The plane that made me nearly fly to Sweden

**Cklett** · 28th March 2024, 05:59 PM

I recently received a nice oldish Swedish plane. It was given to me by a forum member, who must have picked up that I have an interest in these German or Continental style planes. I have no idea how he figured that out [emoji6] Anyway he needed a new home for the plane, and he has found one in my shed.

As I researched this plane, I was nearly tempted to fly to Sweden to dig through their archives [emoji6]. Here are a few interesting things I found out about this plane though.

The iron width is 40mm, which I find a little unusual. Most of the continental smoother I found were 44mm.

The iron and cap iron are by Erik Anton Berg. The cap iron has a particular elaborate stamping on it. The stamping includes the words "PARIS 1900, STOCKHOLM 1897". I do not think that this is any hint on the age.

These dates probably refer to the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900 and the General Art and Industrial Exposition of Stockholm in 1897. But it is pretty isn't it. A bit sad that most of the time it is covered by the wooden wedge of the plane.

I tried to find out from when till when this logo was used. There are earlier versions of this logo without the shark. Mine has the shark included. A catalogue from 1936 does show the shark on chisels and plane blades, but not on this elaborate logo on cap irons. It does show this logo without the shark included. I assume the shark was added to this logo later. Some suggest around 1950.

The body has no known makers mark, but it is stamped with "Skrivrit Imported". Some research and with help of Google Translate and a Swedish colleague of mine I found out that there was a company called Skrivrit in Sweden. That company used to supply schools with everything they need including workshop equipment and tools. The company was founded somewhere around 1917 and existed till 1969. Then it was bought by an other company and operation ceased in 1980. Not sure if they still used the name "Skrivrit" till 1980. (Skrivrit - Ulf Ivar Nilsson ; Skrivrit – Wikipedia)

I assume that they bought the equipment from other manufacturers and stamped them with their company name before delivering to customers. Therefore, I believe that the plane was made by E.A. Berg and distributed by Skrivrit to some school.

The plane body, wedge and cap iron are stamped with a "3". Probably done by the school to ensure they do not get mixed up with other planes. The iron however has a "1" stamped in. It could be a replacement iron, or it did get mixed up.

Further the side is showing marks which look like if a bored student tested some gouges on it [emoji6]

The other features of the plane do not help for dating it in this case. Lignum Vitae soles (I believe this plane has one, see further below) were already used from 1900 onwards. Hand protectors, wooden or iron, showed up around 1925.

From the assumption Berg started to use the shark in this type logo from 1950 and Skrivrit ceased operation 1980, puts the plane between 1950 and 1980.

Ok, enough of the dating games. Let's see what the plane can do. In general, the plane is in good condition. I did not do much to it but clean it up and tune it. I was thinking of sanding /planning it down, but because of the marks on the side I would have to take too much off and the decorative grooves would disappear. I did not want that. I thought let's keep the battle marks as characteristics [emoji6]

The blade and cap iron only needed a little clean with wire wheel. The blade was pretty flat, and the cap iron mated quite well. Only little work on that. Most of my older planes had very poorly matched cap irons. This was a bit of a surprise. Whoever used it before knew what he was doing. Maybe another sign it was used under supervision of a professional of some sorts.

The sole of the plane was also in surprisingly good condition. Most other wooden German planes I restored had huge hollows just in front of the mouth. You could see them with the naked eye. Here it was only a little, which only showed when I started flattening the sole with my #5 hand plane. A few passes and that was gone. The sole planes well, but due to the even wear I believe it is Lignum Vitae as was the typical timber used for these dark soles.

Before flattening

Just a few passes made the hollow visible. It disappeared very fast. Was not deep.

After I fixed all this and gave the iron a new bevel and sharpen I tested on some unknown hardwood and some spotted gum. The plane worked very well, and I could get some decent shavings. And left a very nice surface. Definitely a keeper and user in my arsenal.

I am not telling who gave it to me. He can disclose himself if he wants. But many thanks for that gift. I will enjoy it and it is fun to dig up the little history which is there.

This plane is now joining my others. Did I mention that I have a soft spot for German style planes [emoji848]

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**IanW** · 28th March 2024, 06:32 PM

Hmm, my eye skipped the woodies & landed on those rosewood handles of a nice clutch of vintage Baileys. Looks like some potentially nice planes there too (& maybe another story or two?).

A good yarn CK, and another good plane has found a loving home....

