Adze Source wanted

[bloggs68]

Hi all,

I'm in the market for an adze. Can anyone recommend an online store?

TIA

Andrew

[Donn]

Traditional Woodworker (http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=36_103)

[jboat]

Garret Wade has adzes

[helvit]

http://www.leevalley.com/home/search.asp?SID=&ccurrency=&pageGroup=1

[Bob Cleek]

SIGH.... I guess the great adze hunt goes on... and on... and on...

Fact is, despite much searching, I don't think anybody makes or sells REAL adzes anymore. What you have listed in the catalogs are 1) "hand adzes" or enxos (pronounced "enshaw," I believe). These are good for what they are intended for, but boatbuilding ain't one of them. Same for the one-handed sculptor's adzes. 2) You got "flat adzes" or "carpenter's adzes" which seem to be made by only one company. I have seen several of them and they are too heavy (thick) and crappy. Again, okay for timber framing (sort of) but not much good for boat work. 3) You have "curved" or "gutter" adzes, so named because they were originally intended for cutting a trough in a log to shape wooden gutters. They decidedly have no boat building use either. As for the handles in the catalogs, fuggedaboudit! Real adze handles are sort of S-curved and are usually made by the user to fit his own preference and body shape.

Old time adzes were made with good steel and would hold a razor sharp edge. I know, everybody gripes that the new edged tools aren't what they used to be, but with the adzes on the market today are really crappy.

What you want for boat work is a "lipped" adze. These turn up at the outer edges a bit and therefore don't gouge the wood when you are using them. I don't know anywhere that one can be bought, except maybe an antique tool store. Don't think they were too numerous back when to begin with. I've only seen maybe two and those belonged to master shipwrights who plan to be buried with them.

I have two old carpenter's adzes, without the lips. They hold a good edge and work well enough, but if there's any way to do the job short of the adze, I'll forego the adze. Kind of scary tools, those adzes. If you miss, or skip off the edge of the workpiece, it's going right into your shin! The old timers tell me that when they started out, they yard boss would make them stand in a couple of wooden nail barrels while they learned. Saved a lot of shins.

If anybody knows where to get a real lipped adze, let us all know. Maybe Fleming has a picture of one he'd share.

If I were you, I wouldn't waste my money on the ones that are being sold today. A tough tool to use in the best of conditions. A crummy one is just about useless.

[Dave Fleming]

Adze Description Web Page (http://pages.sbcglobal.net/djf3rd/page25.html)

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid147/pdd6fed802a4ab45b7c766a5da4c72558/f624c4d9.jpg

edited to add: the adze on the left is an uptown or carpenters adze whilst the one on the right is a shipwrights adze.
No way a shipwright could use such a ***club*** as those uptown adzes.
The poll is there on the 'uptown adze' to give weight to the tool whilst the shipwrights adze is so much lighter with just a 'set spike' to 'set' a spike head below the surface to be *dubbed off*.

Imagine working overhead, sideways, upside down swinging that uptown thing!

Sorry the elegant grace of a fine Campbell ( Camel Brand ) or an L&IJ White or a D.R.Barton or at least a Collins adze cannot be equaled by a Plumb or Stilleto carpenters adze.

[ 11-30-2004, 09:56 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[yorgie]

I've picked up two of my carpenters adzes at thrift stores,they're thought by many to be 'grubhoes'.I bought my lipped 'ship adze' for $40 from an antique mall in Ferndale,Wash.It has very little fore and aft curve to the blade and works best with short horizontal strokes not vertically like the carpenters adzes.

Look in antique stores and flea markets,they will turn up and they'll be much cheaper than any new adzes.

[Bob Smalser]

They're out there.

Just picked up this I&LJ White on Ebay for 40 bucks....the seller couldn't read the maker's mark and didn't have a clue what it was.

Woulda been 15 bucks but there was somebody else out there who knew what they were looking at.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594266/74449288.jpg

You can see the seam where the blade is laminated:

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594266/74449296.jpg

Shaves hair easily.

[botebum]

www.woodcraft.com (http://www.woodcraft.com) has some. I've had pretty good experience ordering tools from them.

[imported_Steven Bauer]

In WoodenBoat #1 John Gardner has an article about traditional boatbuilders tools. He says "When this century opened, American hand tools had reached their pinnacle, and in numerous instances were the finest in the world."
He mentions Swan, Barton, L. & I.J. White and Underhill for superior edge tools but for adzes he talks of Campbell and also Fowler as being "in a class by themselves" Lots of good reading in Volume 1, Number 1.

