I’ve always wanted to have an adze around, but don’t really know how to pick a good one. For those of your who are adze-wise, does this look like a good one?
http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/tls/872100649.html
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Replies
Is there a hot line to Adam?
Hey Mook, Did you mean Nick? I think that is the name of her feller.I would like to hear what you might have to say to him. HaJamie, I have to wonder how you imagine yourself using that thing. With that short handle, if you are planning to use it in the garden, that thing is going to be torture on the back, unless you get down on your knees. smirk. It might make a good truffle tool though, if you don't get too aggressive with it. ha. Seriously though, I have not used one like that before, only those with longer handles, or sculptures adz with more sweep. I spent a week inside a hollow tree, that I used to build a stair around once. I had to clean up all of the insect and decayed part to get down to just good wood. I pretended I was tunneling out of my self imposed prison while doing that.Maybe Mel will have some insights to share. He seems to be on a path where he is using those tools.
Keef,If one buys such an adz there is the additional cost of the ankle-protectors to take into account. I like the straw-in-hessian ones, as they add a certain rustic charm to one's mien.Them bowl-chopping (gutter) adz is useful as they can be quickly learnt. (Chopping out a bowl's innard is a crude technique). Howiver, it's no easy skill to swing the long-handled adz to plane-off a surface. I gave up after a few days and never did buy a long 'un. I'm told it requires a 5-year apprenticeship, not to mention that strong set of erector muscles.Finally: please send the location of the truffles; also the name of the shop selling truffle-adz. Do they come with a small pig for snurfling the things out? I am partial to bacon & mushrooms.Lataxe, a lover of all fungii and other rotters.
Seems like the bowl-chopping adze would have a deeper "U" shape, yes? As Bigfoot described above. I think I'll pass on this one.
I know good horseshoer, maybe he'd make me an adze. I know he'd laugh when I asked him.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Yeah - What's pictured is a carpenter's adze. They were used perpendicular to the grain to quickly reduce a board's thickness to fit a particular space in framing a house. They can also be used to square the face of a timber, though a traditional standing adze works better.
If you're thinking about a hand (as opposed to whole body) tool for roughing out windsor chair seats, rustic carving, and the like, you might want an adze that has a "hammer handle". Pfiel makes quite a few of these, and they're usually available at Woodcraft.
I've a fair number of antique adzes, hatchets, and the like that I use. The trouble with buying one of these is that you really can't tell how good it is until you use it and sharpen it a few times. My experience is that a fair number of these tools that exist today are too soft and won't hold an edge very well. In fact, that might be WHY they exist today - the goods ones were sharpened until there was nothing left and the iron was recycled into another tool. For that reason, I'd buy a Pfiel.
If the adze is of poor quality, should one froe it away? ;-)
You're all a bunch of smart-adzes!
kreuzie
ROFL!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
If it's good quality, be sure to scoop it up!Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Thanks for the info! I enjoy learning about stuff like that. The town where the adze resides, Port Towsend, WA, is an old port and logging town and there are many, many good woodworkers there, a fair number of whom build wooden boats or restore same. Some of the best tools that come up on Craig's List in my area are from Port Townsend, but they're often too much on the industrial side for my capabilities.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Not a garden tool! LOL. I think the adze picture stirred memories of Roy Underhill hogging out something -- who knows what -- a chair? a bowl?? a something. See my note to Bigfoot above. ;-)forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I think she needs one!!
The quality appears nice... whether you would find it useful depends on what kind of work you might use it for. I wouldn't consider it a general purpose adze. Since it has very little curve in the blades cross section it would not be as useful for hollowing bowls and such as one with a deeper curve. It would likely work well for sculpting (such as totem carving) or flat work (like smoothing hand hewn boards). Given it's size it is designed for relatively small projects because you would want a stand up model for large ones.
Seems to be priced pretty reasonably though and you could justify it's purchase as a specialist tool even if it would see use only rarely (;-). I have a similar one not quite as nice and sharp on both ends. I use it rarely but it cost me about seven bucks at a flea market and with some careful grinding and a new handle it is a good shelf tool at a small investment. Sometimes I buy these things and it is years before I find their destined role... but THEN they pay me back royally. Others I never do find the right use for, and my heirs will have to carry on the quests.