Cheers,

PS, I was not the donor, so we'll all have to keep guessing.....

**Simplicity** · 28th March 2024, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by IanW

Hmm, my eye skipped the woodies & landed on those rosewood handles of a nice clutch of vintage Baileys. Looks like some potentially nice planes there too (& maybe another story or two?).

A good yarn CK, and another good plane has found a loving home....

Cheers,

PS, I was not the donor, so we'll all have to keep guessing.....

Ian,
Focus please focus,CK was talking about is Europe planes, we all know about that American stuff !!.

Good research CK,
An without gloating I was the giver.

Cheers Matt.

**Mountain Ash** · 29th March 2024, 09:59 AM

Thanks for sharing CK (and Matt). I now have a few of these (smoothers for the most part but I have converted one to a scrub). I much prefer to hold a wooden bodied pane but they are considerably lighter than a metal bodied equivalent. I find I need to make a conscious effort to adjust my technique. Nice to have a Lignum Vitae sole, mine are all Hornbeam.

**Simplicity** · 29th March 2024, 11:13 AM

One aspect of the Plane that was quite interesting too me, an I’ve spoke briefly with CK about is, how religion crept into Plane design in Europe,
The front horn Knob what ever it is called is deliberately designed for a right handed person an would be quite uncomfortable for a lefty too use.

Cheers Matt.

**IanW** · 29th March 2024, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by Simplicity

..... The front horn Knob what ever it is called is deliberately designed for a right handed person an would be quite uncomfortable for a lefty too use......

Cheer up Matt, I find that front horn awkward too & I'm a decidedly right-handed person! I guess it's a matter of what you are used to, the folks who use "Bismarks" (I'm sure the Europeans don't call them that) exclusively probably find Baileys awkward.....

Cheers,

**Simplicity** · 29th March 2024, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by IanW

Cheer up Matt, I find that front horn awkward too & I'm a decidedly right-handed person! I guess it's a matter of what you are used to, the folks who use "Bismarks" (I'm sure the Europeans don't call them that) exclusively probably find Baileys awkward.....

Cheers,

Ian,
Hopefully CK might get us a better picture.but I’m not moaning this time,[emoji849].
It really has a pronounced turn, that only a right handed person would find comfortable, lefties would hate it.

**Cklett** · 29th March 2024, 09:13 PM

Here are is a picture from the front of a selection of continental planes.

From left to right with cutting width in mm:

- scrub plane (35mm)
- E.A.Berg plane (40mm)
- Ulmia plane (48mm)
- JDU plane (49mm)

From the front you can see that the horn (directly trabslated from German, we call that the plane nose) is very asymmetric. All right handed. You can buy left handed planes now from ECE. The Ulmia plane is least extreme, but still intended for right hand use.

MA, if you like your converted German plane as scrubplane, then you should grab a proper German scrubplane when you get a chance. I absolutely love mine and it is so nifty. What I do like is that with the German design it is easier to quickly flip them around and use them in a pull stroke. You can do that in the bailey design as well, but not as nice.

I do agree with Ian, whether you like them or not is also a little dependent on what you are used to. I am lucky in this way that I got fairly late to the game. So I haven't developed fully a preference and can comfortably use both designs. What I do not like so much are the English coffin smoother. Here I prefer the German design for sure.

Anyway, back to the nose or horn. When I was using the Swedish plane after a bit the horn came loose. It happens a lot with these. Most time I just glue them back in. Traditionally, they are set in with a dove tail connection. So was this one. But somebody had repaired it before and put in tons of glue and also tried to glue a small crack.

The dovetail connection did not work any more. I decided to rebuild that in order to have a mechanical connection as well as glue joint.

First I chiseld out the tail part in the plane body. For the pin part on the horn I had to glue some small pieces of beech on so I could recut the pin. I also removed the cracked part of the horn base completely and glued a bigger piece of beech.

Was a pain of clamping the new pieces for glue up. There are no straight surfaces on that thing.

I managed. It looks a bit weird with all these clamps and random pieces of wood to coerce them to put pressure in right direction....

But it worked and I was able to go and cut the pins.

I got a decent mechanical fit and glued it back in.

Back in business and used it today to plane down some thin stock for a different project.

Good practise. I already have plans to build my own German style plane with my own twist.

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**NeilS** · 30th March 2024, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

... I have converted one to a scrub.

