Continental European woodworking tools

[AJBaker]

I'm always slightly annoyed when I read about 'western woodworking' or 'western tools', usually in comparison to 'Asian woodworking and tools'. I don't know enough about Asian woodworking, but I do know that Japanese and Chinese traditional woodworking are very different. The Chinese, for example, don't traditionally use pullsaws, as far as I know.

With western woodworking I'm fairly familiar with the UK/US tradition, and the continental woodworking tradition (mostly the kind in Switzerland/Germany), and they are also very different.
To a traditional Swiss woodworker, a Stanley plane or an infill plane are as exotic as a Japanese pull saw. Metal body planes were never popular over here, and are only now starting to be accepted, albeit the Rali design rather than the Stanley Bailey design.
(Rali, btw, is a Swiss company, their factory is 30min away from me).

I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the tools that a traditional continental woodworker might use, and how they differ from the UK. Hopefully this will be interesting for someone, since this information isn't particularily widespead in English.

Here I'll have a look at bench planes:

Their job is to take rough stock and 1. roughly get it flat, 2. get it properly flat and 3. get it smooth.

In the UK, the basic bench planes for this job are the jack, jointer/try plane, and smoother. For the wooden versions, the first two have a big comfortable handle, and the latter has the famous coffin shape. The Stanley equivalents are No5 or 6 for the jack, No 7,8 for the jointer, and No3,4 for a smoother. Sometimes an old wooden smoothing plane with a big mouth is also converted into a scrub plane.

On the continent, when turning a rough board from rough to flat and smooth, four to five planes can be used:

1. Scrub plane (Schrupphobel)

24cm long, with a 3,3 cm wide blade with extreme camber (radius about 5cm). The mouth is fairly open, and the iron is thick and has no chipbreaker. This will tear through wood leaving deep rounded gullets. This plane is for removing high spots, or for reducing the thickness of a board. It can be used with or across the grain.
I'd recommend one to every handtool woodworker, in my opinion there is no metal plane that works as well for this job. The horn gives a great grip and lets you use more of your muscles, and the light weight and low friction sole make a big difference when you have a lot to do.

2. Schlichthobel

The scrub plane is fast, but it leaves an excessively rough surface. There are deep grooves, and probably a lot of tear out. In order to smooth things a bit, the Schlichthobel comes next. It's 24cm long, with a 4-5cm blade with little camber. The mouth is still fairly big and there is no chipbreaker. This plane takes off the peaks of the gullets, but still leaves a slightly rough surface (but at least it doesn't look like the surface of the moon anymore).

3.1. Jointer (Rauhbank)

Depending on the job at hand, you might want a long plane to true the surface at this point. It's about 60cm long, and the 5-6cm wide iron has a chipbreaker. Not much to say about this plane, it used the same way as a UK jointer.

3.2. Doppelhobel

The Doppelhobel (literally 'double plane') looks almost identical to the Schlichthobel. The major difference is the addition of a chipbreaker, and a tighter mouth. Otherwise, it's also 24cm long, and a 4,8cm wide iron is standard. This is probably the most versatile plane, and I think that it's sometimes sold as a "German jack plane" in English.
It would typically be used either after the jointer, or instead of the jointer (depending on how flat the surface needs to be).
It's set for a fairly fine shaving. This plane is for getting rid of the tear out still left over, as the chipbreaker and small mouth leave a much better surface than the previous planes that took a fairly heavy shaving.

4. Putzhobel (Smoother)

This plane looks almost identical to the Doppelhobel, but there are two key differences: The body is 2cm shorter, and the iron is set at a steeper angle of about 50° (48-50° typically). It is set for a very fine shaving with a tiny mouth. It's used at the very end to get a fine finish, thanks to the steeper pitch, chipbreaker and tiny mouth. It does the same job as a coffin smoother or a No3-4.5 Stanley.

