Eskilstuna No.6 Corrugated Plane

[CaptainBarnacles]

Hi All,

Over the last few weeks I have been downsizing my workshop and clearing out some of the items that I don't use etc. The other day I stumbled upon this old plane that I inherited some years ago and has been sat at the back of a cupboard ever since.

Having Googled around for it I couldn't find any mention of this particular plane. I gather Eskilstuna is the Swedish equivalent of Sheffield in that quality tools and steel were produced there. I have lots of references to steel, blades, razors, and the odd reference to hand planes but I could not find any reference to a No.6 with a corrugated sole.

Is it likely that the plane was marked Eskilstuna as it's manufacturing origin or was there ever a brand called Eskilstuna? There are no other markings on the plane (that I can see) so I am a bit confused. Similarly, there are no markings on the frog. Sadly the blade and cap iron were Record so I imagine that they aren't original to the plane.

Has anyone seen one of these before? I would like to know what era it is from and generally any more information at all would be useful.

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[blackrodd]

Found this discussion by members,- anton-berg-eskilstuna-blades-t74209.html

And some history from a well informed member,-
http://straightrazorplace.com/razors/26 ... story.html
HTH
Regards Rodders

 

[custard]

The Shark brand chisels from EA Berg in Eskilstuna go for crazy prices in the US, with this plane you might be able to cash in on that foolishness!

 

[CaptainBarnacles]

Found this discussion by members,- anton-berg-eskilstuna-blades-t74209.html

Thanks Rodders, I don't know how I missed that thread when I searched :? Indeed there is some good information there. Interesting to see that comment from Phil.p:

I know where there's a lovely Swedish No 6 corrugated plane with a Berg iron going for £60. I'm tempted.

That sounds like it could be the same as the one I have.

The Shark brand chisels from EA Berg in Eskilstuna go for crazy prices in the US, with this plane you might be able to cash in on that foolishness!

Mmmmm, it's doing nothing sat in a cupboard, if it's worth some decent money I might give it a try on that there worldwide auction site. No doubt Berg got a mention on a popular blog/youtube video and overnight there was a huge demand! Don't they call it the Schwarz effect these days??

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The one I came across had rosewood handles, and I suspect was a little older. It also had "Hellstedt" in the casting, but I can't be certain where.

 

[rafezetter]

I saw recently a set of 22 eskilstuna chisels on ebay.com (USA) that was listed for almost $5000 - ok a matching set of 22 chisels is a different ball game but the price can't be about the 22 matching set alone so maybe there's something to the eskilstuna brand....

 

[CaptainBarnacles]

I saw recently a set of 22 eskilstuna chisels on ebay.com (USA) that was listed for almost $5000 - ok a matching set of 22 chisels is a different ball game but the price can't be about the 22 matching set alone so maybe there's something to the eskilstuna brand....

$5000 :shock: Has the world gone mad!

Bizarrely, when looking for Eskilstuna on that auction site I found this drafting desk. I had one of these 25 years ago. I bought it for peanuts at an auction but some years later when I needed to sell it there was absolutely no interest at all so I ended up putting it in for scrap At the time I was almost in tears, it was such a beautifully made thing. Having just seen a couple sell for £400-500 I am crying a river now :lol:

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Prices may be high at that auction site, but at "in person" sales, such as the dealer sale before Brown Auctions, or Patina tailgating, prices are more reasonable. Having a few Berg and other Eskiltuna made chisels, the steel is good, but no better than many other more reasonably priced vintage tools such as Weatherby or Buck (I'll leave mention of the UK names to those fully in the know!).

 

[Favino]

I´m not sure I can be of to much help here, but I am from Eskilstuna, splitting my workdays between carpentry and Touring as a guitarist.
here is some ”info” from me and from my bookmarks of Swedish woodworking friends.
I have taken the liberty to include some pics, as well as some personal reflections on living in an industrial history..


There were never any ”brand” called just Eskilstuna. But there were many small and a few larger manufacturers from Eskilstuna,
many of whom had Eskilstuna in their name.

The largest one was Eskilstuna Jernmanufaktur - later Jernbolaget - Most of their planes was sold under the Name Anchor.
OP`s plane is probably not an Anchor as All I´ve seen have ”made in Sweden” between front handle and chipbreaker.
But I could be wrong about that.

Here is some pics from the factory..

I believe they stopped the production in the 60´s after being bought by Bahco.
And after that the big building was used by smaller companies and later
started a decline(?).
I used to rehearse with a rockband in the building in the early 90´s.
Today the building have just become private flats after standing empty for a long time.

A company named Anchor still exists, but they are producing padlocks and such.

