hand adze

[Ed Steinkirchner]

seem to be making more wood tools than metal recently. this is a small adze made from a small wagon axly from the 30's, about 7/8 to 15/16 inch square. the steel seemed to be higher med carbon stuff.

Ed Steinkirchner

[Steve Shimanek]

Nice tool!

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Nice job! I like it.

[Sukellos]

That's a right pretty adze. You can be proud of it.

[Ed Steinkirchner]

thanks everyone for the compliments, i havn't really used it that often yet but i'm sure the need will arise at some point.

Ed Steinkirchner

[Alec.S]

nice....i bet your just waiting for the project to use it :P

[SGropp]

The critical geometry for a hand adze is that the plane of the top bevel [ against the work] should be at 90 degrees to the tip of your index finger knuckle when you are holding the tool.

If this isn't right then the blade either sticks in the work every stroke or bounces off. The cutting edge should be swinging in an arc, cutting a chip and then exiting.

A properly made hand adze is a joy to use.

[Bentiron1946]

SGropp, Are you saying this has the right angle or not? Or is it just a guess until he uses the adze? Looks like a nice tool to me but hey, I'm more used to beating metal not working wood. :P

[Ed Steinkirchner]

for me it has the righ angle, but it wasn't forged in perfectly. if you look closely the head is on an angle with the handle, not perfect 90. it does work well but it hasn't seen serious work as of yet. and i am with bentiron, in that i do more metal than woodwork. thank you all for your comments.

Ed Steinkirchner

[CBrann]

I always wondered what the geometry was on an adz... I have never used one, but I want to. It makes sense that the tool has a curve, since the human body prefers to move in curves and arcs.

Well done!
Cliff

[Mainely,Bob]

SGropp, Are you saying this has the right angle or not? Or is it just a guess until he uses the adze? Looks like a nice tool to me but hey, I'm more used to beating metal not working wood.

If you have never made or used an adz before then follow Sgropp`s guidelines and get it in the ballpark that way.Fine tuning can be done within reason thru the handle.
The traditional foot adz that boat builders,etc use(just a larger version with a longer handle than a hand adz) were forged to a common angle and then fit with manufactured handles.Most of the large adzes I`ve seen used for boat building were fit tight on the sides of the eye and had clearance front and back.The "hang" of the head was tuned by wedges fore and aft to allow adjustment.That`s one reason why a traditional adze has a squared eye rather than one like a pick.
The same approach works for a small traditional hand adz.

[Bentiron1946]

Back in the seventies there was this older sculptor down from me that worked with large pieces of salvaged trees, mostly cottonwood, tamarack, ash, mulberry, whatever was blown down, cut down or otherwise available. He had a great selection of adze, axe and saw to rough out his works of art then finished things up with goughes or planes. I tried a couple of times to rework large hammers into adze for him but I can't say they were a success or even close to one. :(

[jake pogrebinsky]

Ed,you've done good on the forging,but the proportions and the action do not seem quite right,frankly-with the cut of this width the force needed may be more than that hammer handle that you've used can comfortably accomodate.
Of course,if it works for you,then it's just great,however,personally,i'm very interested in the info that came out so far in this topic.
SGropp,i'm not sure that i quite got that,"tip...90 deg.to bevel",would you mind terribly to elaborate a bit more?Thanks in advance,(and to you too,Bob).

Hope that i didn't come off sounding rude on all that,beg pardon if so.But info like that is rare enough,and tool building is critically dependent on such(vs.the ornamental iron).I've hand bowl/gutter adze in the works presently,and would really appreciate any/all feedback.

[SGropp]

Most of the bevel should be on the top of the blade [ the side towards the handle, away from the work when you are using the tool] The bottom side should have a slight bevel. This bevel is a segment of the arc that the cutting edge swings in during use.

If you put a square across the plane of the bottom bevel with the inside corner at the cutting edge ,the other leg of the 90* angle should be at the first knuckle of your hand when grasping the handle .

To work properly the blade needs to be swinging in an arc, entering the wood, cutting a chip and exiting. If the angle is too open, the blades sticks in the work. If it is too closed ,it bounces off.

A hand adze is swung from the elbow rather than the shoulder, with a loose grip like holding a hammer. This keeps the motion in a controlled arc. The motion is fairly quick and smooth , removing wood by cutting lots of even sized chips rather than large chunks. For a hand adze it is best to sit down with the work braced against a stump between your knees. The hand holding the work should be near the top of the piece, safely out of the path of the blade. The arm holding the tool should be held in close to your side, swinging in a smooth motion from the elbow.

Just like working hot iron under a power hammer, the tool is swung in a constant predictable path, while the work is manipulated constantly as the form is developed.

Wider blades [ more than about 1 1/2" wide ] work best with a slight concave scoop to the blade or rounded corners with the upper edges turned up in a lip. This helps keep the corners of the blade from sticking in the wood. In any case in plan view , the blade should have a slight curve , rather than be straight across.

I hope this clarifies things rather than making it more complex. The subtleties of a well functioning hand tool is not to be underestimated.

These observations are from a lifetime of use with the Northwest Coast Native style elbow adze, but should apply as well to the European style adze as pictured in the OP.

