German infill maker joins the ranks

[CONGER]

Gerd Fritsche makes planes in the Norris and Spiers tradition.
He is located in Bavaria, in the south of Germany, close to Lake Constance.
I will report again when I have seen more of his planes.
-g-

http://www.traditional-handplanes.com/index.html

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Good to see someomne else hooked.
He has taken on one of the hardest markets though as Germans traditionally like their woodies....

good to see them taking inspiration from the british :lol:

I

 

[bugbear]

Good to see someomne else hooked.
He has taken on one of the hardest markets though as Germans traditionally like their woodies....

Just because he's in Germany doesn't mean his customers will be German.

In the age of the 'net and DHL (or UPS, or fedex) national bondaries are lowered.

Mr Holtey ain't just selling to Brits, I suspect...

(matter of detail, I think his mitre plane should have steel sides, since it's used for shooting, which will muss up his brass)

BugBear

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Just because he's in Germany doesn't mean his customers will be German.

In the age of the 'net and DHL (or UPS, or fedex) national bondaries are lowered.

Aye ah ken ah was jist saying he has his fellow countrymen to overcome as weil.

matter of detail, I think his mitre plane should have steel sides, since it's used for shooting, which will muss up his brass)

me too...... but customers dictate. matter of interest he wont make a plane above 10" in two different materials.

I

 

[bugbear]

[

me too...... but customers dictate. matter of interest he wont make a plane above 10" in two different materials.

I

Do I gather you know more about than can be found by reading his web site?

BugBear

 

[Ian Dalziel]

Do I gather you know more about than can be found by reading his web site?

think theres a cross here...i was refering to Karl.
Brass is nice but not for long and needs constant upkeep from the tarnish. Steel just rusts from perspiration......

Stainless stays nice and shiny with minimal upkeep.


Karl sent Gerd a nice note of welcome.



On another note BB....have you ever flattened a mild steel soled plane by scraping or just cast iron soled.

i had a go but stopped rather quickly when the snowball effect started...just wondering if it was me or something that is notoriously difficult.
I prefer the sound of the latter

Are you aware of a LN/Stanley style (traditional style)plane with a 62 degree pitch or higher and no chipbreaker. not infill type. apart from BCT variable pitch. preferably stainless along with a load of mods :lol:
you seem to be well informed of these type of things. thought youd be the man to ask
:wink:
I

 

[bugbear]

Do I gather you know more about than can be found by reading his web site?

think theres a cross here...i was refering to Karl.

sorry - I meant Gerd.

On another note BB....have you ever flattened a mild steel soled plane by scraping or just cast iron soled.

Only Bailey (cast iron) #4 and #5.

i had a go but stopped rather quickly when the snowball effect started...just wondering if it was me or something that is notoriously difficult.
I prefer the sound of the latter

IIRC Steve Knight was scraping his infills, and NOT enjoying it.

Are you aware of a LN/Stanley style (traditional style)plane with a 62 degree pitch or higher and no chipbreaker. not infill type. apart from BCT variable pitch. preferably stainless along with a load of mods :lol:
you seem to be well informed of these type of things. thought youd be the man to ask

I don't know of ANY high pitch baileys except LN with the custom frog.

IIRC there were some early variable pitch planes. Memory (and a brief search) fails to find them.

And recent evidence has shown my memory isn't perfect

BugBear

 

[Ian Dalziel]

I don't know of ANY high pitch baileys except LN with the custom frog.

IIRC there were some early variable pitch planes. Memory (and a brief search) fails to find them.

I was sure i saw some somewhere but i too couldnt find anything.


did you say sometjhing about memory :?

I

 

[Alf]

IIRC there were some early variable pitch planes. Memory (and a brief search) fails to find them.

I think the Auburn Metallic plane Stephen Thomas likes so much is one? And there's an Aussie one by a character called Wilkinson iirc. I should think Rob Lee might be worth an ask - he'll either have one or have bid on one I should think :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[John Clifford]

Maybe just a nit pick but why would you use a smoothing plane on a rough sawn board as shown in the picture?

