German Planes - Show and Tell
First a disclaimer. This is not a post to show how great German (or continental planes) are. Just a show and tell as in the title. Although they might be discarded a bit too fast. In the end also the continental and German cabinet makers produced some fine work. It is just interesting that they stuck with their wooden planes and still make them today. Cast iron planes are not very common in Germany. I think they are becoming more popular now due to YouTube and spreading of the internet. But this is a different story.
Since I have been given my great great grandfather's planes (https://www.woodworkforums.com/f163/...631?highlight=) I am intrigued with the traditional German planes. Diving back into my heritage if you like.
As I am descending into this new rabbit hole, I have picked up a few more planes.
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The two on the left are my great great grandfather's scrub and smoothing plane. Then next to it from left a single iron jack plane, Ulmia double iron and a toothing plane. And on the right still in boxes are two unique planes from former eastern German Democratic Republic.
If you search for these shape planes in Australia it is interesting that 90% of them are single iron. Although the Germans have a suite of different featured planes to do all the jobs needed. As far as I understand
1. the fairly skinny scrub plane
2. Then single iron plane with about 250mm length they use as jack plane. I don't think the mid length one like a #5 is a traditional length. All planes are about 200 to 300mm long and then it goes straight to 600mm for jointer
3. after that double iron with 45 degrees bed angle to use as jack or smoother
4. after that a double iron with 49 degrees as actual smoother
5. and finally for some mor difficult wood the so-called "Reformhobel" which also features and adjustable mouth opening
Anyway, coming back to the boxed plane. This post let's look at the double iron plane with the German blade adjustment mechanism.
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This mechanism was first patented by Carl Emmerich in 1952 (Kleines Werkzeugmuseum (Patentinformationen PRIMUS-Putzhobel). It is quite different to any other I have seen and I think quite clever in it's own way. Today you can find it in Ulmia and ECE planes. And in this Howal plane from 1982.
Here is a short abstract of the origins and history of Howal (Deutsche Werkzeughersteller und -handler: C. S. Reich/Howal):
"The company C. S. Reich in Schweina started as a pipe making firm in 1887. Until World War I it became the biggest pipe producer in Germany. Shortage of exotic woods and cheap imports led to the production of woodworking tools like planes, levels, rulers etc. from around 1930.
In 1953 the company was nationalized and renamed to "VEB Pfeifen und Holzerzeugnisse Bad Liebenstein", better known as "Howal".
Although pipes were still produced, the name changed to "VEB Werkzeuge und Meßgeräte Schweina" in 1979. When the Berlin wall came down, the plant was closed for good."
Here is a schematic of the plane and adjustment mechanism and a cut-open picture I found on the net.
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And here an overview of all the parts.
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The mechanism is as said quite clever in my view. for the working it fully relies on all parts constantly being in tension.
The blade is not held by a wedge or lever cap, but pulled against the bed with what I would call a tension rod. The tension rod is spring loaded on the back end and has a cross pin at the front which lodges into the cap iron. As you tension the rod and it pulls the iron against the bed the iron wants to travel up the bed. And that is how you set it also up. you tension the rod until the blade moves upwards.
Then to advance the blade you use the adjustment screw which sticks out at the top. It is a simple threaded rod which is threaded through a barrel nut in the plane body. Advancing it pushes then into the cropped section of the tension rod and hence moving the blade downwards.
Now the whole assembly is in tension, which then means that advancing and retracting the blade work with hardly any backlash. The only backlash I noticed is where the tensioning rod connects to the cap iron. And that would most likely be zero for the higher quality ECE planes with that feature.
The buttons (which were also discussed briefly here https://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/...40) were introduced with patent later in 1958 and shall assist in the blade gliding easier up and down.
In my view it works quite well, but changing the blade is not as easy as on a bailey type plane. So far, the easiest for me was to unscrew the nut on the back of the tensioning rod completely and pull the rod out through the front and then take the blade out. It is a tad mor screwing then just flipping a lever and take the blade out. And now you have the rod, spring, washer and nut flying around separately with risk of loosing them in your shavings. Apparently, you are meant to just loosen the nut so you can pull the rod a little to the front, give it a quarter turn and then remove the blade. Not for me yet. That is more fiddley then just taking everything out.
The lateral adjustment follows the same principle. It relies on being constantly in tension as well. The cross pin in the tensioning rod is not square to the rod on purpose.
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This means that when tensioning the rod the blade will not only be pulled upwards, but also constantly to one side. This will then move the blade out of square. Then the blade position is corrected with the lateral adjuster screwed to the cap iron. Now also the lateral adjustment is in tension as the blade assembly is now wedged between the cheeks of the plane.
I do not believe my plane has ever been used much. Maybe a few times. However, I do not believe the blade has ever been sharpened. it still had a layer of protective coating on it.
The blade is 3mm thick and needed a little flattening as well as a sharpen.
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The cap iron has definitely never been matched to the blade. Teh mating surface still had same surface as rest of it. it is also nice and thick and was mated to the blade quite easy.
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Finally, I trued the sole. It was quite hollow, but as it is wood very easy to flatten with my #5.
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Now to the test run and that is when everything came undone....
I do not know if they just used a crap steel or forgot to harden it, but just after a few strokes it was dull as and very rugged edge.
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Keep in mind this plane was made in 1982. At that time GDR economy was basically in collapse and getting good raw material not easy. I would not expect to have same experience if you buy an Ulmia or ECE.
However, first I thought I might have not sharpened right or so. I sharpened again and then used it on some pine. After 5 strokes again same result.
I was already contemplating to order a new ECE blade, which should fit or even make a new one myself from some 1085 I have. Anything would be better than this.
But before I go there, I decided to first try to give the blade a heat treatment myself and see if I can harden and temper it. Maybe something went wrong during manufacture and it never was hardened properly before.
I will try this over the weekend and then report back. I certainly cannot make it worse.....
That's it for now. Stay tuned. After that I will then reveal the weird plane in the white Styrofoam box [emoji6]
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