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Last month I had the opportunity to pick up a few woodworking tools from my father’s shop. I was born in a small town in Southern Germany and in early April I finally had the chance for a short visit. My father passed away many years ago but the workshop was still neat as it had always been. Not much had changed in the last 15 years, the jars with screws neatly arranged on makeshift shelves, not pretty but very functional. And there were the nails that the construction crew wanted to threw away after pouring the concrete. As kids we rescued them and spent hours, days, weeks straightening them out with little hammers; we wore our sour thumbs as badges of honor. This time I finally had enough space in my suitcase to take a few of my father’s woodworking tools with me back to the US.
If I understand it correctly than the traditional European system of bench planes uses five planes to go from rough sawn lumber to a smooth board. The first plane is a scrub plane (Schrupphobel), followed by the equivalent of a Jack plane (Schlichthobel), after that the Jointer (Rauhbank), a blade with a chip breaker that does not have an equivalent in the American/English iron planes (Doppelhobel) and finally a smoothing plane (Putzhobel). All planes are made of wood and typically feature single irons, with exception of the Doppelhobel and the Putzhobel. German bench planes (and maybe European bench planes in general?) have developed a quite distinct appearance. All planes with exception of the very largest ones feature a fitted front horn that is let into the plane body. The horn makes the plane handed, i.e. most planes are specifically designed for right-handed use and extremely uncomfortable to use for left handed users. Bench Planes The first tool that I picked up is a scrub plane. The plane body of the scrub plane is 46.7 mm (1 107/128 inches) wide, 240 mm (9 51/64 inches) long, and 64 mm (2 33/64 inches) high (excluding the horn). The mouth opening is approximately in the center between heel and toe.
Wooden scrub. The blade is 32 mm (1 ¼ inches) wide, 3.6 mm (9/64 inches) thick and 170 mm (6 11/16 inches) long with an schnecked top. The blade is made by the French manufacturer Goldenberg. I t is made of laminated steel with about 50 mm of hardened insert left so I believe that blade is almost full length. As customary for scrub planes the blade is heavily crowned.
The scrub plane (Schrupphobel) is the first plane to use; blade manufactured by Goldenberg, France.
There is no indication of the manufacturer of the plane body, however the elaborate way in which the front horn in fitted to the plane body might indicate a French manufacturer. In fact as a refugee after the War my father had spent some time in Alsace and might have brought the plane over there.
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