# ULMIA Schlichthobel



## jimi43 (8 Aug 2012)

Ok....it means "kind of jack" according to Pedder who sent it to me...under the possibly misguided impression that I might be able to do a better job of fettling it than he...and as a very nice present indeed!







I have long been intrigued by these things...indeed I have another slightly older one which I acquired at a bootfair earlier and tarted up a bit...






Anyway...it would appear that this ULMIA example has hardly ever been used...the iron looks to have its original grind and secondary bevel:






It has a nice laminated section..something I love with irons as they are so very easy to grind to perfection and then hone razor sharp...

It has a nice clean stamp too...






I believe the beech body is shoed with hornbeam...someone correct me if I'm wrong. The old one was lignum vitae but this is much lighter (in colour!).

It has the rotating wedge bar as The Prof pointed out on another thread...






This locks the wedge really easily and renders it remarkably easy to loosen when the need arises.

Lovely little touches like the rear of the bed which is fitted by using a sliding dovetail into the body...






I think this was glued but the glue has dried out...






So...starting from scratch I ground a new primary...which had the added benefit of removing about 1mm from the leading edge which had suffered pitting in storage....






This alone created a really sharp edge but a quick microbevel created on my Belgian coticule...just a few swipes...rendered it lethal...hair snapping indeed!

How does it now cut...brilliantly!






Whipped through beech with the old "shhhhhh".....consistent shavings with little effort at all....






I have grown to like the horn approach to planing...it is a little strange at first but after a while...one can see the benefits...

This is a lovely plane and I am still amazed how they fit those soles with wiggly lines and saw shaped cuts...pure art!

This is going to be a user indeed...






Another beauty in my ever-growing woodie arsenal!

Thanks Pedder my friend...you can rest assured that he/she has found a good new home and much use!

Now...the research! Rob...ROB...where are you!!? Prof?

Jim


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## ac445ab (8 Aug 2012)

Ulmia planes are known as good performers! Nice one. 
This site (In German) contains a lot of info about German planes. This page is about Ulmia and there are plane pics like yours. 

http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/ulmia.phtml

Ciao Giuliano


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## jimi43 (8 Aug 2012)

Thanks Giuliano...I found this...



> Plane body: 241x64x64 mm
> Red beech with hornbeam sole
> Marks: Medaillon ("ULMIA OTT SCHUTZ-MARKE" in circle around cathedral of Ulm) behind tote,
> stamp "48 m/m" on back,
> ...



The image on that page shows a slightly more worn example...this is pristine (when I get the ubiquitous paint off with my fingernail! :wink: ) and as I said before...the iron appeared to have had its original ground edge on it. 

Perhaps Pedder will pop in and explain the history behind this lovely tool.

If I remember rightly..Rob (woodbloke) also has one and waxes lyrical about it.

Tomorrow I am going to have a play with the set...see what it can do.

It really is a beautiful plane!






Thanks again mate!

Jim


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## Corneel (9 Aug 2012)

Yes the Ulmia's are fine planes. With the single iron it is indeed used for rough work, like a jack. Funny is that the Germans use rather short planes, only the jointer (raubank in German) is long. Another peculiar thing is that the mouth is more to the centre of the plane instead of about 1/3 from the front like English planes. I suppose this one has a 45 degree bedding angle? Their top end smoothers often are bedded at 49 degrees. Your plane indeed has a hornbeam sole (Weissbuche in German), which is a lot harder then normal beech. There where a lot more makers in Germany turning out similar planes, nowadays they are still made by E.C.E. You can find a range on the finetools.de website.


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## pedder (9 Aug 2012)

jimi43":iauddlxa said:


> The image on that page shows a slightly more worn example...this is pristine (when I get the ubiquitous paint off with my fingernail! :wink: ) and as I said before...the iron appeared to have had its original ground edge on it.
> 
> Perhaps Pedder will pop in and explain the history behind this lovely tool.