A more modern variation of the smoother is the "Reformhobel":

The main difference it the adjustable mouth, which can reduce tear out to a minimum.


Hopefully this was interesting for for some people, if anyone wants to know more I'll follow up with continental joinery planes.
Thanks for reading this far!

 

[Jacob]

I'm always slightly annoyed when I read about 'western woodworking' or 'western tools',

Well yes it usually refers to tools of the english speaking world, which came about that way for historical reasons.

...........

On the continent, when turning a rough board from rough to flat and smooth, four to five planes can be used:

1. Scrub plane (Schrupphobel)
View attachment 195968
24cm long, with a 3,3 cm wide blade with extreme camber (radius about 5cm). The mouth is fairly open, and the iron is thick and has no chipbreaker. This will tear through wood leaving deep rounded gullets. This plane is for removing high spots, or for reducing the thickness of a board. It can be used with or across the grain.
I'd recommend one to every handtool woodworker, in my opinion there is no metal plane that works as well for this job. The horn gives a great grip and lets you use more of your muscles, and the light weight and low friction sole make a big difference when you have a lot to do.

Agree. I've got the ECE offering and it's brilliant. Personally I'm more likely to use it for cleaning up recycled wood as the depth of cut means it lifts off surface rubbish, grit, paint etc without cutting through it and blunting the blade quite so quickly. Very quickly cuts into the clean wood below.
They were around in the anglophone world and known as "Bismarck" planes apparently, but the only British one I've seen is one I bought in a box of old tools and it was a home made. Record and Stanley made metal versions but they are rare.
Interesting to compare your other planes to the Anglo versions, thanks for that.

 

[dzj]

Then there's also the nuthobel, the falzhobel and profilhobel.
Hollows and rounds I don't remember how the Germans say.

 

[RobNichols]

Like @Jacob I have an ECE scrub plane. Nothing better for cutting away waste quickly. It's interesting that this is followed by the Schlichthobel, as I have a No. 5 plane that I've put a good camber on, that I tend to use after the scrub plane in the way @AJBaker describes. I think of it as a try plane rather than a Jack. I have a second No.5 that I use in the more usual Jack plane role.

I find the description of the planes used to get to the finished surface. The 50 degree smoother is interesting.

Another reason to be disappointed with how expensive/difficult it is to buy tools from Europe now. It would be nice to get hold of a couple more ECE planes.

 

[rob1693]

Ulmia are another decent maker of continental planes

 

[AJBaker]

Like @Jacob I have an ECE scrub plane. Nothing better for cutting away waste quickly. It's interesting that this is followed by the Schlichthobel, as I have a No. 5 plane that I've put a good camber on, that I tend to use after the scrub plane in the way @AJBaker describes. I think of it as a try plane rather than a Jack. I have a second No.5 that I use in the more usual Jack plane role.

I find the description of the planes used to get to the finished surface. The 50 degree smoother is interesting.

Another reason to be disappointed with how expensive/difficult it is to buy tools from Europe now. It would be nice to get hold of a couple more ECE planes.

Strange, because here they're cheap as chips. I've usually paid 5-20£ equivalent for most normal planes, and some I've even had given away to me. Try going on ricardo.ch and searching "Hobel", and see if anyone is willing to ship to the UK. The most common brand here was Lachapelle (packed up in 2000), whose planes are every bit as good as Ulmia or ECE.

 

[RobNichols]

Brexit caused quite a few issues with importing stuff to the UK. Some tool companies either put a very high minimum order limit, or stopped exporting to the UK.

However, looking at the fine-tools and Dictum sites now, it looks like things have settled down. It's not cheap, but I don't think the shipping prices look excessive. I think I'll have to look again

 

[johnnyb]

I look at this tradition as what may have happened had we not been so influenced by metal bodied planes from the US. Remember 100 years ago wooden planes were the norm.
Those ece were commonly available in the 90s as were rali laminated planes.

