Any adze users?

cooper, I have dreams about finding barns like that :) Very nice adze too, maybe not a collectors piece but its in great shape to be touched up and used. A specialty tool but one that is quite nice to have.
 
Sadly, I have never used an Adze. Held many, looked at em, thought in wonder. Wait, that sounds like prom night.
 
I picked up an adze last Spring but I never had the time or inclination to fix it up until last month. It's a vintage True Temper so it has good steel. The handle was a little weathered but sound.

The biggest problem was some dings in the edge. Someone must have mistaken it for a mattock and went after some roots (and rocks) with it.

Adze1_001.jpg



I sanded down the handle and gave it a couple coats of boiled linseed oil then tung oil.

Adze_2.JPG



The edge is fine after a little file work and some stone work.

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I took it up to Taylor Mtn. a couple weeks ago to finish off a bench we had started during a volunteer event. This half-round was cut an split and carried to its current location by volunteers. I barked it with the adze and a drawknife. Here I'm just making a flat spot on the bottom of the bench where it will rest on a round.

Adze_4.jpg



Here I'm surfacing the top of the bench.

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Here are the tools I used to finish off this bench. From left to right, adze, drawknife, broad hatchet (the blue tape was just to protect the edge while packing it up the Mtn. - I stuck it on the handle to store it until I packed things back up again), home forged 2" slick (wood chisel), Tajima folding saw.

Adze_6.jpg


Hope you enjoy the photos.
 
These are part of my vintage logging collection. I've never put one to use.



The adze with the spike on the end is a shipwrights adze. It is lightened for overhead use and the spike was used to chink waterproofing between the boards. Two Mattocks on the left.







 
That's an impressive collection of adzes, Tom. Even the rusty one would clean up to be a nice user.

The shim shown in your third picture was SOP for adzes. The carpenter would use the shim to fine tune the angle of the bit.
 
Thanks Peg. I wasn't aware of the shim in my adze, thanks for that information...Always learning from you guys. I do have to clean up the rusted one. I'm sure my angle grind w/ brush will make short work of it. I've located some adze handles, just haven't polled the trigger on one.
 
Shims are great. The hafting angle on adzes is really important, as is the shape of the handle. Otherwise you be hunched reaching out way in front to adze your work or be in some other awkward position.
 
I'd heard the flat-pointy side of a shipwright's axe is for setting nails below the surface of the wood so they can be caulked over and kept dry. I can sure picture myself making a mess of that.

Here's a pic of my first one-handed adze with this morning's other treasures. (Plumb Victory half-hatchet, 10 or 12 lb hammer head, and what used to be ball-bearings in a tin with more-or-less used nails, screws, and nuts and bolts.

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The adze is more of a smoother than a hollower. The handle is shimmed. 7 bucks for the lot.
 
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Good stuff, Fellas! I enjoyed those pics a lot! I have yet to score an adze, but this thread has got the wheels turning in my head.
 
zakkmann said:
A family friend gave me this shipwrights adze a few years ago.

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Now that's a beautiful tool. Have you had the chance to take a few swings with it?

And a question for all, when sharpening a shipwrights adze with the curled corners do you use a slip stone to hone the curve? Is there some other method?
 
I haven't attempted to sharpen it yet, but the dowel and various grits of sand paper sound like a decent idea. I'll definitely put a post togeather If/when I get to it.
 
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