Thread: Christmas joy

Looks good Jeremy Like the shape of the handle, I'll have to take a pic of the pair I picked up from gregoryq earlier in the year when I get back home from Hospital.

How did you find the Diamond plate? Is it flat and what did it cost landed at your door if you don't mind me asking?

Adzes......the tool of a Darkside Jedi

Nice job with the handle. For more tips on sharpening, there is a very imformative thread in the sharpening section......helped me a lot.

As for how to use an adze......I had started using it in the croquet style, I am now rethinking that. Recently it was my privilege to have an actual boat builder visit the shed. He had done his apprenticeship in the late 60s and knew how to use an adze.....great to be shown the style he was taught.

Probably a bit hard to describe with words though......here we go.....
Left foot forward (sort of a 'lunge' position) with elbows/forearms locked in just above the knees. The right hand does most of the work with the left hand there for control.
Good Luck.


This poster accepts no responsibility etc...ever.

Originally Posted by DJ's Timber

How did you find the Diamond plate? Is it flat and what did it cost landed at your door if you don't mind me asking?

I really like the diamond plate and it was as flat as my squares are straight when I checked it. I don't have any DMTs to compare it with but it is a heap better than the thin plastic-backed pieces of cr@p sold by discounters...

Stu's postage was reasonable - I can't remember exactly what it was (and I also bought some other things at the same time), but I remember thinking that it was less than I expected (and less than US or Canada). My recollection is that for about $100 of goods, postage was about $20.

I reckon buying from Stu is a good way of getting access to value for money in Jap tools - the dozuki I bought would have cost much more in Aust and the modern ink line is great and easy to use -also Stu is putting up"how to use" items in his blog which is a great help

Thanks Jeremy

Nicely done jmk89!

This is Jack Goodchild (1885-1950), a Windsor chairmaker in the Chilterns, hollowing seats.

Hi Jeremy

Beautiful work! Where did you get the inspiration from for the handle? I've not seen many adzes (although much reference is made to them), but have thought of one for carving chair seats. Is that its intended use?

I'd watch the ankles!

Warmest regards for Christmas and the New Year from Perth

Derek

There are several varieties of long-handled adze, each with a distinct purpose. The ones I'm most familiar with are the Chairmaker's Adze, the Ship's Adze and the Gutter Adze.

The former is curved across its width for hollowing Windsor chair seats. The second has a flat blade and was used, to the best of my knowledge, for levelling the planks on a ship's deck as the boards moved in various climatic conditions – similar to the practice by local councils of grinding down uneven footpaths etc. The third has a tube-like blade and was used for making Elm gutters and spouts.

The differing purposes require different handle shapes to best situate the blade for its intended use.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Hi Jeremy

Beautiful work! Where did you get the inspiration from for the handle? I've not seen many adzes (although much reference is made to them), but have thought of one for carving chair seats. Is that its intended use?

I'd watch the ankles!

Warmest regards for Christmas and the New Year from Perth

Derek

Thanks for the compliment, Derek.

The inspiration was a thread on the subject on the Wooden Boat Forum - our Forum says I should not link to other forums, but a search on adze on that forum should show the thread.

Yes chairmaking is on the agenda for the new year. I am going to start with a shop stool based on Peter Galbert's perch stool.

Also, many thanks to WouldWood for those photos - seems as though there's more than one way of skinning this cat!

Here is a deactivated link to the Wooden Boat Forum thread:
"http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93964"

Nice work Jeremy
I used an adze in my first job out of school - all those years back then . The method I was shown used the stance as in woodwoulds piccies. It was used for making a tenon in a stay, which slots in a mortise in a strainer post for farm fencing. we sharpened it with a file and an oilstone. The stay is the diagonal timber you see on fence posts at the end of a run. it runs from near the top of the post on a diagonal and is butted up against a rock along the fenceline, say about twice the distance as the post is high. It helps keep the strainer up straight