French Moulding Plane

French eBay strikes again!

French plane.

I picked up a pretty little moulding plane from French eBay the other day.  The construction of this plane is a bit different than the English tradition, and I thought it might be worth a five Euro bid to find out if it might be worth building one.

As is typical with purchases from eBay, you never quite know what you are going to get.  I tried to bid on one that didn't look too ratty.  Not too much rust or too many worm holes.

This one has a worn out sole.  The bit on an English plane that normally would be boxed is practically worn off in the front.

The sharp part of the profile on this plane's sole is worn away.

There are some interesting tidbits of French plane construction that one can learn from this plane.  First of all, it doesn't appear that the planemakers were too overly concerned about perfectly straight grain on their planes.  Looking at other planes on eBay, this plane is typical with a big swirly bit of grain right down by the sole.

Nasty tear out on the sole itself!

Here is another view of the sole from the rear.  The back of the plane took a bit less wear than the front.

One can see the profile on the sole from the back.

Here is another view of the swirling grain near the sole.

The wedge is a bit different in shape.  It actually looks practical and easy to make.

Wedge.

I was pleased to see the tapered iron was made by the Peugeot firm.  This should be good steel.  I look forward to sharpening it up.

Peugeot blade.

Here you can see the blade is tapered.  Curiously, it is full width the whole way back.

The big reason I bought this plane, is I wanted to see how the mortise for the blade was constructed.  I was right when I suspected that it was sawn out and another strip of wood was attached to the side.

This construction method for the mortise looks simpler to construct.

Indeed, looking at the end of the plane, you can clearly see where the strip was attached.

The side strip that is glued on is one wall of the blade's mortise.

Another view of the sole including the inserted blade.

Here is a view of the blade cavity with the blade removed.

I think the side escapement looks funny, but I imagine it is practical and works.  It looks like the end of the wedge fits seamlessly with the escapement.

The plane's escapement.

I couldn't see any spring lines on the end of the plane, however the plane's fence was canted a bit.  Could this be the angle that the plane should be sprung?

The fence looks sprung.

Here is a close-up of the maker's mark. It looks like, "8 VRAI CORMIER GARANTI" with a P. G. in the center of the star.

Maker's mark.

The over all length was 22 cm with a height of 7 cm for the body. (8 5/8" x 2 3/4")

Fairly short.

I think there is no question looking at this style of plane that the English style is superior.  However, construction of this plane looks far simpler than the English one.  One can not say that the French made inferior furniture using tools such as this.  Perhaps they viewed these tools with the thought of them being a bit more disposable than the English did.

In any case, here is a construction method of a plane that could perhaps be relevant today in the view of a more entry-level plane, or perhaps a tool one would buy for a single use.

I look forward to trying this plane out to see if it will still cut a moulding.  If so, it might be worth rehabbing and fixing the sole.

In any case, I might try and build one using principles seen on this plane to see if I can come up with a plane that is easy to build.