Adjustable mouth wooden plane identification

[Mark Almeidus]

Few days ago a person gave me wooden hand plane. I noticed there is an option for the mouth to be adjusted depending on the needs.
The blade is with chip breaker and says Erik Anton Berg. Its a Swedish manufacturer that was later bought by Sandvik and later by Bahco.
But I cant find some info for the plane it self.
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[Kees Heiden]

I don't think Berg made planes, just the irons. There were plenty of planemakers in Scandinavia who made the planes with Berg irons. Do you have a closup picture of the sticker?

The plane type is a standard German "Reformhobel", a smoothing plane with adjustable mouth and often a bedding angle of 49 degrees. This one looks like it was used a long way beyond light duty smoothing tasks!

[Mark Almeidus]

Aditional search came to this site:
http://mulesaw.blogspot.mk/2013/05/jpbo-danish-manufacturer-of-wooden.html
If its accurate seems like a Danish manufacturer JPBO - Johan P Bendixen, Odense


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The sticker is in bade shape but you can notice "joh"
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(http://mulesaw.blogspot.mk/2013/05/jpbo-danish-manufacturer-of-wooden.html)

[Kees Heiden]

I think it reads Johan Weiss & Sohn Wien. So it is a plane from Austria. Probably not the original blade?

[Thomas Laursen]

It's definitely not a JPBO plane. Never seen a one (JPBO) with a horn and front part shaped like that.
I think Kees is on the rigth track.

And just as a sidenote to the info in the link: The "P" in JPBO does in fact stand for Peter.

[Kees Heiden]

At the bottom of this page you'll find the same sticker. http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/weiss.phtml

[Mark Almeidus]

Thanks for solving the mistery :)
Kees, what you mean by not the original blade?
Could be nice to know the type of wood also.

[Kees Heiden]

It would be unusual for a large planemaking factory like Weiss to use someone elses irons. They sure would have liked their own logo. But Berg stuff is highly regarded today so you got something nice in exchange.

The wood? Probably just dirty beech with a flaking varnish?

[Mark Almeidus]

The wood? Probably just dirty beech with a flaking varnish?

That would be serious crime :D. I tried to adjust the mouth but couldn't. Dont want to use force.
I will flatten the sole later, and see whats hiding beneath.

[Kees Heiden]

It could have a pockholz sole (lignum vitae). That was done often, especially with the smoothers. Do you see if the sole is a different kind of wood from the body?

[george wilson]

I cannot but wonder how a plane got that dark and how it got that messed up patina! I'd recommend scraping it all off,expose fresh new wood that is under that crackly "patina"(I hesitate to call it "patina") and at least wax or shellac the surfaces-NOT the sole!

The horn has been broken off about half way down. I expect that a past owner was holding the plane upside down,and whacking the horn on a workbench(or a ROCK!),to adjust the blade. You can still use the shortened horn(It might be a job getting it loose to replace),but,at least,saw it off and sand it as little as possible to square it off again.

Don't worry about losing the decal. Most of it is gone anyway.

[Mark Almeidus]

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It must be some type of hardwood which is painfull to plane :D.
The sole and the plane are from type of wood I never seen before.

[Kees Heiden]

The sole certainly looks like pockholz, lignum vitae, just like my Ulmia plane.

[george wilson]

Definitely Lignum Vitae. I had a plane like that in the 60's. The body will either be beech or hornbeam.

[Allan Speers]

Yes, definitely true Lignum. The top could be mahogany, which is unusual, but not a bad choice at all considering its low T/R ratio & overall movement. (MUCH better than Beech.) Heck, if you're dovetailing on a Lignum sole, might as well pick the body wood for stability.

The entire plane looks like an Ulmer to me. (Not "Ulmia." ) but who knows? Whoever made it, it's a nice little job and well worth fixing up.

Most of these, in my experience, were finished with shellac. However, maybe some previous owner varnished it, and hence "glued" the mouth tight.
Maybe soak it in acetone to free it up? - or maybe just heat it in the oven first, and see if it will break free.

[Mark Almeidus]

Managed to break the mouth.
Allan maybe you are right. Its not beech definitely. Hornbeam doesnt have light collor?
The person I took the plane is a retired woodworker who is 70 years old, and worked since 1960. He was in Australia and brought back with him alot of hand tools. Also he worked in Germany. From time to time as he got retired (parkinson's disease) people were often borrowing tools from him and never got them back. He helped me alot with tools, mostly because I work the traditional way and whenever I go there he is always eager to chat about the old times. He wants to be collector, so I gave him a chisel and 2 marking gauges to make the collection reacher .
His son got over his shop, and sadly he doesnt respect those tools, using them for everything but not for the job they are meant to be. I noticed this plane and thought might be a good piece. Dont have time ATM but I will definitelly fix the plane.

[george wilson]

Hornbeam is a very light pale cream color without much grain character. No tiny little flecks like beechwood has.

Those planes originally had a light tan finish made of lacquer. It looks like the finish has gone to pieces and has darkened severely. The plane must have been kept somewhere not suitable to have discolored like that.