Thread: Was wandering through a hardware shop in Istanbul...

Looks similar to the one Aldi sells from time to time (assuming you are talking about the wooden plane?)

I've seen wooden try planes at the village markets Thailand I've yet to see one with an iron, or even one separately. Maybe they were all bought up by travelling woodies with the same idea I had.

Half your luck to be in Istanbul, nice.

I saw a great Polish poster (i couldn't find a version to post) that showed how various things have changed over the last hundred years, so you had a guy on a horse compared to a guy on a motor bike, a candle to a light bulb and so on until it got to the wooden hand plane at the end and both images were the same.

I don't read Polish but i guess it was an 'if it aint broke don't fix it' sort of punch line.

Do an image search for plane in German, 'hobel', and most of what you'll see will look like that Turkish one.

Thanks for the replies.

It makes sense that it could be from an Aldi or similar as Big Shed thought but it does seem too rough to come from a big chain. I am not from Vic so I've never had the opportunity to go in to an Aldi. But I saw a catalogue form BauHaus at the place I had tea tonight, and I guess the big European hardware chains are very similar. I will be in Austria soon and will check out BauMax, just for a giggle. Even so, it was a pretty poor quality plane (I went in to the shop again after I posted the original message). There are no marks on it to indicate a maker or country of origin. It is pretty rough, only varnished on the top, long sides and handles. The well for the blade doesnt seem symetrical (although the mouth looks square and OK). The front handle sticks straight up, and the bottom portion of handle dowel was exposed (maybe a dodgy replacement) not like the rams horn types that Berlin got me to google (I have a couple like that at home). Also time to brush up on my german vocab for tools.
The shop is a small plumbing supply place and seems to have a pretty good turn over of stock. The tools generally seem exactly the same as what I would expect in a similar shop in Australia, that's why the plane seemed so out of place.

I don't know about the plane but the title sounds like great opening lines for a film
Cheers,
Jim

Originally Posted by swk

as you do on your international holidays. And spotted this. Nothing special, but intrigued that it appears as a new made tool for a mass (not specialist) market.

Hi i agree with big shed the wooden plane or spirit level,i have a couple of tools from ALDI air bradder rattle gun air wrench.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/member...bums/istanbul/

Just to finish the thread, I found a hardware area, just off the Main Bazaar. There wasn't much in the way of woodworking tools there but I bought a couple of interesting tinsnips. I did find a place which had about 4 of the identical smoothing planes and one moulding/rebate type all in wood. It also had a knock off 78 which seemed to have got wet at some time. That was all they had.

The guy running the stall where I bought my tinsnips had a few number 4s and a 78, but of different brand (JB) to the 78 in the photo. He kept them tucked down the back of his shop behind the counter and I wouldn't have seen them unless he showed me. They looked like cheap made tools but were in shop new condition, unlike the 78 across the way. The stall guy said the JBs were local Turkish made and the others (Rico) were Indian imports.

So my guess is that the wooden planes are either Turkish or Indian made.

Hi swk,
While in Austria you might want to have a look at the Ulmia smoothing planes.
These are fine work only planes used for working with veneer. No wedge and an adjustable throat. Another model has a screw blade adjustment.I've been using one since 1978, no complaints.

ULMIA reform smoothing plane