ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)
>I recently won this ECE Moving Filletster on the 'bay. What is nice about it is that it has a skewed blade and should be a better user across the grain than my Record #778 (well, I'll find out when a certain something is sorted out, see below).
This is how the plane was advertised:
As can be seen, the brass work is rather tarnished (a couple of mm of corrosion). So I soaked the metal bits in citric acid, and scrubbed with 0000 steel wool, and wiped the wood down.
At this point I checked the blade and then honed it. However, when I went to reset the blade I discovered that the bevel was on the wrong side!
At first I thought that I was being my usual dyslexic self, but I was sure that all I did was hone the established bevel. I checked the original picture and, lo-and-behold, the original blade was honed on the wrong side!
So it appears that either the original owner used this plane as a scraper, or (s)he got it wrong all those years ago, could not get it to work, and so the plane lay on a shelf all this time. What do you think?
Now I am also interested in dating this plane since it is not a current model. Any ideas?
Regards from Perth
Derek
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#2Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
Kevin Adams
>Hi Derek--
Neat looking plane. It must be fairly old as I have one of the newer ones and I believe they've been making it the new way for quite some time now. Mine has a straight-sided blade and wedge like on a bench plane rather than your set-up like a traditional molding plane. Mine is also not skewed, although the dovetail plane they currently make is skewed.
BTW, my ECE fillester is really a decent plane (even without the skewed blade) and I find it so much quicker and easier than any other methods (esp. power). Originally, I was hoping to find a nice old one (or even try to get C&W to make one), but I struck out on both counts. I think you'll really like this plane.
Have fun.
Kevin
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#3It's a Northern Hemisphere model
Neal White (San Jose)
>Ship it North of the equator to someone in, oh, say, Northern California, and everything will work.
Seriously, is the blade reversable such that your only issue is putting it in wrong? I can't believe the factory did it that far wrone, and it is hard to immagine someone went to the trouble to regrind the bevel on the wrong side of the blade. But, stranger things have happened.
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#4Re: The Expert
paul womack
>I don't know which forums he hangs around on, but for this, Wolfgang Jordan is the expert (even if his site does have the affrontery to be in his native tongue, not mine :-)
BugBear
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#5English Translation *LINK*
Jeff Schmidt
>
Wofgang Jordan Site in English
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#6Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle. *LINK*
Marc in Luxembourg
>Could we have a closeup of the mark right from the nicker above the fence? Maybe that'll help. Here's a link to Eckhard Pohlmann's site. But there's no identical model. Wolfgang has all the german and much european brands listed. So maybe you can find the brand there:
http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/deutsch.phtml
or here:
http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/europaeisch.phtml
Marc
Eckhard Pohlmann
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#7Re: English Translation - well, sort of
Bill Houghton, cold and rainy in Sebastopol, CA
>I am always fascinated by the power and the limitations of online translating.
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#8Re: The Expert
Wolfgang Jordan
>Hi all,
well 'expert' is a bit of an exaggeration, I'm trying to put some information together, and I have barely scratched the surface. And sorry for the 'wrong' language of my site, but I'm here to help.
If Derek's plane is made by ECE it must have been produced in 1940 or later, because that's when the company changed their name from FWE to ECE. In older catalogs from 1932 resp. 1936 one can see that their moving filletster had a different shape with a narrow top and a decorated step in the middle:
http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/kataloge/fwe1_03a.phtml
http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/kataloge/fwe208.jpg
A catalog from 1952 shows a moving filletster just like Derek's plane:
The text reads: "No. 48S Filletster, lacquered, adjustable in width and depth, with 2 polished metal stops, nicker and lignum vitae boxing, iron width: 33 mm (adjustable from 0 to 33 mm), length 24 cm, weight 1,1 kg"
I have no newer catalogs, so I can't tell how long this plane was made like this.
Regarding the bevel I think it has been changed by the owner, but I can think of no reasonable purpose. The skewed blade should already give a good performance, and a scraping filletster does not make sense to me. I just realize that neither Derek's picture nor the one in the ECE catalog exhibit a skewed blade, so it may be only a small angle. That does not explain a wrong sharpened blade, though.
Wolfgang
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#9Re: "The Expert Is In"
paul womack
>
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#10Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)
>Marc
Here are two pictures of the badges
Without flash:
With flash:
Regards from Perth
Derek
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#11Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
Wolfgang Jordan
>Derek,
this is exactly the same badge as is printed in my ECE catalog.
Unfortunately no later catalogs or information about the use of marks by ECE is known, so I cannot date your plane more exactly.
Wolfgang
Re: ECE plane for identification, and a giggle.
#12Many thanks Wolfgang.
Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)
>