Steven

[Mhija]

I found my lipped adze ( no makers name ) in
the basement of a building I had rented as a
workshop in Providence RI. The rust cleaned
off to reveal nice steel that holds an edge. The
handle does have an S curve as Bob stated.
They do come up on eBay occasionally if you
watch the collectibles / tools locks & hardware/ tools area. In Larry Pardey's book
Details of Classic Boat Construction there are
pictures of both a lipped adze and a guttering
adze being used to remove a lot of wood from
the deadwood portion of the keel assembly.
Guttering adzes seem to go fast and at high
prices on eBay. Collectors I'm guessing...
The enxo you can buy from Lee Valley is used
by boatbuilders in Portugal as was pointed out
in an article in our fair sponsors magazine a
while back. It looks like it could use a bit of work / elbow-grease to be ready to use, though based on the pictures on their website.

[Murray Campbell]

Just for interest, Inuit skin-boat builders made (make?) their own. The handle comes from a natural crook, you hold the "branch", the blade is bolted / lashed to some wood left from the trunk, ie. branch to trunk angle becomes more or less the angle of the cutting blade....i imagine they shaped, ground and tempered the blades out of old leaf spring or something like it. It would be a nice way to build up a collection of shapes and sizes.

I think David Zimmerly's book Hooper Bay Kayak Construction has some examples. There is a short film of the same name which shows some very cool, snowy "on the beach" kayak construction with some deft adze-work.

[skuthorp]

I don't use them but I've picked up 3, including an offset sleeper-cutters adze last weekend for A$5.00, they dont know what theyr'e for either. Rusty blade but an edge that still cut my hand after years of neglect.
( for sleepers read railroad ties) smile.gif

[Dave Fleming]

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594266/74449296.jpg

This photo from Bob S's post is a good example of how not to 'handle' a shipwrights adze.

The top of the adze handle that fits the eye shouild not be full in the eye. There is no room for the shims/adjusting wedges needed to achieve the proper individual hang for the adze head.

A shipwright would trim the head so that there was room for those adjusting pieces. Some fellows used leather pieces tacked onto the adze handle head with small copper tacks whilst others made metal shim pieces usually of bronze or copper.

[Bob Cleek]

Oh, so right you are, Dave! I was wondering if anyone else had noticed that nail driven in the end of the handle. A hammer it ain't! Still, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he'd gotten lucky with a perfect fit, or maybe he'd found it that way and not changed it. I was too much of a gentleman to point out the faux pas! LOL I might have run the grain in the handle in the other direction as well. Picky, picky, picky!

[ 11-29-2004, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Bob Cleek ]

[Dave Fleming]

Aw, I gave Bob S. the benefit of the doubt. I reckon he just used that photo as an example of what can still be gotten...if one looks hard enough.

I don't think that is a nail,I'm bettin' it is one of those expansion rings one sees from time to time in some striking tool handles.

Ayup, to my tired old eyes the grain does run counter to what I would wish in a handle but, if one doesn't use the tool as a foot adze or pry bar it is workable.

[Bob Smalser]

Well fellas....the adze in question arrived the day of the posting already with that handle and I stuffed it together for the pic.

I wasn't planning to make the angle of attack adjustable with wedges, merely do some trial and error work and steambending the shaft to suit me....but Dave's method is probably better so I'll try it.

The mark in the untrimmed end grain is the live center mark from the handles being molded in a factory overhead pin router-lathe machine.

[Dave Fleming]

The mark in the untrimmed end grain is the live center mark from the handles being molded in a factory overhead pin router-lathe machine Similar to what one would see on a turning fresh off the wood lathe???

[Bob Smalser]

Yeah...tho it's a "cup center" and not a "live center" as I said before.

[RodB]

Thanks for the education guys, I wonder why WB or some other company doesn't just make a proper adze?

Well, at least I know kinda what to look for now.

RB

[imported_Steven Bauer]

Has anyone mentioned these guys:

http://www.tradboats.com/tooladzes.html

http://www.tradboats.com/images/pjimages/adzes.jpg

Steven

[Mrleft8]

WWW.Highlandhardware.com (http://WWW.Highlandhardware.com)