Half-adz'ed question

[Bob Cleek]

Maybe this belongs in Miscellaneous, but I thought that since it was a boat related topic, it might get lost there.... ahem...

Anyhow, I'm down in Vegas last weekend doing some business and checking out a buddie's antique yard. Yep, YARD. He has a business selling western and farm junk, primarily to decorators who hang it on the walls of bars and hotels. He's got a gazillion spurs, bits, all sorts of tack, farm implements, pumps, wagons, saddles, old fashioned household goods, tools... right, TOOLS!

Unfortunately, since most of it is outdoors and basically old farm implements, plows and so on, there weren't a lot of handtools worth looking at. I mean, how many rusty shovels, picks, railroad spike sledges and so on do you need? LOL However, I did snag two flat adzes with good handles in great shape. No serious pitting at all. One really had no visible rust on it. Both look to be quite old, so the metal's good. (Not like those cheapo German ones in the catalogs these days.) One's about 4" and the other 3.5" or so. Paid him $20 for the pair.

However, there was this third adze, which I didn't buy because it was really so pitted that it was shot for use as a real tool. What was fascinating about it, though, was the handle. The two I took had regular "S" shaped adze handles, shaped out of straight stock, which looks to be ash or hickory. This third one had a similarly curved handle in line with the head, but additionally, it has another radical S curve in the other plane, which off sets the head about six inches. The handle was steam bent. It was the most amazing bending I've ever seen. Sadly, the tool had been left out to weather for a long time and the handle was severely cracked across the grain from the weathering. I surmised the handle was made to permit using the tool along side the user, with the piece worked on the ground, so the user wouldn't have to straddle the work to swing it. My guess is you'd really have to get some practice using the thing, although you would likely expose your shins to less of a beating with it! LOL

So, has anybody ever seen or heard of an adze hung with a "sidewinder" shaped handle before, or is this something unique custom made by some long lost mechanic. Very interesting piece, though.

[Donn]

Bob..it sounds like you're saying that the side of the work was being worked, while straddling the work. I have and have had and used alot of adze's, but when I've worked the side of a timber, while astride, it's been with a broadaxe.

Sounds like a neat handle. I made all my broadaxe and adze handles, all carved out of hickory with a drawknife. I used alot of strange curves, but never one like that.

It almost seems like it would be used to work a timber that's already in place, and can't be turned up to work it with a normal adze.

Was it a straight bit or a gouge bit?

PS..there are real nice (and expensive) Japanese adzes made with sandwiched steel. They're better than anything made in the 'old days.'

[Bob Cleek]

Yea, those samuri sword jobs are nice, but pricey!

No, I didn't mean it looked like it was for sidework where a broad axe would be used. It looked like you could stand alongside a beam and use it to shape the top of the beam, rather than straddling it or standing on top. It was a flat bladed job. Nothing different about the iron, just a very unusual handle.

[John B]

didn't young Dave Fleming have information on that?
He'll be along soon no doubt.

[Northernguy59]

Bob, Scetch a picture of it and post it..... Im curious. you should have bought it just for the hell of it.

[Art Read]

... and you could always have wraped that nasty, old, wooden handle in fiberglass or carbon fiber...

[Northernguy59]

Come on Art........ thats in another thread...... isnt it lol :eek:

[Nicholas Carey]

Check out Kestrel Tools at http://www.rockisland.com/~kestrel/

They make traditional tools of the PNW tribes -- gutter adzes, lipped adzes, d-adzes, crooked knives, and straight knives.

http://www.rockisland.com/~kestrel/photos/page7.jpg

The adzes come either as kits, iron only, or fully hafted and ready to roll.

[Ian McColgin]

Bob, I've used on as you're describing and you're right, it's for standing next to the work. With the broad ax you face the piece. With the adz you face along it.

Now, do you remember what the spike like dohicky is really for?

(Hint: Grandfather scolded me for using it to hang the adz on the barn wall from, sans hook.)

[Donn]

I use a broadaxe while standing alongside the timber, facing an end, timber on the right. I've already scored the timber with a felling axe, and use the broadaxe to hog out the material, from the side of the timber.

I use all my adzes while straddling or sitting astraddle the timber, or overhead, on the lower surface.

On a cooper's adze, the hammer, or pin end of the head is used to force the hoops over the staves.

Ahhh...I find, on a forumite's website, a shipwright's adze with a pin used for setting bolts. Thanks Dave!

[ 06-06-2002, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: donnwest ]

[Dave Fleming]

After a major computer melt down....
I'M BAAACK!
If any of you'se peoples is interested, I have a few photos and a sketch of different adze handle styles at my Imagestation site.
www.imagestation.com/members/DaveFleming (http://www.imagestation.com/members/DaveFleming)

Keep in mind the beauty of hand tools is that they can be modified to suit the job/user.
Fun part is for someone coming along many years later and figuring out just what the hell it was used for???