 

[ColinDeVelen]

Wooden planes in various states of decay are a regular feature of village markets over here. I have a scrub plane with a swastika on it, so I'm pretty sure it was made pre-1945. They are also still made here in Cz by a company called Pinie. Treat your better half to a weekend break in Prague, "accidentally" spring for a hold bag, and then hit the local hardware store. Their website also contains some pictures of the manufacturing process, and some history as well.
https://www.pinie.cz/en/

 

[AJBaker]

Wooden planes in various states of decay are a regular feature of village markets over here. I have a scrub plane with a swastika on it, so I'm pretty sure it was made pre-1945. They are also still made here in Cz by a company called Pinie. Treat your better half to a weekend break in Prague, "accidentally" spring for a hold bag, and then hit the local hardware store. Their website also contains some pictures of the manufacturing process, and some history as well.
https://www.pinie.cz/en/

Interesting what Pinie calls those planes in Czech and English.

Ignoring the jointer, in German the planes in order are the Schrupp-, Schlicht-, Doppel- and Putzhobel.

In English, Pinie calls them scrub plane, bench plane, jack plane, and smoothing plane. The names of the middle two don't quite make sense, but that's probably just because the roles of the first three planes are more or less covered by the English jack plane.

I once read a theory on why this was:

The UK industrialised much sooner than other countries, and I reckon they also built proper sawmills much earlier. An English woodworker probably had better acces to reasonably flat boards from the sawmill that just needed the twist/cupping to be planed away (much like today). On the continent, boards might instead have been sawn by hand, or even riven from the tree trunk. Woodworkers would have started with a much more irregular board that needed more material removed to become flat, hence the need for two rough planes before even starting with a chipbreaker.
I also reckon that they used the planes without a chipbreaker because it was easier to sharpen and wouldn't clog as much while doing rough work.

How would you translate the Czech names?
I'm guessing that Uberak means "away taker"? And Cidic means "cleaner"?

 

[RobNichols]

Wooden planes ..... are also still made here in Cz by a company called Pinie. .... https://www.pinie.cz/en/

Pinie looks very interesting - and nice prices .... my wife was talking of how nice it would be to go back to Prague . The Power workbenches are interesting. A work bench with power sockets and air lines built in!

In English, Pinie calls them scrub plane, bench plane, jack plane, and smoothing plane. The names of the middle two don't quite make sense, but that's probably just because the roles of the first three planes are more or less covered by the English jack plane.

I think "bench plane" is a more generic term for all the planes being described. A naming convention that I think is more traditional is: jack plane, fore plane, jointer plane, smoother plane.

I wonder if the naming conventions got confusing with the introduction of the Stanley planes - in particular the number 5.

My experience with wooden planes is that once I have them set up nicely it pays not to change the setting. So it makes sense to dedicate a plane to each role.

However, with a Stanley Bailey type plane it isn't that difficult to change the settings. That makes it possible to work with just one plane. You can do most things with a No.5 alone. It's a bit of a pain swapping blades out (to switch from scrub/fore mode to jointing/smoothing), but not the end of the world. It helps too that the S/B planes have standard blades so you can swap them easily without worrying about the fit of a wedge.

So with Stanley Bailey type planes the No.5 really become the "jack" of all trades. The do anything plane that doesn't exist in the wooden only plane line up.

 

[Jacob]

Interesting what Pinie calls those planes in Czech and English.

Ignoring the jointer, in German the planes in order are the Schrupp-, Schlicht-, Doppel- and Putzhobel.

In English, Pinie calls them scrub plane, bench plane, jack plane, and smoothing plane. The names of the middle two don't quite make sense, but that's probably just because the roles of the first three planes are more or less covered by the English jack plane.

