An adze is a traditional hand tool which
is in effect a combination of an axe and a wide chisel or gouge.
An adze is used for removing lots of wood stock very quickly and
fairly accurately, it is used for carving, shaping and hollowing
work, it can also be used for smoothing work.
An adze consists of a slightly shaped, pole-like wooden handle and
a metal blade. The blade head is fitted securely at one end of the
handle by means of a hole in the blade head slotting over the end
of the handle. The blade is set perpendicular to the handle.
There are a variety of types of adze. The variation of adze is
determined by the blade and in some cases, the handle length.
An adze with a short handle is known as a hand adze. Types of hand
adze include bowl adze, guttering adze and a cooper's adze. An adze
with a long handle is often known as a two handed adze.
The blade on an adze usually ranges in length of 10cm - 30cm, usually with widths of
5cm - 20cm. The blade can have a straight edge profile or any depth
of gouge profile. An adze blade may be roughly at right angles
with the handle or it may have been set an angle.
The adze has a very
long history of being used by many civilisations through many, many
generations.
During the long history of the adze the tool evolved
in to many different forms to suit different jobs. The development
of the widest range and advances of these tools occurred during
the 18th / 19th Centuries to suit jobs such as shipwright's, cooper's
and wainwright's. The trades associated with these different types
of adze have all-but-died-out, as such, many of the specialist adze
are no longer made today.
A hand adze is a short handled adze that can comfortably be wielded with one hand.
A bowl adze is a type of hand adze usually with a very short handle. The blade is usually a gouge profile. There are examples of old bowl adze which can have very wide blades and which are often set at quite a steep angle to the handle (approx. 45 degrees).
A guttering adze is a type of hand adze. A guttering adze typically has a very long blade with a gouge profile.
A cooper's adze is a type of hand adze. The tool has a curved blade one side and a hammer head the other side. The cooper's adze was originally used by cooper's to make curved containers such as barrels.
A shipwright's adze has a long handle and a long blade (unless obviously the tool has been well used). The blade is usually a flat profile, sometimes with a very gentle curve. The opposite end of the blade often has a metal bar. This bar can be of varying lengths. I have been informed this bar is called the 'balance'. The user removed an amount of this metal 'balance' to get the optimal balance of the tool. I would therefore guess as the blade becomes shorter through years of use then so does the 'balance' (this does fit in with the many adze I have observed/handled which have the 'balance' bar).
A typical adze consists of the following parts:
There have been many makers of adze past and present, below are a list of a few well known adze makers:
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