I this case I would bet the stamp on the plate is the name of the company, a
German firm going back to 1875.  They make a dowel forming plate,  in their
current catalog as item 018-000.  Has 8 holes labeled 7 - 20, skips some #s.
Above their name is a glif I would describe as a cross between a crown and a
dogs paw print.

A litle bit ago someone here was talking chisels, for mortising, specifically
for cleaning the bottom of a mortise.  The Japanese have a specialised tool for
the purpose, a Sokosarae-nomi, or bottom scraping chisel.
Because of the reliance on joinery they have lots of specialized chisels.  
For shoji, the sliding panels, there are:
   the kama-nomi, looks like a harpoon, (but I think of kama as goose neck)
  the mori-nomi, a hook tool, for pulling the chips up when turning the work
over to shake out is problematic
  the  for punching out the waste in the middle when it is a through mortise ( a
time saver ).  The mortice chopping chisel is also a bit different than in the
west, because it needs a lot more backbone, the material being quite soft.  A
6mm wide chisel might be 12mm from the back to top.
The hoop on a Japanese chisel is a kazura. It means "wig". 
The ferrule is kuchi-gane.  Kuchi is usually translated "mouth", but here I
think it is closer to "opening", or even "insert".  Kuchi-e, were little
woodblock prints put in the front of magazines and novels of 100 years ago, to
take the place of full color covers.    Think of the "inserts" in the Sunday
paper (esp this weekend, Black Friday coming).  Gane is metal, so it (could)
literally mean insert-metal.
Makes sense to me (limited Japanese skills), so that's my story and I'm sticking
to it.
Hopefully someone here is better at Nihon-go than me, can chime in with
corrects.
Cheers,
Michael

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