You might find the hammer end most useful for tapping with a wooden mallet when you need more precise cut-positioning than swinging would acheive.
Edited 10/9/2008 8:05 am ET by bigfootnampa
Ahhhh, I think you're right about it needing more curve in the cross section. I'm like you, Bigfoot, when it comes to buying a tool that waits for it's destined purpose. Living in the Land of the Fallen Tree (Puget Sound), it seems reasonable to have a few of these hand-hewing tools around waiting to be used.
I'd not be able to wield a standing-up, big form adze. Same back problems that restrict my use of a shovel and hoe would welcome my use of a big adze with glee. Small projects, yes.
Thanks!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I wouldn't consider it a general purpose adze. Since it has very little curve..
BUT easy to work with for a beginner.. IF you wear steel toe shoes and shin guards.. I have one very old one and it WILL 'try to get you' if you do not take a 'bite' of the stick!
FG, I would imagine that there are different styles and sizes for different applications, but the adze my friend uses to square logs has a longer handle and a blade that is probably twice the width and much straighter than the one you show. It really just depends on what you want to do with it.
ur right about there being many types for many purposes, the one shown is almost dead on to the one my dad used to hand dress exposed beams already install in ceilings to create distress an a antique look for customers in the southwest
For $35.00 BUY IT! Sure you can sell for more one day!
FG,
You got a lot of advice, and most of it was pretty sound, by people who have used adzes. Last year I got into "bowl carving", and moved into green woodworking in a big way. I studied "adzes" by reading everything I could find about them, and there is a lot published. All of the reading bought me "book learning". I can talk for a long time about what I read. Then I bought an adze that was made by a tool maker who makes adzes designed by a bowl maker. I wrote the the bowl maker, and he assured me the adze is the best around. I bought it.
After using it, and after learning more about the bowl maker, I saw what happened. This adze is excellent for the way the bowl maker used it. He used a chain saw to cut the cylinder of wood, and then to cut a "bowl blank" out of the cylinger, and then he cut the shape of the bowl out with the chain saw, and then he used the chain saw to make criss cross cuts in the bowl. He only used the adze for the "finish work". Unfortunately that fact didn't show up in our early conversations.
In addition, he used a different adze for the outside of the bowl. The information that you don't have will get you every time.
So now I have a very nice looking adze. It is very shiny, and VERY SHARP. Like the one you were looking at, it doesn't have much of a curve to it. It turns out to have the gently curve of a large dough bowl. It is good for finish work on a dough bowl with that curvature.
There is a great bowl carver named Rip Mann who uses an adze to hollow out and make bowls. He uses the same adze for the inside and outside of the bowl. He has been doing this and selling his bowls for a lot of money for a long time. His adze sells for $300, which is more than I wanted to spend on an adze. But I found that his adze has a blade with a #7 sweep and a two inch width. Then I found that PFeil "Swiss Made" sells a gouge that is a #7 sweep with two inch width, and I bought it. I use it with a heavy mallet. It does the same thing that Rip's adze does, but it suits me better. I find that I have better control with it, and I can use it longer.
So the interesting thing about an adze is "the devil is in the details".