I once read a theory on why this was:

The UK industrialised much sooner than other countries, and I reckon they also built proper sawmills much earlier. An English woodworker probably had better acces to reasonably flat boards from the sawmill that just needed the twist/cupping to be planed away (much like today). On the continent, boards might instead have been sawn by hand, or even riven from the tree trunk. Woodworkers would have started with a much more irregular board that needed more material removed to become flat, hence the need for two rough planes before even starting with a chipbreaker.
I also reckon that they used the planes without a chipbreaker because it was easier to sharpen and wouldn't clog as much while doing rough work.

How would you translate the Czech names?
I'm guessing that Uberak means "away taker"? And Cidic means "cleaner"?

I wondered if the scrub plane featured more in Europe because they had more forestry and did more timber building with un-machined stuff, log cabin style. Scrub plane just the job for cleaning up, jointing, after axe and adze.
Perhaps why Stanley introducing a metal scrub in N America where there is also more timber and N European immigrants.
Record did too but too late for the UK market and it never caught on.

 

[ColinDeVelen]

There are two UK distributors for Pinie products, I will leave it up to those who are interested to check the details, but I don't know how the range and the prices compare. I know from having used a wooden scrub that the light weight makes them a joy to use for a longer time. If I have split some logs and need to get them flat quickly, it's always a toss up between the hand plane or the DW 2mm cordless. The hand plane usually wins, as it leaves me nice shavings to light the fire and the coal boiler with. But if I am working on logs outside, on the ground, then the DW gets the job.

 

[johnnyb]

Any serious user would attest to the efficacy of wooden scrubs without a pkaner. Hence id suggest the uses of planes in prep seriously declined with the machine age. So much a stanley was sufficient to do what dressing was requisite.

 

[Jacob]

Any serious user would attest to the efficacy of wooden scrubs without a pkaner. Hence id suggest the uses of planes in prep seriously declined with the machine age. So much a stanley was sufficient to do what dressing was requisite.

But wooden scrubs aren't common in UK, at least not with the tight radius of my ECE about 1".
Where did they all go?

 

[johnwalls26]

There are two UK distributors for Pinie products, I will leave it up to those who are interested to check the details, but I don't know how the range and the prices compare. I know from having used a wooden scrub that the light weight makes them a joy to use for a longer time. If I have split some logs and need to get them flat quickly, it's always a toss up between the hand plane or the DW 2mm cordless. The hand plane usually wins, as it leaves me nice shavings to light the fire and the coal boiler with. But if I am working on logs outside, on the ground, then the DW gets the job.

Sadly the two listed currently on Pinie's website are not hand tool merchants. There hasn't been a uk stockist other than for mallets since Charnwood cleared out their stock about 7 years ago finding the market for Pinie planes too small. Sauter seems to be the best supplier for uk customers.

 

[johnwalls26]

Strange, because here they're cheap as chips. I've usually paid 5-20£ equivalent for most normal planes, and some I've even had given away to me. Try going on ricardo.ch and searching "Hobel", and see if anyone is willing to ship to the UK. The most common brand here was Lachapelle (packed up in 2000), whose planes are every bit as good as Ulmia or ECE.

Thanks for the posts. Marples used to offer a European wooden plane. On Ricardo, is there a way of checking whether the vendor offer uk delivery please?

 

[AJBaker]

I agree that wooden planes are a pain to adjust, much better to set it and leave it until it needs to be sharpened. For a professional it therefore makes sense to have several similar planes that were each adjusted for a particular role.

 

[AJBaker]

Thanks for the posts. Marples used to offer a European wooden plane. On Ricardo, is there a way of checking whether the vendor offer uk delivery please?

No automatic way, unfortunately. I think you'll just need to ask below the listing (Fragen und Antworten) if they are willing. You can ask in English, otherwise in German it's "Versenden Sie auch ins Ausland nach England?".

If you have something in mind I can try looking myself and send it on to you. By the looks of it shipping is about 20-30£.

 

[ColinDeVelen]

Maybe I should drive over with a boot full of new and second hand planes next time I come to blighty to visit my folks