Hi Jim,

to be true: this plane was partof a lot of tools that came via ebay and was sitting on my bench, when I looked for a present for you. I thought it would be a nice addition to your German planes collection and probably hard to get over there. 

But I don't know anything of it's history. 

Doesn't the blade looks laminated?

Cheers 
Pedder


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## MIGNAL (9 Aug 2012)

The horn handled Planes are perhaps the most comfortable type of Plane that I've used. Some may like the heft of the more expensive metal bodied Planes such as Clifton but if you have a fair amount of planing to do then the wooden horn handled type is a great tool to use. 
I much prefer the simple wedged version, rather than the ECE Primus that has the tensioning spring and adjuster. The latter type is much more trouble than it's worth.
Lot's of used Ulmia Planes on Ebay.de.


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## AndyT (9 Aug 2012)

I've nothing to add except a question and a challenge:

Thinking about the wavy pattern, my first thought was that a pattern of machined corrugations running diagonally would make that pattern along the sides. But both planes I have that are made like that show a tight zig-zag at the ends. Is yours the same? If so, what pattern of machining would do that? We need to see a damaged one where the parts have separated - but they do seem to hold rather well.

The challenge is that I know I have seen an on-line video of a current factory making wooden planes like this (or maybe rather more like the Aldi specials some members bought recently) using CNC routers. I was quite impressed and pleased at the way that the modern process could continue the old pattern. But I can't find the video again, despite wasting some time searching. Anybody else know it? I don't think I've got to the stage of dreaming about plane making yet, so it must be out there somewhere!


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## jimi43 (9 Aug 2012)

AndyT":1ykt3bx8 said:


> I've nothing to add except a question and a challenge:
> 
> Thinking about the wavy pattern, my first thought was that a pattern of machined corrugations running diagonally would make that pattern along the sides. But both planes I have that are made like that show a tight zig-zag at the ends. Is yours the same? If so, what pattern of machining would do that? We need to see a damaged one where the parts have separated - but they do seem to hold rather well.
> 
> The challenge is that I know I have seen an on-line video of a current factory making wooden planes like this (or maybe rather more like the Aldi specials some members bought recently) using CNC routers. I was quite impressed and pleased at the way that the modern process could continue the old pattern. But I can't find the video again, despite wasting some time searching. Anybody else know it? I don't think I've got to the stage of dreaming about plane making yet, so it must be out there somewhere!



The only one I remember was the Werner and Eric Raggenbass one....the old boys....but that was by hand.

I do vaguely remember an ECE one...I'm sure I do... was it this one?

Jim


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## woodbloke (9 Aug 2012)

jimi43":5kx71z0y said:


> If I remember rightly..Rob (woodbloke) also has one and waxes lyrical about it.
> 
> Tomorrow I am going to have a play with the set...see what it can do.
> 
> ...


You called Jim? Yes indeed, they are loverly if you can get hold of nice one. I bought this little used Ulmia Reform: 






...with an adjustable mouth and lignum sole a few years ago from Penny Farthing Tools, around a tenner if memory serves. 






I stripped it down to it's component parts for a good re-furb...






In the pic above you can see that a new style Derek of Oz knob has been made (ecapsulating a bolt in a brass, knurled grip thingie) and all the various bits have been mirror polished. The quality of ze German steel is excellent...takes a really wicked edge :shock: 

All the original icky :-& varnish was removed and then re-polished with oil and wax once it was reassembled, so that the finished plane looks like:






...this. In fact I was so pleased with the way that the mouth closed up I used exactly the same mechanism when I made 'Big Woody'...






...shown here with a blade from an old woody, but now replaced with a 6mm thick Phillyblade - Rob


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## AndyT (9 Aug 2012)

jimi43":2lgxh5vl said:


> AndyT":2lgxh5vl said:
> 
> 
> > I've nothing to add except a question and a challenge:
> ...




