Adze

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Anyone here have an Adze and any specific recommendations on a Adze make or source from your experience?

I see LV has some but dunno? Look really big to me i would like to look at a smaller one.
 
What are you going to use the adze for?

A full sized adze, with a long handle like an axe, is/was a timber framing/log building tool. It's used to make round logs into square beams. There's also a curved blade 'gutter adze,' used for - guess what - making wooden gutters.

Then, there are the smaller, short-handled carver's adzes - both straight and curved bladed. They're used for rapid 'roughing' of large (usually three dimensional) carvings. I'd guess these are what you're interested in, although I've gotta wonder how much use you'd get from one.

What really surprises me is the seemingly exorbitant prices that vendors are asking for small adzes. $150 isn't uncommon for a adze that's been re-forged from a $15 bricklayers hammer.

I know that in the Amish country near here, the blacksmiths often make adzes in their spare time, for the extra money they bring in. If your travels take you near an Amish settlement, you might try there for a source. If you're visiting Larry, there's Shipshewana, Indiana about an hour to the South. In Pennsylvania, there's Lancaster, about a hour out of Philadelphia. In Ohio, there's Berlin/Millersburg/Charm, about a hour East of Columbus.

Okay, lotsa info, but no recommendations. Hopefully somebody else here actually uses one...
 
Thanks Jim for your informative, very useful and comprehensive reply. You hit the nail on the head when you guess i want want to carve with. Yeah prices blew me away when i saw what they go for at LV. I can fully understand why, i mean how many of these things will they sell in a year etc.

I want a curved small handled one and preferably on the small side.

For me in woodworking i am more of a dabble guy to get a taste of the experience rather than wanting to be a craftsman or make a ton of furniture. I saw a guy in Malawi once carve about a 6ft rudder blade out of the bottom of a abandoned dugout and would like to try carving a bowl someday from a split log. Will look at the used market and keep in mind your advise Jim.
 
If you search for "bowl carving adze" you'll see a bunch of stuff. No real recommendations, I see some "hand forged" ones on eBay for $30-40 ea.

If you do find one you like let us know where you found it :)
 
Yeah Ryan i saw those and am leaning towards buying one to try. $30 beats everything i have found so far. There is a guy making and selling some handmade nice adzes but phew price is just too high.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
You might also look for shipbuilding adzes. I think this size is what you might want.

If you want to dabble, could you fab something from a piece of 3/8" thick bar stock? Either slowly grind a blade or just hog it down, but then you'll need to retemper it. Use a 90 degree copper elbow to bolt on to the steel with flat head bolts (to preserve the flat of the adze). Then you could decide whether you want bigger or smaller, as well as whether you like a straight handle.

Bonus points for hewing a new handle for your adze once it is in use. (I may be misusing the word hew here, it may be reserved to mean flattening / squaring, not making things round.)

Just remember that while you want a sharp blade, you don't want your shin to find out how sharp the blade is.

I wonder if we'll end up discussing the relative merits of bevel up vs. bevel down adzes. :)
 
CHECK OUT KESTREL TOOLS ON YOU TUBE YOU'LLE BE AMAZED.

Ohhh - Ohhh - YES

Rob - you MUST at least LOOK

http://www.kestreltool.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_dX9F7o_qg&list=UU5ntyEkC-DhKiT1q9XZFQFA

What this makes my mind see is the "Made in America" story at it's roots.

Though I am not a hard core believer in the "made in america" battle cry - I DO have a HUGE level of pride in "Made in America" and I am a HUGE supported of the "Mom and Pop Shop".

This look at Kestrel Tool is WELL worth at least looking.

As to the Adz - you could buy just the blade ($54) - and build the handle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILjLD5YoNzs&list=UU5ntyEkC-DhKiT1q9XZFQFA

OR - you could "make" the entire thing.
 
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