horn handled plane construction?

[john brenton]

Hi forum,

New guy here who has been enjoying the forum without contributing a thing for about 3 months.

I make tools and toys for for my kids and I decided to make a horn handled plane for my boy, but as usual I just dug in and started making it without referencing anything except the one that I have (which is the sweetest plane I've ever had by the way...complete with nice hair splitting Goldenberg)

When I looked at the joinery of the handle of course its held to the body with a vertical dovetail joint, but I didn't see how or if it is connected to the base. I've already went ahead and did it as if it does not join to the base and I'm not too worried about it because I don't think my boy will put that much pressure on it, and figured that if I needed to I could dowel it in.

Also, I've never made a two piece plane before, so if you look at what I've done and see there is something wrong with gluing them up and then chopping out the waste I'd really appreciate it. I know there are books and I'll get them eventually...maybe.

The little horn was probably the funnest thing I've made in a long time.

PS. My plane has a small carving of a church right near the horn. Does anyone know if that's a well known maker's mark?

[Jeff Burks]

Der Hobel, Zeitschrift für die Lehrlinge des Holzgewerbe (The plane, magazine for the apprentices wood trades)
Giving many of the words you would need to text search info on German plane design.

The website is well worth browsing even if you do not speak German.
Main Page - Small Tools Museum - If you like funny translations you can process the site with babelfish.
Example Gallery from the translated page.

He has a list of Makers Marks - The church mark is most likely from Ulmia - examples current website
The church mark is a representation of Ulmer Münster

Plane Diagram and another and one more
German Wikipedia entry on planes with the different plane names in German.

Schlichthobel - Simple Plane

German Plane Blog with really cool pictures.
The more I look, the more amazing things I see here - examples 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

[john brenton]

Thanks for all those links man. I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. I can spend a few hours on those sites.

By the way, although the mark on my plane is etched and not a medallion, it does appear to be an Ulmia, so thanks for that. A solid Ulmia plane with a clean Goldenberg iron for $15 at the local flea market?? Oh yeah.

[Wolfgang Jordan]

Thank you, Jeff. Holzwerken.de is my website, and if someone needs help in translation just ask.

Ulmia is one possibility, but their irons usually are also marked Ulmia. A Goldenberg (French) iron lets me think of Swiss planemaker Lachappelle, who has a chapel as trademark:

http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hers...happelle.phtml
You got that right, John, in using a sliding dovetail for the handle. For a child's plane I would leave it like that. Most German planes, however, have the horn sitting in a round recess. I took a quick shot of one of mine with a loose handle:

http://www.holzwerken.de/pics/plane_handle_base.jpg

Wolfgang

[john brenton]

That's the one! I had never heard of that maker, but the function is excellent and the comfort in the hand is much better than other horn handled planes I have had. I'd post a pic of the chapel for the archives but it's so worn that I doubt it would show. I'll give it a shot later.

Thanks again for that, and for clarifying the joinery of the handle. I figured there had to be something more to it.

Great site. Oh man, you're an encyclopedia...I'm in good company!

By the way, I use Google Chrome as my web browser, and when you go to a site with a different language it has a prompt asking if you would like to translate it. The translations are MUCH better than what you would get it you ran it through a web site translator. The page you sent me had maybe 2-3 syntax errors.

Thank you, Jeff. Holzwerken.de is my website, and if someone needs help in translation just ask.

Ulmia is one possibility, but their irons usually are also marked Ulmia. A Goldenberg (French) iron lets me think of Swiss planemaker Lachappelle, who has a chapel as trademark:

http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hers...happelle.phtml
You got that right, John, in using a sliding dovetail for the handle. For a child's plane I would leave it like that. Most German planes, however, have the horn sitting in a round recess. I took a quick shot of one of mine with a loose handle:

http://www.holzwerken.de/pics/plane_handle_base.jpg

Wolfgang

[Jeff Burks]

Wolfgang,

Your website is so awesome! I spent way too many hours looking at all the pictures and links last night. It is great to see such a comprehensive collection of information from a tool enthusiast, even if I can't always understand the language. It has obviously taken you many years of hard work to assemble the website.

I do have 1 question for you. There are many references to German and other European tool patents on your website. I spend a lot of my free time researching U.S. patents, but have not had as much success using the patent search from esp@cenet. When you search for the lists of patents on your website, do you use this service? Or are you using a different source that is available on the Internet?

[Wolfgang Jordan]

John,

glad you like this plane. Lachappelle was quite a famous maker. Too bad they had to give up back in 2000. Their website is still up explaining the circumstances:

http://www.lachappelle.ch/

I checked and corrected some broken HTML on my page about Lachappelle. At least Firefox does not complain anymore. Thanks for the hint!

Jeff, my website is up since about 1999 and I like to gather information as much as I like to collect tools. The only downside is that it often keeps me from actually making something;-)

My favorite site for researching German or Austrian patents is

http://depatisnet.dpma.de

There also is an English user interface. If you need help you may contact me at wolfgang@holzwerken.de


Wolfgang