![]() I sent email asking Barr about the bevel on theirs, and they replied saying it’s on the inside. It seems the adze is the “Men in Black” of the tool world. I’ve read Drew Langsner’s chair book too, and (from memory) there’s not much in there either. ![]() ![]() In John Brown’s book there’s barely a mention, and just one photo of John using a short-handled adze on a seat blank held upright in a vise. On the web I can find a few accounts of how to chop a chair seat using an adze, but no info on the qualities of a good chair adze. It’s not that I haven’t put in some effort here either. Jim’s had a pretty curvy handle, and the bevel on the outside. I’ve had my eyes open for an adze and wish id taken photos of Jim’s from ten different angles because I have no idea how to spot one appropriate for chairs. So, naturally, I must be equipped to do this in my basement. It’s yoga with a sharp chopping tool in your hands. Crouch down into a sitting position with your elbows on your knees, hold the adze in both hands and swing it mostly from your wrists. You put the seat blank on the floor and stand with your toes holding it still. Jim let us use his adze in the class and the way he showed us to use it was really cool. Of adzes with a curved cutting edge there are gutter adzes, ship-building adzes, bowl adzes, and chair adzes (what did I miss?). Jim had seen them before and quickly dismissed it as not useable for chairs. I almost bought a cooper's adze at an antique store but it was too expensive and needed too much work.When I took the windsor chair class with Jim Van Hoven, one of the students had an Ox-Head adze. I've never seen the French adze first hand. Cooper's adzes and French bowl adzes are the most interesting looking types to me. The more you look into the history of the adze, you find how many different types and uses there are. The curved bit and the outer bevel allow you to hollow a deep hole in a piece of wood. If you want to hollow deep curves, like bowls and such, you'll want one with the bevel on the outside with a curved bit. There's no reason you couldn't adapt it to carving but I'd restore the edge to it's original intent and look for one designed for hollowing if you want to make bowls or chair seats. This type of adze was used to flatten timbers, often called a foot adze because you swing it towards your foot. It will be long and curved and how you adjust the end to hang the head will affect how it cuts. You can get a handle for the square eye at House Handles. It's worth that much if you use it as an interesting paperweight. Or just go ahead and look for a Sculptor's size,one-handed adze,it'd probably be best as far as universal tool goes,and easiest to get a hang of. (a shipwright's lipped adze is particularly useful for much of cross-grain work,that is what timbers were finished with long ago). Personally,i'd hold out for an easier to manage adze.A carpenter's,or a shipwright's are the next grade up in finesse,a finer-bladed,more precision adzes though still two-handed. It's a long-handled,two-handed tool,and though there is certainly a finesse in using it,it's not exactly transferrable to the finer,more delicate/smaller finishing tasks. I would say that this particular tool,the railroad adze,is more along the lines of quick&dirty. Well.It sounds like what you have in mind is more along the lines of finer,more controlled work. I figure this would be a cheap way to get an adze to practice with. "Honestly, I've just always wanted to try an adze, and maybe do some rustic furniture building in the (far) future. ![]() The handles for these are still available.It's a compression fit,the handle goes in from the top and wedges itself,But,it takes a wedge against either the front or the back of eye to adjust the attitude/angle of attack of the tool relative your height and swing. Much depends on what in particular you'd want to accomplish with it.Īlso,it's not a particularly easy tool to get competent with may take a number of hours to get there,and it's an exhausting,hard work. That type of adze has a bevel on the inside(the handle side) Only,one problem with these is that someone always would knock back the straight,the un-bevelled side,and it takes a Lot of work to restore the strict,single-bevel configuration. It'll take some hours with a file to restore the bevel alone,but of course like anything-totally doable. ![]() That particular one you're looking at is in a pretty rough shape it'll need extensive work done on it's bevel,then the edge. Railroad adze was meant to rough-surface railroad ties,a pretty crude kind of work. There're many different types of adzes,each for their own set of purposes. ![]()
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