The Native peoples of the NW Coast developed the most highly evolved wooden material culture in history. This was and is made possible with basically just two types of tools , the curved ["crooked"] knife and the elbow adze

[jake pogrebinsky]

Thank you,very much,for such an expanded answer,this is very clear,and most germaine.

I've made an iron for a friend,to be attached to a grown crook by him.The pattern came from the U of Fairbanks Native Studies carving lab.There,just as in the Chilcoot carving coop that i've spent time visiting years ago,really nice irons were joined to REALLY nice crooks by ugliest means possible-hose clamps,usually...

I keep meaning to try to reverse-engineer some sort of a tension/strap type of attachement,but haven't yet.

Being lazy about designing/building a drift for a compression-type eye has stopped me thus far from building that same carver a radiused sculptor's adze,but i'm finally moving on it.

The crooked knife,yes...THE most useful,as well as graceful tool.I've a pattern for a really nice one hanging on the shop wall(and over my head).But the original was so slender and flexible that the metallurgy involved intimidates me still.

Anyway,thanks again for all the info.

[Mainely,Bob]

The crooked knife,yes...THE most useful,as well as graceful tool.I've a pattern for a really nice one hanging on the shop wall(and over my head).But the original was so slender and flexible that the metallurgy involved intimidates me still.

Jake,If the metallurgy of a crooked knife intimidates you then try making one out of an old straight razor.
If you like the way a crooked knife works look at a Japanese leaf knife or the larger leaf plane.They have the basic shape of a spear but are a single bevel edge like a hewing axe.What would be the tip of the spear is curved up so you can get into tight places by raising the handle,it acts much like a crooked knife when used this way.Further back the blade becomes flat and if you drop the handle you can quickly flatten and smooth large areas.
It`s basically an Asian version of an overgrown rather flat crooked knife.The larger ones are fitted with a long handle and are braced against the body and pulled with two hands.
The reason I mention it is that the geometry of both the edge and the tool are very similar to an open crooked knife,just on a larger scale.If you are looking for a place to start it might be something to hone your skills on before moving to the smaller crooked knife.
I`m told W1 is much the same as the steel the Japanese smiths use for their laminated blades so that may be a good place to start as far as material goes.
Good luck with it

[jake pogrebinsky]

Thanks,Bob,that sounds like an interesting tool,very tempting!It's just that i'm such a BLACKsmith,that expanding into toolmaking is mind-boggling.The present info about the adze is a good example of how challenging even just the theoretical issues are.
But,sooner or later one must venture...(But not into molesting a straight razor!That must be some scary ultra-high C steel...).I do have a large,electric tempering oven of late,that goes over 2800F,and has a pyrometer.It's high enough for quenching,and makes it a LITTLE more realistic,especially for O-1(that needs to be held at austenising temp),i also have some W-2.
Another neat tool that sticks in my mind is the Portugese adze,Enxo(en-sho),a very wide,short,and extremely steeply bent tool.So much so,that it curves over one's hand like a rapier guard,only extending down to the base of the wrist.It's reputed to have a crazy control,for work both micro and macro.Handled with a short,straight handle,it simply has a chunk of allthread through-bolting the blade to it.

Too many tools!And each requiring very thoughtful approach,to say the least.But thanks a lot for the encouragement,and the info!

[bigfootnampa]

Thank you,very much,for such an expanded answer,this is very clear,and most germaine.

I've made an iron for a friend,to be attached to a grown crook by him.The pattern came from the U of Fairbanks Native Studies carving lab.There,just as in the Chilcoot carving coop that i've spent time visiting years ago,really nice irons were joined to REALLY nice crooks by ugliest means possible-hose clamps,usually...

I keep meaning to try to reverse-engineer some sort of a tension/strap type of attachement,but haven't yet.

Being lazy about designing/building a drift for a compression-type eye has stopped me thus far from building that same carver a radiused sculptor's adze,but i'm finally moving on it.

The crooked knife,yes...THE most useful,as well as graceful tool.I've a pattern for a really nice one hanging on the shop wall(and over my head).But the original was so slender and flexible that the metallurgy involved intimidates me still.

Anyway,thanks again for all the info.

Crooked knives are not that hard Jake. I have read of craftsmen making them from small butcher or kitchen knives by simply cold forging the bend. When I tried it though I broke the knife... I was successful in hot forging one from such an old knife and just reheat treated it. I have also made them from scratch and they are a breeze compared to my needle knives. I get them ground and sharpened as straight knives and then heat and bend them. I harden them with a torch in such a way that only the thin sharp edges get fully hardened... easy to do as the thin edges will heat faster than the bodies of the blades. You have to resharpen after the heat treatment but it is minimized. Full sharpening is more important with the hook knives than the crooked knives because of the difficulties of working the inside of the curve after the bending process is completed. One piece of important advice: use files for the precision grinding and sanding belts or small grinders with flap wheels are okay... but avoid the buffer. Just today I needed an extra filet knife to teach my son with and could only find junkers locally. I didn't want to take the time to make my own so I settled for a Chinese Ruko which was not even ground or tapered properly, let alone sharpened. I reground it and got the tapers nicely tuned. During the sharpening process I foolishly tried to buff the thing and it gave my safety glasses a nice testing and made quite a serious attempt to stab me in the heart! The finely tapered tips of such blades are just WAY too dangerous to let them get near a buffing wheel (unless you fancy being buffeted by sharp objects)!!!