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Un Rabot de Menuisier

Dr.Al

Dr.Al

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Name
Al
Today we popped into a Brocante (antiques shop) in Brittany & I got tempted to part with €15 for a souvenir.

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I don't think it's anything particularly special & I doubt I'll end up using it that much, but sometimes we must allow temptation to get the better of us!

It needs a bit of TLC that'll have to wait until I get home.

The sole attachment shows some curvy ripples (I imagine these were cut by machine):

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The mouth opening is relatively small:

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Most planes I've seen in French junk shops (usually jointer plane length) have mouth openings you could shove a baguette through so it was nice to see something a bit tighter. As you might be able to see in that picture, the blade will need a lot of work.

All the bits:

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I find the blade set-up quite interesting. If you look at the blade & cap iron you'll notice there's no way to join them together (this seems quite common on the planes I've seen in French junk shops), which feels like it could be a bit awkward when setting the plane up. However, the plane body has a slot that seems intended to allow clearance for the cap iron screw.

Inside the opening, you can see the join between the body & the sole & it looks like a finger joint from this angle:

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Finally for now, a photo of the back of the blade (which is marked “Goldenberg 42 Acier Chrome A Garantie" or “Guaranteed Chrome Steel") & the cap iron (which just has the answer to the ultimate question on it):

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The ripples are a result of the triangular grooves being cut at a slight angle to the plane, if you look down the sole you can see them as triangular grooves.
I have a very long jointing plane that is the same, Goldberg if I remember correctly.

Pete
 
Al, you are doing exactly the right thing. There may be naysayers out there, claiming that you can build and furnish a house with just an axe, but there are so many different tools out there that it just makes good sense to buy one of each type and compare them, and take careful notes on what the subtle differences are, and why you need to have all of them, so as to be ready to make whatever you need to make... and there's absolutely no risk that your little shed will need its own outbuildings to house the new acquisitions, or that you'll move to a house with a playroom in the basement and line the walls with shelves and boxes and drawers of tools...

How can I be so sure? Because, some time back in the 90s, on holiday in Brittany, I went out on a borrowed bike and found a nearby vide-grenier, and managed in my old schoolboy French to ask <C'est combien, le rabot?> and understand that the friendly Breton only wanted €3, so I came back with this!

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Mine is very much the twin of yours, with the same combination of woods (I think probably beech on the body with cormier (service tree) for the sole, with the same routed grooves for the glue). It's the same size and has the same size iron and cap iron, except that I have the most basic, unbranded ones.


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It also shares the historically interesting, but awkward, lack of anything to join the iron and cap iron together. This was definitely an example of French makers continuing to offer the older pattern alongside the improved one, presumably to appeal to the customer who didn't trust new things or just wanted to save a few centimes.

I don't have a Goldenberg catalogue to hand, but here's a page from a 1931 French catalogue which lists this style of plane in various options, top right hand corner, models 3612 and 3614-5. You can see that they were offered in hornbeam, holm oak, or service tree wood, and you could choose a model "sans vis" - without screw - or with a "vis longue". This was a long screw, in line with the iron, with a knurled nut that could be turned to adjust the position of the cap iron. (There are some photos of rusty ones here https://www.lairdubois.fr/pas-a-pas/838-restauration-doutils.html .)

Harder to make than the simple screw and attached nut favoured elsewhere - but a nice side project for a woodworker with metalworking skills! ;)


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