Mystery wooden plane

[Sydney Smith]

Picked this up at a yard sale. Is it a sash plane of some type? There is a place for a fence(?) on the right side, where there's a rabbet with brad holes. The plane has letters and numbers stamped on it, but no maker's name that I can discern.
Thanks for any insights!

[David Keller NC]

That's a bit of a puzzler. My first instinct would be to call this a panel raiser, albiet of a much older type than the more commonly seen one that looks like a wooden bench plane. What is clear is that you have a very old plane, or at least one made in a style that is 18th century, British or American. It clearly had an auxillary depth stop (that has now been removed), and possibly an auxillary fence.

[Andrew Swartz]

I'm stumped (and I love wooden planes). I can't recall seeing another plane with that profile. It doesn't look like a panel raiser -- at least any I've seen. Plus, the profile would create an odd panel. Instead of sloping up from the edge to the raised panel, it slopes down from the edge and transitions abruptly to a flat. That wouldn't work in the frame/panel context unless your frame/panel were unusually thick to begin with. (Of course, just because I haven't seen it, doesn't mean that it does not exist.)

I suspect that your guess about the plane being connected to the sash-making trade is getting close. There were specialized planes used to create window sils, window frames, etc. This plane, which is a large, apparently professionally made, and very specialized tool would not look out of place in the sash makers tool kit. It wouldn't be used on the sash, but there might be some use for it on the window case or window sil.

I hope someone here has the answer!

[Ryan Mooney]

Couldn't say for sure but the profile is really close to what a lot of old window sills look like. Nice find either way!

[george wilson]

I thought the plane looked European. And,what is it made of? Elm?

[john brenton]

Don't know but I have a similar plane that I've used for male part of the sliding dovetail fairly effectively. I clamp a wooden jaw jorgenson on the board as a batten and keep the side of the plane tight to that. My plane is some kind of oak and I believe its French. It not only has a french look, but has a goldenberg iron and knicker.

That being said, I don't think it was meant for that.

[george wilson]

Could be oak,but it shoo looks like elm. Not a usual wood for planes,but if shop made,no telling. It has the grain going vertical to the sole. But,ought to be very durable.

[Wolfgang Jordan]

This plane looks like a 'Zahnleistenhobel', as we call it in Germany. Here's a German and a French model side by side:
http://hobelaxt.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/zahnleistenhobel-hainbuche-d-dunkle-holz-f/
A scan from a German catalog:
http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/falzhobel/zahnleistenhobel_esslinger_abt.jpg
The plane is used to make wooden slats used as shelf supports. This site shows some examples:
http://www.die-zahnleiste.de/bilder.html
A number of slats is clamped together and a first notch is planed. The fence then rides in one notch while planing the next one. This way the notches are equidistant.
What puzzles me is the absence of a nicker, which would be helpful when planing across the grain.
The wood may be hornbeam, usually used in German planes. But then it does not really look German.

Wolfgang

[john brenton]

Oh! Awesome, thanks Wolfgang. Even though it had a perfect ratio for dovetials, and worked well, I knew it couldn't be a dovetail plane. Great, now ill have to give that slatted shelf support thing a go and see how it works.

[george wilson]

It doesn't look like hornbeam,does it?

[Andrew Swartz]

Fascinating!! Thanks Wolfgang.

[Tom Vanzant]

I have an old butler's secretary desk/cabinet that has shelf supports like Wolfgang showed. This piece dates to some time prior to the U.S. Civil War. It is solid walnut with glass upper doors, and burl raised fields in the drop-front and lower cabinet doors. It came to me thru my paternal grandmother's family from Kentucky to Texas. Unfortunately, some idiot "expert" refinished it using a pigmented sprayed finish. It took years of polishing to restore the burls.

[Sydney Smith]

I *think* it's elm, looking at Hoadley's "Identifying Wood". But it might not be. I'm not sure how to identify hornbeam. Here are a couple more images, showing the profile it seems to want to cut.
210063210064

[Ryan Mooney]

Wow thanks Wolfgang! I really like the looks of those shelf supports and thats a way cool special purpose plane.

[David Keller NC]

I think Wolfgang's nailed it. I've not seen a wooden plane with this form for this purpose before, but I do have a more conventional version (at least conventional from the standpoint of British design) that cuts those shelf supports. I rather doubt your plane is hornbeam - I wouldn't expect to see such strong grain lines in that wood. Elm is certainly a possibility, as is chestnut. Chestnut is relatively rare as an American plane wood, but they do exist.

I also have my doubts that you've a Continental European plane. The wedges in cont. european planes are quite different than British and American planes, and in some ways match yours, but I suspect that the wedge in your plane was replaced with a relatively crude version many years ago. Even the angular-shaped wedges of European planes typically have a "hook" in the place of a British finial that allows a grip to pull out the wedge.

The shoulders, grip, escapement and other features strongly suggest 18th century British or American design.

[Sydney Smith]

Thanks for all the input! If it's a shelf support cutter, that would be very interesting. And 18th century no less.
I'll try to do a better job of wood id when I get some time and some strong light and a hand lens. The wood is hard and heavy, and my impression is that elm is softer, but I really don't know without some specimens to compare. I'm still puzzled by how the (now missing) fence might have worked; doesn't quite match the pictures that Wolfgang supplied.

[David Keller NC]

I'm still puzzled by how the (now missing) fence might have worked; doesn't quite match the pictures that Wolfgang supplied.

You're not actually missing the fence, you're missing the depth stop. The original plane may not have had one, and one was added by the original or subsequent owner where the nail holes are. Keep in mind that a depth stop on a wooden plane may simply be a stick of wood added to the right side along the length of the sole; other types of wooden planes had brass depth stops that were adjustable that look quite different, but these are usually plow planes or moving fillisters.

[Mark Dorman]

That looks exactly like the profile I saw last weekend on a antique someone was using for a display case. I couldn't even tell you what was in the case I was more interested
in the shelf standards. I like this idea better than the drill holes and use pins type. Most of what I found on line where called sawtooth shelf standards like Wolfgangs link. (thanks for that Wolfgang)

Mark


I *think* it's elm, looking at Hoadley's "Identifying Wood". But it might not be. I'm not sure how to identify hornbeam. Here are a couple more images, showing the profile it seems to want to cut.
210063210064