What is this plane used for?

[Marcel]

I bought this plane at a flea market for under 1 £. I thought it looked quite good so I just grabbed it... for future use

Now, when I'm looking at it I can't figure out what this plane is supposed to use for :shock:

I have a faint idea, but I will not tell that yet.

So here it is; a wooden plane with an iron inset ( infil ?? ), a hybrid.

As you can see the mouth is rounded, as are the blade and the chipbreaker. This leads me to believe that this plane is made like this.

Thank you for looking, I hope ( am sure ) this brilliant forum can help me.

Cheers,

Marcel

 

[Philly]

Hi Marcel
The plane you have is a Scrub plane for quick removal of material. The curved iron makes it easier to remove a large shaving.
Have a look here for similar planes. You got a bargain for the price you paid :wink:
Hope this helps,
Philly

 

[bugbear]

Hi Marcel
The plane you have is a Scrub plane for quick removal of material. The curved iron makes it easier to remove a large shaving.
Have a look here for similar planes. You got a bargain for the price you paid :wink:
Hope this helps,
Philly

Agreed.

And yet it's a scrub with a double iron, and a laminated (probably lignum) sole, and metal abutments.

The combination of features is entirely new to me.

Edit; no it doesn't have metal abutments. It doesn't have abutments. It has a lever cap.

BugBear

 

[OldSchoolTools]

Cleaned up this would be a good lucker, new would have cost in the region of £150,
Bargain

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Marcel
The plane you have is a Scrub plane for quick removal of material. The curved iron makes it easier to remove a large shaving.
Have a look here for similar planes. You got a bargain for the price you paid :wink:
Hope this helps,
Philly

Agreed.

And yet it's a scrub with a double iron, and a laminated (probably lignum) sole, and metal abutments.

The combination of features is entirely new to me.

BugBear

... because it started life as a smoother (and the mouth was opened up and filed). Looks like an ECE.

The width of the blade is a giveaway.. a scrub plane blade would be about 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" wide. This looks to be 1 3/4".

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[pedder]

Hi Marcel,

there's a sign on the blade. Can you read who the maker of the blade is?

Cheers Pedder

 

[Marcel]

@ Derek: I'll measure the blade this evening. I don't think however that it is an ECE... there is no indication. ECE's current scrub plane has an hornbeam sole and no iron infill ( metal abutments )

@ Pedder : I'll see what I can do this evening

@ BugBear : Yes, the sole Lignum

Here is the ECE

 

[woodbloke]

I agree with Derek of Oz...this was a smoother that's been converted to a scrub. I know 'cos I bought an alomost identical lignum soled smoother from Penny Farthing Tools a couple of years ago. (see the Rycotewood thread for a pic) - Rob

 

[Marcel]

Rob,

Would that be the Rycotewood thread that is is marked sticky???

No pictures there of the plane we are talking about here... lots of pictures of a girl with an axe though :duno: :duno:

 

[bugbear]

Hi Marcel
The plane you have is a Scrub plane for quick removal of material. The curved iron makes it easier to remove a large shaving.
Have a look here for similar planes. You got a bargain for the price you paid :wink:
Hope this helps,
Philly

Agreed.

And yet it's a scrub with a double iron, and a laminated (probably lignum) sole, and metal abutments.

The combination of features is entirely new to me.

BugBear

... because it started life as a smoother (and the mouth was opened up and filed). Looks like an ECE.

The width of the blade is a giveaway.. a scrub plane blade would be about 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" wide. This looks to be 1 3/4".

Regards from Perth

Derek

But the cap-iron fit and finish is just stunning - looks more factory than conversion to me. Either that, or the converter was very, very good.

BugBear

 

[woodbloke]

Rob,

Would that be the Rycotewood thread that is is marked sticky???