E.A Berg made blades ( or is that irons? Steels?) for planes but never any planes, But they did knives, and as you all know chisels etc.
They were also bought by Bahco.

E.A Berg have a good reputation over here, and there a lot to be found locally in flea markets. I have quite a few
chisels and blades, and they are good, sure, but I don´t really get the hype either.


Memo was another company and I know for sure they did a #6 with a corrugated sole, but I can only find info on one casted in Aluminum though.
They have a very good reputation among Swedish woodworkers.
They also produced planes for, again, Bacho and under the name Bison.
The plane production was later taken over by Andersson & Co under the name ACO before being bought up by Mellösaverken whom
later were bought by Hultafors. Plane production was planned to be moved to Africa, but I can´t find any info if it ever did.

Memo still exists as a company, but they have moved from Eskilstuna and is about plastic injection kind of stuff.

Planes labeled Hellstedt or Adolf Ståhl was probably manufactured by any of the above as they were retail companies and not factories.

Others from Eskilstuna -

Esteel ( Eskilstuna Steel) I have 2 or 3 planes labeled Esteel, the quality is fair, but nothing special.
They were a small company formed in my hometown of Torshälla ( 7 km north
of Eskilstuna) and produced knives and chisels.

Esteel also sold chisels under the name Gensco
Whole company was also later bought by... Bahco.

Torshälla was a brand in itself (i.e Torshälla Maskiner) producing big metal Lathes,

They went out of business in 95 and today the old factory
Is where I go to the Gym.

B&O Lidberg is another maker with good reputation, Their logo is a Rose after the place their factory was situated.
They were bought up by Jernbolaget 1938. Tomorrow I´ll be rehearsing with my Jazzgroup in their old factory.

GGC - made planes, never seen one in the flesh. Company was bought by EBÖ and later an alu casting company called IAC, ( that should explain the Alu planes) Singer and Hammond player (Brothers) in my First rockband were both Co-Owners of the Casting company, and Sadly both Died at the same age of 47.

Some, a lot of, planes, chip breakers both Swedish and other can be seen here:
http://hyvelmuseum.madcap.se/stalhyvlar-2/

Thank´s for your time, and sorry, don´t know what Op´s plane is, but I have not seen a plane with ”Eskilstuna" written
like that before, but I haven´t really looked for it either. I will know though.

 

[pedder]

Hej Favino,

thanks for great information and pictures of the jernbolaget.
I've been in Eskilstuna a few years ago an visited a chisel and drill bit production:C. I. Fall.
The quality of the chisels is not anywhere near Berg or Jernbolaget, but the drill bits are ok.

Hejdå
Pedder

 

[Favino]

Hej Pedder.


C I Fall is just across the street from IAC, the company that bought GGC, and You were only a few hundred meters away from
Lidbergs old factory.

I agree, Have 5 Fall chisels, they all serve no more nobel work than removing glue from joints..

 

[D_W]

I often see the statement that the eskilstuna stuff is the same as any other vintage, but it's not quite. It's a little better than the bucks and witherby types (I usually find buck a bit softer and witherby to be more in line with vintage stanley, all of them are well made tools capable of anything if they are set up properly, but the berg - for example - is a bit better).

The danger of relying on eskilstuna only seems to be when cheaply made tools are expected to be in line with the more carefully made tools. I had a berg set for a short while, and only sold them because you could fill in that blank with "i had a set of ____ chisels" and I can put too many names in there and I really don't need all of them. They were probably as good as any chisels I've used, including a set of wards. Both because the steel was good (it wasn't something you'd cut staples with and expect no damage, but for things you'd use a chisel for - chiseling wood and then hoping to sharpen quickly, it was superb in the balance of actual use characteristics).

Brent Beach put together a test of plane wear and tested a berg iron. I'm not surprised to see that it did as well in wear more or less as A2 did, but with a distinction, the edge quality is finer at the levels of wear - you could still finish a surface with it when dull, and I'm sure it sharpens on more media. It fared better than hock, both in wear characteristics and the uniformity of the edge at wear levels. I'm not surprised - hocks irons are hard, but they'd probably be better if they were a click softer - they'd wear just as long and more uniformly, I'd bet. The finest toolmaker I know agrees with that, too.

http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/bladetest.html

At any rate, what is exceptional about the bergs isn't that they're 2 times better than another carbon steel tool, but that they're a little better, and probably approaching the limit of what is capable with a given alloy. (note that in beach's test, the berg actually even wore a little better than the rikizai tsunesaburo blue steel iron - marginally, but it looks better, and I know that the berg is not as hard as the tsunesaburo irons - bergs can be sharpened on a washita).

(same goes for razors, those characteristics make for excellent straight razors and eskilstuna made straight razors bring a premium).