 

[Sgian Dubh]

John, I'd say it's pretty obviously mostly for publicity purposes. Nothing impresses an inexperienced woodworker more than seeing smooth boards created from rough ones with just one plane.

Jings, even I demonstrate exactly the same thing to a workshop full of learners. It gets them thinking, "If he can do it so simply with a bit of careless sharpening and sloppy setting up, then surely I can too with a bit of practice."

Of course, I've been doing this woodworking malarkey for over thirty years, so I should know how to make it look easy. Slainte.

 

[Mirboo]

Alf was close, the Aussie one was made by Herbert Edward Watkinson. It is a very rare plane, only 4 examples are known to exist. Here is link to the Hand Tool Preservation Association of Australia website where they have a page dedicated to the plane.

http://www.htpaa.org.au/watkinson.php

 

[Alf]

Ack, dat's der bunny. Had a feeling Wilkinson wasn't quite right. Thanks for the link, Ian.

Cheers, Alf

 

[philip marcou]

Bug,

(matter of detail, I think his mitre plane should have steel sides, since it's used for shooting, which will muss up his brass)
I don't think that is quite correct-even yellow brass (70/30) can cope well enough, especially if the shooting board is equipped with a friendly surface. Then there are other brasses which are in fact pretty hard-I use them for my planes.

 

[bugbear]

Bug,

(matter of detail, I think his mitre plane should have steel sides, since it's used for shooting, which will muss up his brass)
I don't think that is quite correct-even yellow brass (70/30) can cope well enough, especially if the shooting board is equipped with a friendly surface. Then there are other brasses which are in fact pretty hard-I use them for my planes.

Always happy to learn - although having flattened and semi-polished some Bailey plane soles (*), I've succeeded in scratching cast iron, so I'm very nervous about softer metals.

BugBear

(*) you all knew that, right?

 

[Ian Dalziel]

the Aussie one was made by Herbert Edward Watkinson. It is a very rare plane, only 4 examples are known to exist. Here is link to the Hand Tool Preservation Association of Australia website where they have a page dedicated to the plane

Thanks Ian.....thats not the one i came across before but its another design worth looking at.


Philip....Have you ever scraped bright mild steel??

I

 

[bugbear]

Philip....Have you ever scraped bright mild steel??

I

Ian; I suspect I know the reason you're asking, and you might find some parts of this thread interesting.

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/hand ... read=94873

BugBear

 

[Ian Dalziel]

BB...I had read that post but no that wasnt the reason.

I'm trying to help a model engineer scrape some bms with which we are all struggling with....it's basically snowballing and making the job worse. it is a fixed object and wont fit in the mill or surface grinder. I beleive he is going to live with the problem....as he says its not a disaster.

If it was a plane sole i would mill it flat. then work on it from there

Ian

 

[bugbear]

BB...I had read that post but no that wasnt the reason.

I'm trying to help a model engineer scrape some bms with which we are all struggling with....it's basically snowballing and making the job worse. it is a fixed object and wont fit in the mill or surface grinder. I beleive he is going to live with the problem....as he says its not a disaster.

If it was a plane sole i would mill it flat. then work on it from there

Ian

What I was saying in the other thread was don't scrape, or file.

Use abrasives (carefully!) - doable in some circumstances.

BugBear

 

[philip marcou]

Hi Ian,
Philip....Have you ever scraped bright mild steel??
I have scraped that stuff, but not in the conventional way. I made a base plate for my router with it. I did not use the normal engineers scraper-I used my piece of power hacksaw blade, cut from the original which was 900mm x90 x3.5mm thickof Molybdenum steel I think.I had that surface groundand lapped the edges on a diamond plate- makes a scraper for all things. Anyway, it leveled that bms well enough