custom-made by hand. Every carpenter has his own favorite tools.
In the early days, planer knives were all made by carpenters themselves. The blades were designed based on the pattern and then commissioned to be made in the same shape by blacksmiths, who would then grind and polish them themselves. There was no steel lamination technology at that time, and the quality of the blade was entirely determined by the skills of the blacksmith.

Q3:Mr. JHENG, when did you start learning how to make a planer knife?
A: I have been working with my family since I was discharged from the army.
A good planer knife tool is important for woodworking. A good planer knife can make operation smooth and increase confidence. Therefore, when making planer knives for woodworking friends, whether they are for veterans or novices, we must uphold the same attitude and insist on high-quality tools.

Q4:What’s so special about the cypress straw in the Cypress Straw Hat?
A: The cypress straw of the Cypress Straw Hat is made from cypress wood. When you first plane the wood, you need to make sure that the thin wood slices you plane along the way do not break or even curl. Because the heart of cypress wood is soft, fiber-free and elastic, after being planed into cypress straw, it will emit a natural and special fragrance that makes people feel relaxed. Therefore, the planed silk is twisted into strings of cypress straw strips using a twisting machine and then woven into hats by hand.It is very different from the materials used to weave other hats.

Q5:When we were looking for information, teachers CHEN, HONG-JHEN from the YANG JHEN workshop also provided a lot of online information and directed us to the Fuxing Township Qiaotou Community. Do you know each other?
A: We know each other. His father is also a planer knife maker. In fact, we craftsmen and traditional industries were an important part of life in the past. With the progress brought about by industrialization and commercialization, these old things and old shops are gradually dying out, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
So when the community wanted to promote the Cypress Straw Hat revival "Sian zai cai jhih dao" activity, I was also willing to participate.