Close, but I'm afraid that's not it - the one I remember had CNC cutting heads coming at the blocks of wood from various directions. It might have been Czech or somewhere else Eastern European. Someone must have seen it!

That ECE one has a good shot at 1:19 showing how the grooves go diagonally, but they are square section, not sawtoothed or wavy.

And the video of the old Swiss guys only shows a pre-prepared block of two timbers glued together with a flat joint.


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## Corneel (9 Aug 2012)

They cut with a triangular cutter on the diagonal. That gives the wavy pattern on the sides, but I can't quite wrap my head around how that is supposed to be.


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## MIGNAL (9 Aug 2012)

AndyT":2qkjtmup said:


> jimi43":2qkjtmup said:
> 
> 
> > AndyT":2qkjtmup said:
> ...




I vaguely remember it. I think you are right in thinking that it was E.European and that the Planes were of lesser quality.
For some reason I think it was posted on this site after Lidl? were offering a cheap wooden Plane. Not certain on that though.


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## Shrubby (9 Aug 2012)

Ulmia use the same procedure as ECE but have a cutter block with sawtooth profile rather than castellated. You might have a long wait for a delaminated Ulmia - I've never heard of it happening, the East German copies did though.
The cheaper plaes might be from Segerink in the Netherlands or former eastern Bloc countries now in the EU - this earns them a 'made in EU' sticker 
Wolfgang's site is excellent for the often overlooked European tools

Matt(still here but dead Imac)


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## jimi43 (9 Aug 2012)

AH...yes I see now how the diagonal cuts would make this slide on...you can just see how this works as there is a slight angle to the end sawtooth cut.

I tried it out on some ash offcut tonight...after fettling the sole a bit...and it really is quite a plane....






Since there are those who prefer to see the finish rather than the shavings.... 8) (you know who you are!)....I think this about does it...






Smooth as a baby's bum! :mrgreen: 

And for those of you who just like pretty shavings (like me!).....






Ok so it's for roughing out...I know...I know....but it functions as a super-smoother too!

Tomorrow I shall dig through my plane stock and find a suitable width iron to make a scrub for it too!

Thanks for all the links guys...most helpful!

Jim


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## Jacob (10 Aug 2012)

jimi43":zvpvc2e3 said:


> Ok....it means "kind of jack" according to Pedder who sent it to me...under the possibly misguided impression that I might be able to do a better job of fettling it than he...and as a very nice present indeed!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's a scrub isn't it? Or scrubbish, useable as a scrub - narrow blade and no cap iron means rough but fast - just needs a well rounded egde on the blade.
I bought this one (top) and it's very useful for rough work e.g. cleaning up old reclaimed timber


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## Corneel (10 Aug 2012)

The real German scrub is even narrower. This one is more like a jack plane. It's just short, like almost all the German planes.

The next step up from coarse to fine is the "doppelhobel" which is a similar plane with a double iron.


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## MIGNAL (10 Aug 2012)

Often said that the single irons are for faster stock removal (not a scrub) and the ones with a double iron are for finer finishing. I think Jim's Plane is at around 220 mm's long - which I use as the equivalent of a No. 4.


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## Zeddedhed (4 Jul 2015)

I know that this is a seriously old thread, but I came across it whilst trying to get some info on german planes.

I am hopefully soon to become the proud owner of a collection of pre-war (the first one) and later German woodies, thanks to Mother In Law who is German. A neighbour of hers has recently died and left house and contents to MIL (MIL was her carer for her for 25 years) The planes and also some other tools were the property of her Grandfather who was a joiner/cabinetmaker.

I can't get over to Germany until Christmas but wifey is taking the kids this summer and has promised to bring back a full inventory and some pictures so I can spend the next 5 months getting beside myself with excitement.

By the way, Schlichthobel literally means 'plain plane' or 'simple plane'.

A german hippie friend tells me it's the equivalent of our Fore plane.


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