Want to buy a nice adze? :-)
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Mel,You make interesting observations concerning the larnin' process. It's certainly true that there are some procedures that are harder (and more expensive) to learn via a book and self-teaching practice than via a practical course of instruction. One can make a thousand errors. Green woodworking techniques are very much in this category. You can easily buy a ton of not-needed tools and have no idea how and when to use them to make this or that, if you merely read a book about the subject.I taught myself, via many books and FWW magazines, concerning much basic woodworking stuff. One makes an error now and then but it's easily understood and righted. One makes an incorret tool purchase now and then but usually by getting the tool-quality rather than its function wrong. The procedures are fairly mechanical and easily described or ilustrated.With green woodworking (and perhaps other WW traditions involving a lot of hand skills, such as carving) the best way to learn is to watch, question and copy an expert doing his thang. This has to happen in the real world, also. Videos are edited to cut out the events where things go wrong; yet these sort of events are often crucial to the learning process. Also, you can't question a video. Courses in which everything has been pre-prepared are also suspect.The drawback with instruction from a real expert making a real thing from start to finish is the cost. However, in greenwoodworking we in Britain are lucky enough to have a few mutual-help style organisations that provide courses from experts, that are relatively cheap. I did a one-week course "in the woods" with the NW England Coppice Association a few years ago which cost me £125 for 5 days. They also provided that course to coppice work apprentices for a much lower and subsidised cost (subsidised by charging a few extra quid to the likes of me, a reasonably well-off hobbyist).This course included: hurdle-making; stool-making; carving a bowl; charcoal-making; willow-weaving; making rope; tool care & sharpening. As an integral part of making something, the correct and efficient use of various tool-types was taught. There were also special side-classes in: relief-carving a sign (for the apprentices setting up a busines); making a pole lathe; making a shaving horse; making various types of brake.So, from a mere one of those days, during which a carved bowl expert showed us how to make one starting with a geet log, I cudda telt ye that the only adze you need is a gutter adze for initial hollowing out of the blank. The inside is fared and finally shaped with a pair of large gouges (one straight, one bent). The outside is initialy shaped with a carving axe and fared with a drawknife then a spokeshave. But to understand exactly how, you had to be there. :-)No doubt there are other techniques using a different combination of tools. But the point, as you made so well in your post, is that complex techniques need the right kind of education, inclusive of information concerning real-world errors, pitfalls, glitches and so forth.Lataxe, rambling on as he's tired-oot from yesterday's fell walk (more like a scramble).
Lataxe,
I read your response to me. I read it again, looking for something to disagree with. Couldn't find such a thing. I am beginning to think that you and I are twins who were separated at birth. They say that twins can finish each other's sentences. Well, I can't finish yours yet. BUT when I learn how to speak your language, then I believe I will be able to.All seriousness aside, that course you took was worth its weight in pure platinum. I would love to take a course like that.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Mel,Well, you just missed this year's course, which is generally held each September in Chapel Wood, next to the tiny village of Staveley-in-Cartmel. This is only a 30 minute drive from wor hoosey so perhaps you'll come and stay next year, when you'd be stuffed with fud by the ladywife before going off to the fairy dell to larn primitive hewing from the resident goblins of Chapel Wood (otherwise known as the NW England Coppicers).Naturally you will be charged only for the course as hospitality is reckoned a great obligation and virtue hereabouts. Unfortunately, though, I can't afford to give you the air fare an' all. :-)Now then! What a vacation you would have!!lataxe, reruiting for the Coppice Men & Ladees.
Please put me down for an invitation,when you two get hitched.
Sis,I yam sending you a nice bridesmaid dressy. You must supply your own garter and a nice floral scent.LataxePS Don't have too much champagne. You know what happens next otherwise!
I am looking forward to after Champs activity.
I assume you are a girl?
Sis,Yes, I am a Big Girl; or so I was sometimes told when I made groaning noises of protest at the unwonted efforts required when out cycle racing.On the other hand, should you ever see me in a dress you would be frightened and run off quick to find a psychiatrist. Just hope I don't catchee, lad, before the whitecoat men put me back to normal!XXXLataxe
Lataxe (or should I say Cutie!),
Yes, I am a Big Girl
Well, that explains it. I was certain there was a plausible explanation for your displeasure with those beautiful cabriole legs. Caint stand the competition!?
This weekend we cleaned out an unused space in our house that will soon be my new handtool woodshop and we found an old trunk filled with old ladies undergarments. I will send some of them to you so you can decorate your shed. I daresay they would make lovely window festoons for your shed but might frighten your cat.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 10/13/2008 7:54 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Not really sure why.. BUT I found your post hysterical!
Maybe cus' my house was filled with girls. Mine/Hers that I love alot and will protect to my death..
What we call a big Jessy,very kinky,remind me to wear hobbles when I am in your area.
Cis,No need fer them hobbles; I will get you with the wellies, which I wears hidden under me petticoats until the Moment of Truth. However, were you to wear a swathe of that merino you have over there, I would feel at ease.Lataxe, behaving perfeckly normal for a lover of the fells and their denizens.
Lat,
I didn't know you had pinched our welly system?
