Spanish flea market finds & other stuff that might be of interest!

I have finished this project and this spokeshave is now ready for another lifetime of service and use , they sure do not make them like this any more.
I made a replacement cutting iron from a worn out rusty circular saw blade that I found in my "Glory-Box" , I also made a retaining plate as I think that the original method of retaining the cutting iron is not optimal , I also had to repair the badly chewed up retaining screw , absolutely nothing else needed to be done.
Take it from me , working hardened steel with hand-tools is rather difficult 😄.
It can be seen how badly worn and used the original cutting-iron was from the picture.

Thanks for looking.

 
Nice work Astrogator. 👍

Today while in a town nearby I was early for a meeting & had time to kill, the only place of interest in this industrial area is a fairly large "Ferreteria" (Iron monger/ general store) that I've bought quite a few hammer & slip hatchet handles from in the past but haven't visited for some time.
For some strange reason it just popped into my head that a good few years ago, pre COVID I remember they had a "Bellota" made wooden hand adze handle kicking about under a hammer handle rack that was very old stock, I'd seen it a few times over the years.
I thought how I should have bought it, & I can't for the life of me understand why in the last 18 months I haven't made the connection that I'd found a Flea market blade way back in Sept 22 (post #439) & just hadn't remembered this handle....

......there's no way it'll still be there......... is there...?

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Yep, walked straight to where it was & picked it up after all those years, took it to counter to pay thinking how I'd have to fabricate a collar to hold blade & handle together. At the counter I made a joke about it being an antique, the guy smiled & I asked "do you have the other part" thinking it doesn't matter which part if any at all, blade or collar, the guy walked back to where the handle was & picked up a collar from a few feet away! Bingo. €12.35 for the pair 🙂 (strange the extra two decimal places this place puts on its price labels, I have no idea why).

When I got home I dug out the blade thinking it was also a Bellota, to my suprise it's got "James Cam Sheffield" stamped on it! When I look back at post #439 I'd posted an image showing this but totally forgot, I'm blaming this memory loss on the fact I picked up the (still) mystery "Carassco brothers" chopper at the same time that I concentrated on a lot... it's not age. 🙄

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So, I'm now surprised to learn that this style of adze was made in the UK, very little information available about James Cam, in fact the most information seems to be on the U.S Davistown Museum website! By what I can gather the stamp is from 1780~1840!
I can only find a single bad image of one sold on eBay but the listing no longer shows on eBay but a part image shows on another site.

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So now I just need to make a small wedge as it fits up quite well considering blade & handle/collar were made in two different countries maybe 200 years apart....
 
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Wow.

There used to be a ferreteria about 100 miles from me, and whenever I passed through that town I’d go there and ferret through their stuff.

Few years ago they shut it down, moved all the stuff to a different town about 400 miles away. I seldom get over to that town.

I kinda miss them.

Parker
 
rjdankert rjdankert , wow, thank you.
Because I first came across this style in Spain I wrongly assumed it was a "continental" adze....🙄
There is something else on those pages that's also interesting.....

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Way back in post #244 July 2019 I got these lovely huge old Adze, the big one has a 6 1/4" edge & is 15" from edge to hammer face & this is the first time I've seen another like them (round eye). 👍
It looks like even before 1885 an adze could have round, oval (Spanish!) or square eyes.
And a useful link.
Once again thanks.
 
Stirrup adze ...or
Azuela (Spanish).
Enxó (Portuguese).

Whilst looking around online trying to decide whether a wooden wedge or a leather strip was the traditional way to help secure the blade I came to the conclusion like many other very old tools it's whatever works best at the time.....
And it seems like the one or two that are still available new are using a wrapped steel pressing / sheet to hold the blade which I imagine works well.

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For anyone the "other side of the pond" I see "Lee Valley" does a Portuguese made version & has an interesting PDF write up here under "care & use" - https://www.leevalley.com/en-gb/sho...tools/adzes/20111-enxo-hand-adze?item=59U2001
It sounds as though the one sold might be a bit rough & require some finishing though.
 
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Thought the Coopers adze looks similar to the adze in my previous posts & is often mistaken for one, these aren't coopers adzes but general purpose adzes. Cool video though 👍 such skill.
The Coopers adze has much more curve & sweep to it, the general Carpenters Adze has only a little, side by side they're quite different. The Coopers adze has more weight to it, as the Carpenters Adze is quite light.
I posted a couple of videos back in post #391 & now only this one's still available. A Portuguese joiner cutting a traditional shape on the end of roof rafters.

Skip to 3.00.

The Lee Valley PDF link post#548 by the late Simon Watts explains the usage quite well.
(Except for the "power grinders aren't as common as they are here".. a lot has changed in Portugal in the 23 years since that was written! 😄).
 
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A thick piece of leather seems to have done the trick, just able to slide the blade in with only a bit of upward force holding it tight. I'll see how it goes.

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Just the absolute minimum taken off the blade to get a decent edge, it's got a small high carbon edge the rest is pretty soft so I imagine it's wrought.
 
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