any recommendations about vintage adzes to look for?

[scotchleaf]

Any recommendations about vintage adzes to look for? I'd like to get one, but have no clue about the various makers' quality...Thanks.

 

[Square_peg]

Are you looking for a full size adze like a shipwrights or carpenters adze? Or a one-hand adze that a carver uses?

 

[jblyttle]

Yeah, so many types, are you looking to play with using one or collecting? If using then the type matters. I have a few, some to create and some to demolish.

 

[scotchleaf]

Full size user, want to make some beams.

 

[Tom Crain]

Start with a good broad axe.

 

[halfaxe]

Plumb, L.&I.J. White, D.R. Barton, Collins are good.

 

[Double Ott]

Here's a few that I've picked up at garage, estate sales. I don't know very much about them.

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[URL=http://s810.photobucket.com/user/doubleott/media/Adze/iceaxepickaroonsadzesBarkies004.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://s810.photobucket.com/user/doubleott/media/Adze/iceaxepickaroonsadzesBarkies003.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://s810.photobucket.com/user/doubleott/media/Adze/PickaroonsAdze006.jpg.html][/URL]

Tom

 

[jblyttle]

Here's a few that I've picked up at garage, estate sales. I don't know very much about them.

Third pic left most tool looks like a grub hoe variant not an adze. The next one the little tool is neat, still more pic than adze I think. Next looks like a standard carpenter adze and the last one is a shipwright adze, I just bought one very similar. Adze's are cool.

 

[Creek_Stomper]

Third pic left most tool looks like a grub hoe variant not an adze. The next one the little tool is neat, still more pic than adze I think. Next looks like a standard carpenter adze and the last one is a shipwright adze, I just bought one very similar. Adze's are cool.

You're right about the first one. It's a mattock, and earth tool rather than a woodworking tool.

An adze was the tool that gave me the the restoration bug. I picked up an old piece of rusty crap at the salvage shop in town, paid a few bucks, gave it a vinegar bath, and came out with this flat-head house adze by the Douglas Axe Manufacturing Company. She's from before 1900, and the stamp only shows part of the "W. HUNT ... DOUGLAS ... MFG CO" along with what looks like "...SSD" which is an unknown mark to me. But beneath all that rust and age she still had a razor sharp edge. You can't beat a well made adze. I'm looking forward to having the time to hang this one. Or at least pass it on to someone who can appreciate it.

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[halfaxe]

This thread is a good excuse to get out my adze accumulation. I am not an expert in adze use, maybe four hours total. There is an English guy with a hole in his jeans does a good job on youtube. Adzes leave a smoother finish than a broadaxe and are often used after the broadaxe. Left to right two railroad adzes, 3 carpenters adzes, 3 shipwrights adzes, two gutter adzes.

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Kelley, unknown, unknown older forged with hammer poll.

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Gutter adzes top unknown bottom Underhill Edge Tool Nashua, NH. For hollowing.

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Railroad adzes Verona top, and a Plumb. Heavy and thick. Not for sustained use but a couple chips cut quickly and set the tie .



Shipwright adzes. L-R L.&I.J. White 3 inch, Collins Legitimus 4 inch(Mint!), unknown 5 inch with "lips".The lips are sides curled up. Less chance of gouging but harder to sharpen. The narrow spikes are for flipping the plank, beam or whatever the piece is by driving it under and flipping. This protects the edge of the blade from damage. The adze is kept very sharp and is a little more dangerous than a broadaxe. I would keep a shipwright adze over the rest.

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[Square_peg]

That's an impressive collection, Halfaxe!

Used properly, an adze is a dangerous tool. Used carelessly it's an accident waiting to happen. I make it a point to wear steel toed boots.

 

[Steve Tall]

...

Railroad adzes Verona top, and a Plumb. Heavy and thick. Not for sustained use but a couple chips cut quickly and set the tie .

I have new appreciation for railroad adzes, after seeing an old article written about the Warren Tool & Forge company in Ohio. Their railroad adzes are made for cutting railroad spikes (among other things). The article also describes demonstrations where the adze was used to chop a four-inch iron bar.

"An adz in track service often encounters old spikes, etc. This adz has already cut off several spikes without injury to the cutting edge."

from Hardware World, August 1922