First wooden hand plane

[Rich Purdum]

A friend (who is not into woodworking) recently gave me a wooden plane that he received as a sort of gag gift. I've done some searching to try to identify it but without much success. Any info as to the origin and maker of this tool would be greatly appreciated as I don't know jack about wooden planes. Also, any pointers or links to maintenance procedures would be great. Finally, the front tote (handle?) slides into a dovetail on the body but it's a bit loose. I can see anything other than the dovetail holding it in place. Any tips to tighten this up are also welcome. Until taking the photos I had not noticed it was curved.

TIA and apologies if this info is already blatantly obvious somewhere else on this site. There is so much here it's a bit overwhelming at times.

Rich

Photos are below:

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6312_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6312_JFR.jpg) http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6313_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6313_JFR.jpg) http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6314_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6314_JFR.jpg)

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6315_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6315_JFR.jpg)

[bradley strong]

It appears to be designed to be pulled or the blade is backwards. If you want to use it, the bottom must be flat, the iron must be sharp, and the iron must sit flat on the bed. If it's not collectible, epoxy the handle. If it is collectible, sell it.

[Sam Takeuchi]

It appears to be designed to be pulled or the blade is backwards.It's not designed to be pulled or blade installed backward. It's a typical German design still commonly used today. ECE is probably the most well known manufacturer today that still produce and sell this type of planes. But about this particular plane I don't know much about, probably there are some who are more knowledgeable about European planes.

[David Weaver]

Yes, continental type plane. If everything else is tight on it, it should be a good plane, but it'll be a little different feeling to use than a normal bench plane (if it's your first, you won't mind). Epoxy the front horn in place in the dovetail. I suppose you could use hide glue, too, just don't use PVA glue in case it separates again. Hide or epoxy will leave it repairable (it absolutely shouldn't come out if it's epoxied, though).

A look at the mouth and the business end of the iron will tell us what it's set up to do.

I think they are nice to use, I only have one of that style, but it is one of the few tools I store at my bench.

[David Weaver]

by the way, ditch the thumbnail prefix in the picture links so we can see the full size ones:

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6315_JFR.jpg
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6312_JFR.jpg
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6313_JFR.jpg
(http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6313_JFR.jpg) http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6314_JFR.jpg

Looks like the tote might be too tight for epoxy. I would work some liquid hide glue into the joint and then clamp it, unless you can get the tote out and loose to put epoxy in it.

[Rich Purdum]

David, I thought the thumbnails were preferable. Clicking on the thumb brings up the full sized image...at least for me.

[Wolfgang Jordan]

Yes. it's a German plane, made by G. Baldauf:
http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/baldauf.phtml
The company was founded in 1842 and closed in 1961. Your plane is made of hornbeam and is a jack plane or a smoother, depending on length and cutting angle. Because there is no hand guard behind the iron I think it was made in the 1920s or even earlier.

Wolfgang

[Paul Saffold]

Rich, your thumbnails worked for me too. David's pictures didn't show in his post for me, just a link to the pictures.

[David Weaver]

We must have different browser settings or something. i get a link for your thumbs, but not a picture, and if I click on it, just a non-clickable thumbnail sized picture.

[Rich Purdum]

We must have different browser settings or something.

David, tried with IE 8 and Chrome and the thumbnails work. My main browser is Firefox 3.6. Maybe there is a better way of posting pics here that I have not learned about.

[David Weaver]

Ahh! It was my user settings. I don't know if by default they were set with the button "display images in threads" unclicked or not, but I didn't have that box checked and consequently only got links. I always wondered why I was only seeing links to thumbnails from people. Works now. Learn something new every day. Apologies for mudding up the thread to figure out my own problems!

[Rich Purdum]

Wolfgang, thanks a lot for the link. You've got a great site! Too bad I did Latin and not German in high school.

The closest resemblance I could find in the bench plane section turned out to be a French made tool. The iron on mine is definitely Baldhauf, the logo is quite clear. It is pretty badly pitted but not on the business end. There are also two lines of marks on the back which are not clear because of the pitting. They might be "L?RAM" and "?010M". The iron is tapered in thickness from about .100" at the upper end to .180" at the bevel. On closer inspection about 2" of the cutting end is laminated (see pic below). Overall the iron is 1-3/4" wide by 7-1/4" long. The bevel angle is 25° and the bedding angle is a bit more than 45°. When I set the iron to take the smallest shaving there is a large throat opening (see attached photos). It looks like someone may have tried to enlarge it as it clogged easily when I tested it on some Douglas fir.

Other than the pitting on the iron the condition seems pretty good. There is some dishing on the sole just in front of the throat. Not sure if this is from wear or by design. Given that my sharpening job on the blade was quick and dirty the tool actually performed quite well. I'd like to clean it up a bit and keep it as a user. How should I go about cleaning it up and caring for it?

Overall length:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6317_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6317_JFR.jpg)

Throat opening:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6316_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6316_JFR.jpg)

Blade lamination:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/th_CRW_6318_JFR.jpg (http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss75/RichPurdum/Miscellaneous%20old%20tools/CRW_6318_JFR.jpg)

BTW, if you want a more presentable pic to add to your site let me know.

Rich

[Tony Shea]

First thing to do is to flatten the sole of the plane, try gluing sandpaper on a known flat surface such as a table saw table, jointer, or safety glass. Make sure you flatten with the blade in the plane but well clear of the sandpaper. This can be important as tensioning the blade may produce some curve in the sole that isn't existant without the tensioned blade. The next step is to work on the blade and get it very sharp, shave hair sharp.

By the looks of the throat opening this plane would be best served as a jack plane, roughing plane. It seems to be a significant opening which works to your advantage on the initial step in roughing down your stock. This means that when sharpening your blade you need to create a decent size camber (curvature) on the bevel of the blade. This will help you cut through the stock better when taking good size shavings/chips.

Another option is to use this plane as a large smoother plane. But this would require you to glue on a new sole and establish a new tighter throat opening. But IMO you would be better served using this plane as a jack plane as the size is closer suited towards it.

You have a great user plane on your hands and think with a little labor in tuning this tool you'll become very fond of wooden planes. Good luck and keep us updated.

[Wolfgang Jordan]

Rich,

could it be "WOLFRAM" (tungsten) and "VANADIUM"? These are typical ingredients of steel alloys. This may give a clue to dating the iron, but I do not know much about steel and alloys.

From the size of the plane it is a smoother, but if you want to use it as one you should rework the sole as Tony said. I would use it as a jack plane. In any case, there should be no dishing in front of the throat.

Wolfgang

[Johnny Kleso]

To fix the loose handle use glue..
Try to clean as much old glue off as you can an use a epoxy as most glues dont stick well to other glues or even the same glue like yellow glue..

[Rich Purdum]

could it be "WOLFRAM" (tungsten) and "VANADIUM"?

Wolfgang,

The first line is almost certainly "WOLFRAM" and now that I look more closely the second line does end in "DIUM" and I can almost make out an "A" before the "D". Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

Since I'd like to keep it as original as possible, I'll just clean it up a bit, re-glue the handle, flatten the sole and use it as a jack plane as Tony suggests. There is already a decent camber on the iron so maybe that's how it was being used by the PO. Let's hope this neat little plane isn't the beginning of a slippery slope!

Rich

[george wilson]

Wolfram steel was found in natural deposits in Germany even in the 18th.C..

[Mark Baldwin III]

Let's hope this neat little plane isn't the beginning of a slippery slope!

Rich

Denial is usually the first step down the slope. You'll use this plane and think..."hmmm...I like that, I bet a smoother would really put a good surface on this wood." That's what happened to me, anyway.