If you’re a carpenter and you’re dealing often with green wood , you surely know the adze tool and appreciate its necessary help for your woodworking projects .
It’s an ancient hand tool and it helps the woodworkers since their beginning of their occupation with wood .
You know the hand tools are used for thousands of years by the woodworkers and the power tools are used only for some decades , since the discovery of electricity and the industrial evolution .
The carpenter’s adze is a multilateral hand tool , which consists of a steel beveled blade , having a straight ( for ships use ) or a convex cutting edge ( having the bevel inside or outside ) , that is vertical to its wooden long or short , handle .
See my Top carpenter’s adze suggestions and more , in HERE .
What is the Adze , Used for ?
Using the adze you can remove – chop big pieces of wood from your logs without being very accurate , if it’s not needed , or you can remove – slice smaller wood peels from your logs – woodpiece , very accurate and smooth , shaping and refine it .
You can also square your wood – log , flatten it , specific shaping it for your joinery actions and trimming it , having big precision .
Yes , you can live your “woodworking life” without an adze .
It isn’t a “deadly” necessary wood tool you should move the world “upside down” to get it , but a nice feeling adze gives you many capabilites in the green removing – shaping – dent the wood , area .
Do people Still use Adzes ?
Yes , certainly the woodworkers use adzes , no matter how many modern carpentry tools they have , because using an adze , you can remove a lot of wood , you can slice small peels of wood , you can dent wood , you can refine wood and shape wood , with huge precision and smoothness .
What are the 2 Types of Adzes ?
We seperate the adzes in two big categories , the bowl adzes and the foot adzes , even if we have many different adze styles all around the world and the different carpentry cultures .
The bowl adzes , are the shorter handle ones and their cutting edges have more convexity than the foot adzes .
The foot adzes are used more for flattening – hewing – squaring wood , that’s why their edges are more straight and having a light camber and their handles are longer .
You step on the log – wood and you use your foot adze with a movement similar to the digging .
Colossal attention to your foot !!!!!!!
What is the Difference between an Axe and an Adze ?
The axes of all types , seperate the wood’s fibers , by cutting it – chopping it without a high level of precision and smoothness , while the adzes are slicing – “unpeeling” wood on a micro scale if needed , with great accuracy and smoothness .
See my favorite axe buying choices in , HERE .
What is the best Wood for and Adze ?
Hickory is general a very good wood for an adze’s handle , but you can have oak , ash , maple and yew and olive oil wood , which are very strong wood types .
What should i Look for , in an adze ?
The first and most important advantage for an adze is the nice feeling and how well it “sits on” your hand and your body’s proportions , having a nice balance and easiness during the entire chopping movement .
Then after the quality and the shape of the handle , the adze’s metal alloy , should be easy to sharpen and have the ability to maintain this sharpness for a long time .
See how you can correctly preserve your woodworking tools and some “tips” , in HERE .
Does an Adze , worth the money ?
Yes , surely it worths the money( which isn’t much ) and you’ll see that when you’ll be confident enough and gain comfort with it , how much “surgical” wood shaping you’ll be able to do .
Keep woodworking and the happiness will follow .