No pictures there of the plane we are talking about here... lots of pictures of a girl with an axe though :duno: :duno:

Indeed...if there's not one there, it's another senior moment but there's defo one on my blog...right hand side of the first pic, lying on it's side on it's side.
Don't mention axes though :wink: :lol: - Rob

 

[Marcel]

ahhh.. that's better. When you look at the 3rd picture you can see the plane you've bought even better.

But... I dear to disagree. The iron "infill" ( where the blade rests ) is not present in that plane. The blade rests in a wooden bed.

 

[woodbloke]

ahhh.. that's better. When you look at the 3rd picture you can see the plane you've bought even better.

But... I dear to disagree. The iron "infill" ( where the blade rests ) is not present in that plane. The blade rests in a wooden bed.

True enough...still a nice plane though, 'specially after I nuked off all the gloopy varnish :x that the original manufactuer had finished it with - Rob

 

[Shrubby]

Marcel
I think the plane was manufactured as a scrub plane from the factory - I use a narrow pattern Ulmia reform from the 1930's and your looks narrower.
There were lots of manufacturers all looking for an edge over the competition - hence the features more commonly found on smoothers.
Look at Wolfgang Jordans excellent site for more info
Matt

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Marcel

What is the width of the blade?

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[pedder]

Marcel
I think the plane was manufactured as a scrub plane from the factory - I use a narrow pattern Ulmia reform from the 1930's and your looks narrower.
There were lots of manufacturers all looking for an edge over the competition - hence the features more commonly found on smoothers.
Look at Wolfgang Jordans excellent site for more info
Matt

FYI Wolfgangs site www.holzwerken.de is down due to some technical problems. He hope it will be back by the end of the week.

I don't think this plane has started it's life as a scrub because of the chipbreaker wich would disturb scrubbing. The width of the blade seems to be between 35mm and 40mm wich doesn't sound like a smoother, though.

Cheers Pedder

 

[Marcel]

Here are some answers:

There is no sign or whatsoever on the plane indicating who the maker is.

On the back of the plane is stamped " 30 " indicating the with of the blade.

The blade is 3 cm wide.
That would be 1.18 inch or 1 3/16 ( I am not used to inches... I don't know if I am 100 % correct here )

The chipbreaker - foreground - is formed like a spoon.

On the inside of the chipbreaker is stamped

3 3 3

3 3 3

On the blade is stamped

3 3

3 3

3 3


At the end ( not the sharp side ) of the blade is stamped:

Extra Qualität

P

Gusstahl
Garantie

 

[Benchwayze]

I can never understand why the tote on these wooden planes is always at the wrong end. Are these tools supposed to be pulled , like a Japanese style plane?

8)

John ducks for cover...


:wink:

 

[Toolemera]

I'm wondering if this is backing plane? It's quite narrow. In the USA, backing planes were used by shipwrights to hollow out the back of boards to lighten the final weight of the boat or ship. Those I've seen here were mostly jack plane length but I have seen one that was a longish smoother length.

Or just a peculiar scrub plane that looks really nice. I opt for scrub plane.

As for the tote being at the front of the plane, that's because over in Europe, many traditional woodworkers did things backwards.

(running for cover before the tomatoes fly)

Gary

 

[wjordan]

Hello Marcel,

your plane was most probably made by the German maker Josef Steiner & Söhne. This site is in German, but if you scroll down to the bottom, there is some information in English:

http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/herstel ... iner.phtml

I took a scan from a 1923 steiner catalogue, and you will notice some details like the shape of the cap iron or the metal blade rest, which is otherwise known only from Ulmia. But unlike in Ulmia planes this example has a square shaped seam between body and sole.

http://www.holzwerken.de/pics/steiner_plane.jpg

The plane in the scan is a smoothing plane, made of apple wood and lignum vitae, but judging from the width of the iron your plane is a scrub plane.

I have a similar plane in my collection and it too features no maker's marks:

http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/bankhob ... bel3.phtml

I'd be curious to know if your plane also has a stamped number on the cap iron.

As to the maker of the blade: I too have one with this mark, but do not know anything about the maker.

Wolfgang