[Hughman]

The adz handle bent in two planes allows the user to brace the handle against the knee or thigh, and cut alongside, or outside of your foot. Picture standing inside the frames with your feet at different heights, and it's easier to maintain control in this awkward position if you have a double bent handle.

[Bob Cleek]

Now here's a question I ought to know the answer to, but... how's the iron supposed to be attached to the handle? The two I have are "loose," i.e., they don't have a wedge driven in the end like a hammer head does. I can slide them down the handle and off, as the head end is fitted with a flare so the iron snugs down on it. One of them has a small hole drilled right above the neck of the iron, through the handle, so a small stick or nail could be stuck in there. The other doesn't. My hunch is that they are just run down the handle and maybe tapped tight against the handle's flare. Still, I have a hunch there's an old timer's trick to it and I haven't had time to pick my old timer's brain about it as yet. Anybody know?

[Dave Fleming]

Bob, the usual practice is a wedge shaved particular to your needs, IE:
the hang of the head on the handle. Seen 'em set up with leather shims plus wood wedges.
Got a feeling that the fellow what did that was trying to reduce shock coming through the head to handle to his arms. Sorta like an early carpal tunnel remedy, if ya folla?
HINT: Chappelle, though not a shipwright bye any stretch of the imagination, does a fairly decent job of explaining how to hang an adze head in BoatBuilding ( what ever it's called ) :D
I can see what the fellow was saying about the use of a twisted handle setup.
Dubbing off the inside of frames to make the ceiling lay fair.
Something in my limited experience I was not exposed to.

[ 06-11-2002, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[Bob Cleek]

Thanks, Dave! That'll do it. I'll check my Chapelle. Not that I'm going to be doing any heav adzing in the near future. LOL

[Ian McColgin]

The adzes I've used let the head on over the handle and jammed up where it belongs. Can't slip off. No wedges. One that was really dried out could slip down but a night in kerosene cured it.

g'luck

[RGM]

The off-set handle allowed for easier/safer dubbing of frames and timbers such as fairing frames in way of ceiling timbers and for working up close/alongside bulkheads and other similar interferring structures. The heads are never wedged like a hammer head. The wedge(s) and leather pads (if used) were set in between the iron and the upper back face of the handle, which would be square or rectangular in section at that point. Since the business end of the handle was wider at the iron end it would get tighter when swung. The hole in your handle, as you surmised, is for a cross pin which would prevent the head from sliding down the handle. That's how they would be taken apart. The whole affair was meant to be disassembled for sharpening and storage if need be and then re-assembled and wedged when put back to work.

[Dave Fleming]

Ian, the head of the adze should be able to slip forward off the handle if not, how does one 'hang the head' to suit each user?
Store bought handles are for 'uptown' carpenter adzes and yes the head of the handle is large enough to prevent the adze head from sliding off of it. And, those handles are usually of a different shape than those used bye shipwrights.
See my clumsy sketch on the Imagestation album..
Shipwrights adze handles are shaped with a smaller head to allow that all important adjustment for the person using it.
Seen handles made of many different woods, some steamed, some shaped.
Picking up an adze set up for another is like picking up an alien tool. It just doesn't feel right and if you try to use it, you might just get bit!
I recall ALF, when he gave me his adzes, taking the time to teach me how to set the hang for me.
He was about 5'5" and I am(was) ;)
6'1". The adzes needed to be rehung to accomodate the difference in height/reach, and more important 'skill', sigh. But I learned and as with most things practice makes better.
Lots o'chips were left around the yard but that is what a steambox is for. smile.gif

[Kermit]

I second Carey's suggestion that you check out Kestrel tools. I have two of his adzes and three crooked knives, and they are among my favorite tools. If you think only old steel is good steel, you've never tried a Kestrel tool. These are the knives and adzes that made the totem poles and canoes of the PNW peoples. They work well, and Kestrel got them right.

[Donn]

Talk about half-adzed! I always wanted a little adze.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid22/p20cf11b9a18d22ee0397e2af305d5c41/fda6f3ac.jpg

You can just see the nut on the upper end of the handle. A steel rod runs through the handle, and the head is tightened via the nut. This is one of the most useful carving and shaping tools I have.

I included a recognizable object in the photo to provide scale. :D

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Well, I am no expert, but mine, which I bought new 30 years ago when you could still buy good tools easily in Britain, has no wedge, and the advice given was "shape the head to fit" - slowly and with a deal of tailor's chalk!

[Bob Cleek]

Yep... both of the ones I got have that space for the wedge at the back of the head... no wedges, but that's easily fixed. Now, if I can just get the angle right BEFORE I lay it into my shin! (Just kidding... Trust me, I'll choke up on it! LOL)