Hello forestgirlReally do not know much about adze's but take a look at the one from Lee Valley. http://www.leevalley.com
Lawrence
Funny, I told hubby yesterday that all I want for Christmas is Lee Valley gift certificates!
I'll take a look at their adze. It's not really a top priority item, I was just curious about the one on Craig's List, hence this thread.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hello, this adze is a fine adze for doing basic timber framing rough work, but I'm afraid it has of little use for fine cabinetry.
Is there any adze that's good for "fine cabinetry"?? ROFL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I once knew a man in Japan that coould create some of the most beautiful Shintos with nothing more than an axe, froe and adze. The man was a wizard and I miss him terribly.
I'm not familiar with "shinto" as an object, only as a religion. Are you referring to the shrines? I'm thinking of this basic shape:View Image
You might be intersted in the Japanese Memorial that is being built here on Bainbridge Island (WA) to honor those who were sent to internment camps, the first group being Bainbridge Island residents, numbering 227. They were gathered and forced onto a ferry on March 30, 1942. In May of this year, there were barely more than 30 of this group still alive.
I have not seen the memorial site in person yet, but from what I've read on the internet, the gates were constructed using traditional Japanese techniques and tools. There are some great pictures on this page, the text is a difficult font to read though. The pictures get progressively impressive, especially past the half-way point down the page.
This site has very detailed descriptions of the workshop that participants attended as they built the gates to the memorial.
One of our foremost citizens, Junkoh Harui, was a young boy when the internment took place. He is the owner of Bainbridge Gardens, a beautiful and extensive nursery. His father's private gardens were well known in the area in the early 1900's and brought visitors from far and wide.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forest! YOU! are Amazing.. Get a job at Google to show folks how to search the web!
At the Job interview...
I'd ask for one million dollars a year with free Medical and Dental insurance!
Lady, you are something..
forestgirl, Thank you for the links. I cherish them as they bring me back to my past when I was a real man during real times.
Sandman, I'm sure you're still a "real man" and all of our time here on earth is real! I know, it's hard if you can remember being stronger, more limber, more energetic. I miss the days when I could buck hay, dig post holes, move railroad ties around (with great effort!) and clean stalls the rest of the day. But have to just look at them in the rearview mirror, and do what's still possible, relegating the rest to fond memory.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
forestgirl,
Yep I hear ya, I miss the days when I could.........
If only I could find a way to tell my brain that I'm 62 not 32! This morning when I got up I could hardly clench me fist and the back was aching.
Oh well, maybe I need to go finish that rock wall, mix some cement in the wheel barrow, load up the picky with 100 loads of dirt just to limber me hands and smoothe out the back for the rest of the day.
:-)
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
"If only I could find a way to tell my brain that I'm 62 not 32!" My numbers are a bit different, but the concept's the same. Perhaps you've not paid a high enough price yet for overdoing it? I spent two weeks in hand splits years ago, having pushed the hands and wrists too hard with repetitive stuff. Lesson #1. Two or three times a year, the back makes me pay for doing something stupid and it's "no horses, yea not even driving the car" for a week or so. Lesson #2, LOL.
Whatever chronological age I am (not telling!), the back is 20 years older, way too many miles on the poor thing. Otherwise, I could have perhaps helped Nick with that jackhammer project a little bit. Oh, sigh.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I would say that isn't a bad price even if it turns out to be a China tool. I really depends if you are going to use it very much. It would be worth your while to look at it in person since that is not too far from where you live.
I live in Tacoma and purchased a straight Sitka adze from Kestrel tools (Lopez Island) a few years ago and it cost me $150. I also own a really nice curve bowl adze from Gransfors Bruks which I paid $250 for about 8 years ago. I carve totem poles and masks so these help. The Kestrel tool takes some getting used to. The thing to look for is the quality of steel. I have not been impressed by imported Asian steel (except for Japan - of course). It it is only $30-40 and it breaks then you won't be so upset. You can probably find things like this, though, at local carving shows. Puyallup fair just had a woodcarving show there that sells used equipment. Adzes are real fun to work with because you get to take your aggressions out. The Kestrel, though, is used with a light touch and is EXTREMELY sharp.
Good luck.
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