I did the same with a Bleckmann (Solingen), which I use for quickly flattening the face of rough sawn bowl turning blanks before mounting on a faceplate. Bleckmann was the main supplier of swords for the US Civil War and also supplied bayonets for the Germans in WWI. It would be at least that vintage.

**IanW** · 30th March 2024, 09:10 AM

Good fix, CK - I hope all those glue-joints hold!

That dovetailed joint for the horn does seem to be a major source of problems with these planes; I've seen several with crude "fixes" and one that was so loose it would fall out when touched. Yet there are plenty with perfectly sound horns, too, the last one I had looked like it had had a very rough life but the horn was perfectly solid. Perhaps with some batches, the horn wood had too high moisture content when fitted? It wouldn't take much shrinkage to loosen the D/T very noticeably....

Cheers,

**Cklett** · 31st March 2024, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by IanW

Good fix, CK - I hope all those glue-joints hold!

That dovetailed joint for the horn does seem to be a major source of problems with these planes; I've seen several with crude "fixes" and one that was so loose it would fall out when touched. Yet there are plenty with perfectly sound horns, too, the last one I had looked like it had had a very rough life but the horn was perfectly solid. Perhaps with some batches, the horn wood had too high moisture content when fitted? It wouldn't take much shrinkage to loosen the D/T very noticeably....

Cheers,

A lot are loose, that's right. Besides wood shrinkage, I also think the horn is naturally a bit weak. It sticks out so much. They probably are prone to be bumped and hit at times. And the dovetail connection is fairly shallow. Long, but only about 6mm deep in most cases. There may be a good chance that they loosen over time with moving back and forth.

It is not so bad if the mechanical lock is still there, and you just need to glue.it back on. But some have also a nail driven in from the front, and then it is a pain. I have one to be restored and has exactly that. And the nail's head is beneath the surface. It's hard to grab.

Back to the horn. There is a different connection, which they call the Vienese form (from Vienna in Austria). They drill a big hole on the plane body first and then trim the front. Now the horn sits in a big mortise, which is missing a part of its wall. I don't like the look of that so much, but it might be a longer lasting connection and easier to match.

Source: Holzwerker Hobel; Kurt Günter Heid

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**Simplicity** · 31st March 2024, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by Cklett

A lot are loose, that's right. Besides wood shrinkage, I also think the horn is naturally a bit weak. It sticks out so much. They probably are prone to be bumped and hit at times. And the dovetail connection is fairly shallow. Long, but only about 6mm deep in most cases. There may be a good chance that they loosen over time with moving back and forth.

It is not so bad if the mechanical lock is still there, and you just need to glue.it back on. But some have also a nail driven in from the front, and then it is a pain. I have one to be restored and has exactly that. And the nail's head is beneath the surface. It's hard to grab.

Back to the horn. There is a different connection, which they call the Vienese form (from Vienna in Austria). They drill a big hole on the plane body first and then trim the front. Now the horn sits in a big mortise, which is missing a part of its wall. I don't like the look of that so much, but it might be a longer lasting connection and easier to match.

Source: Holzwerker Hobel; Kurt Günter Heid

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I’m having too resist quiet a lot about making little rude boy jokes, saying funny things or general just being “Matthew”
I’m sure any ladies reading this without due Context would be thinking yep just “Men” sorry CA my caffeine levels are low,

**IanW** · 31st March 2024, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by Cklett

This strikes me as a very odd thing to do - to deliberately reduce the mechanical strength of a joint. It's probably still a bit more robust than the dovetailed joint, but why not have the nose extend 10 or 15mm past the socket for the horn so the socket is completely enclosed? I'm guessing tradition says the horn sticks out at the toe, so the Viennese makers just used a quicker & easier way to fit the horn, whilst maintaining a (sort of) traditional look?

Cheers,

**Cklett** · 31st March 2024, 12:32 PM

I think it might be a bit uncomfortable if you still have 10 mm in front of the horn.

Naturally, you wrap your hole hand around the front. If there is another ledge that would not feel so nice.

Some horns bulge quite a bit forward and are very comfortable that way.

But the Vienese way did not seem to become the common way. All my planes are dovetailed and still today ECE and Ulmia do it that way.

Only my Howal plane, however, also has a round setting for the connection. But not the same as the Austrian ones.

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**IanW** · 31st March 2024, 07:09 PM

I like Howell's solution - neat, a full socket for the horn and should be as comfortable as the others....

Cheers,

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