Welcome to Hobel Austria!
The history of carpentry tool manufacturers in Austria has generally been little researched so far. Yet the factories of Weiss & Sohn and Franz Wertheim were among the largest manufacturers in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Nevertheless, even carpenters today hardly know these names, only a few have an idea of the tradition behind them. Changing that is one reason for this website.
Another is the tools themselves. A lot of knowledge about this has also been lost over time. However, the situation is somewhat different here, because there are quite a number of regional museums, initiatives as well as passionate craftsmen and collectors who deal with traditional crafts and tools and also contribute to their preservation. Here, Hobel Austria is intended to provide an additional source of information.
200 years Johann Weiss & Sohn
Hobel Austria has been online since 2020. This year, the largest and most successful wood tool manufacturer in Austria, Johann Weiss & Sohn, would have celebrated its 200th anniversary. The history of this company is exemplary for the entire industry and is therefore also the focus of Hobel Austria.
You can find the company history here:
The factory production of planes and carpentry tools began in Austria at the beginning of the 19th century with Franz Gruber in Vienna. It reached its heyday between 1840 and 1918. Therefore, when I use the term "Austria" in this context, I am referring primarily to the Austrian Empire and the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Accordingly, I include manufacturers from the crown lands of Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary and the provinces among the Austrian manufacturers, even though they were of course no longer so after 1918.
A big thank you goes to the Austrian National Library and its online database "ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online".
Hobel Austria would not have been possible in this form without this project.
ANNO makes 25 million pages of 1400 print media from a period of almost 400 years available digitised and free of charge for online research and thus forms an almost inexhaustible and easily accessible data source for everyone.
A wonderful panoramic window into our past.
ANNO Austrian Newspapers Online