On the subject of sharp and an old ships adze, bonus antique malt bag

[Ryan Mooney]

Sorting out a few things out in the garage today and decided to clean up this old ships adze my dad had gotten from my grandpa and then gave to me. I'm not sure on the age of the adze but guessing probably pre-WWII.

For things like this I mostly use a flat bastard file and "draw" (or more accurately push..) file them. It's fast, airly accurate, and leaves a pretty decent finish. I'm not trying to get rid of all of the tarnish here the rest I tag with some CRC-36 and lightly brush out and call it good (the CRC-36 converts loose rust to a protective black oxide and leaves a slight wax coat).

Not quite a mirror finish but this is right off of the file and it's sharper than 90% of most kitchen knives. It'll *almost* push cut paper. 5m with a 1000 and 6000 grit stone would get it there, which might be worth it if you were doing finishing cuts. I'm not usually good enough with an adze to do finishing cuts (and frankly the "proper" technique of cutting up under your shoe kind of gives me the heebies hah). There are a couple minor nicks still left in from poor use and corrosion but they won't affect the use much so I didn't try to get in back past them.

Before I got it someone had taken a grinder to it and spent a bit of time putting divots into the part that's supposed to be flat (or very slightly curved to the front) so it took a bit of work to get it back to where it ought to be.



The bevel side wasn't so bad and only took maybe 10m to get into some sort of shape. I might like a wee bit finer edge but this'll do for now since I don't have an immediate use for it.




The whole assembly, with the spike head, There is much speculation on what the spike was for... but I haven't found a satisfactory theory, The general ideas are either for setting nails lower, breaking up knots, moving timbers, or setting the adze for sharpening. I'm unconvinced of the certainty of all of these... heh.



The adze came wrapped in an interesting old Great Western Malting malt bag. It's very heavy canvas and has clearly had a bit of a life. I'm not sure when they used these. Great Western was form in 1934 so sometime after that, and I would guess probably the early 80's at the latest based on what I know of the history. I might guess it came up with them when they moved from the states to Canada in the early 50's.

 

[Brent Dowell]

Very cool!

 

[Mike Stafford]

I have an old adze that belonged to my grandfather. It has a straight edge on the business end and a hammer face on the other end. Along both sides of the cutting blade there is a short upturned lip. This lip was sharpened just like the cutting edge.

What is it for? I was told it was for cutting across the grain to level floor boards where they sat upon joists. Think that is right?

 

[Leo Voisine]

I have never used one of those, but I would love to play around and try one for a while.

Used to flatten asurface of a large log. Could cut a curved frame. Just don't cut off your foot at the ankle.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

What is it for? I was told it was for cutting across the grain to level floor boards where they sat upon joists. Think that is right?

Lip adzes were used both with and cross grain but often cross or kind of diagonal like you would a scrub plane. Which is probably the closest description, they’re the scrub planes of the adze world.

As for what trade they were used in, that could be timber work of almost any sort from ships to building’s to fortifications. I could see someone trimming the timber’s under a floor board with one so that sounds plausible

 

[Mike Stafford]

Lip adzes were used both with and cross grain but often cross or kind of diagonal like you would a scrub plane. Which is probably the closest description, they’re the scrub planes of the adze world.

As for what trade they were used in, that could be timber work of almost any sort from ships to building’s to fortifications. I could see someone trimming the timber’s under a floor board with one so that sounds plausible

25 or 30 years ago I was approached by a man who owned some old warehouses that dated to the mid-1800s. He was tearing down one of the old buildings and he asked me to build a box for his wife from the the floor boards. I did. One of the things I encountered was that the underside of these planks were rough and when they crossed the floor joists the wood was hewn to make the boards sit even with their neighbors. This leveled the floor. Here is a picture of a piece of those old heart pine boards and the box I made from the wood.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

One of the things I encountered was that the underside of these planks were rough and when they crossed the floor joists the wood was hewn to make the boards sit even with their neighbors

Interesting so they actally hewed the floot boards and not the beams, that's surprising and I'll have to think a bit about why that might have been done that way. I guess it might be a wee smidge stronger, maybe.. but I'm not 100% sure. It also might well have had something to do with how the boards were cut out..

I have a 24" by maybe 20" piece of heart pine that's a tad over an inch thick and slightly warped that came out of a house built in the late 1700's.. I need to make something out of it so I can give it back to the fellow that gave it to me I've been thinking I might try to turn a platter and a set of matching coasters... Right under the rough it sure is pretty wood!

 

[Mike Stafford]

Interesting so they actally hewed the floot boards and not the beams, that's surprising and I'll have to think a bit about why that might have been done that way. I guess it might be a wee smidge stronger, maybe.. but I'm not 100% sure. It also might well have had something to do with how the boards were cut out..

I have a 24" by maybe 20" piece of heart pine that's a tad over an inch thick and slightly warped that came out of a house built in the late 1700's.. I need to make something out of it so I can give it back to the fellow that gave it to me I've been thinking I might try to turn a platter and a set of matching coasters... Right under the rough it sure is pretty wood!

The floor boards were only surfaced on one side and they were not uniform in thickness. One board might be 1 1/4" and another 1 3/8". Even the floor boards themselves were not the same thickness for their entire length. These old pine boards were really strong as they supported huge dollies carrying bales of cotton and bags of peanuts, soybeans and the like.

When I re-sawed these boards for the box I saved the underside rough sawn pieces. I rabbeted one piece and it became the bottom of the box. That original surface was on the bottom and the re-sawn and sanded surface was on the inside.

I love working with heart pine. When I was working with this wood it smelled like it was cut yesterday.