![]() ![]() ![]() The cutting edge of the blade should be perfectly square to the point on the handle where your index finger will rest. A tip from Kestrel Tool: You can fix the blade temporarily in place with a couple of hose clamps. The blade can be pushed backward and forward slightly along the top of the blade, or the angle of the flat can be changed slightly to to dial in just the right configuration. ![]() One of the firm principles of making proper elbow adze: The cutting edge of the blade should be at 90° to the spot on the handle where the index finger rests. It worked like a charm and held the blade tightly in place. When I was satisfied that the handle was ready to test, I used a tip from Kestrel Tool and fixed the blade to the handle with a couple of hose clamps. This is where the rubber meets the road wood meets the steel. Carefully plane the “flat” where the blade sits. There was probably about a 3/4″ thickness of wood left when I stopped. You’ll want to take some care to get the “flat” perpendicular to the handle, or else your blade will sit cattywampus. I started by planing blade end of the fork down to the pith. Satisfied that the handle was dry enough to work, last night I set about finishing up the tool. I ended up finding a mulberry fork that looked just right, so I sawed out the fork, shaved off the bark, and left it to dry for a month. I would still be a little wary of using yellow-poplar, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use cherry, walnut, red maple, or red oak. Red alder is similar to yellow-poplar in its strength characteristics. In the Pacific Northwest, where these adzes are still used for traditional carving (think totem poles), red alder is apparently one of the preferred tool handles, primarily due to the fact that the branch unions grow naturally at the proper angle. As a result, you can easily use a wood that isn’t quite as stiff and strong without a problem. You also don’t have quite the same concentrated stress points like you do where the wood fits into the metal socket of a western adze. All of those woods will make fine adze handles, of course, but this is a tool that will be used for slicing through wood, not banging into it like a sledge hammer. One thing that was impressed upon me as I scoured the web for information was that it’s not so critical that the handle is made from a traditional “tool handle” wood like hickory, white ash, white oak, or hard maple. What you need to get started: A blade and a forked stick. You want something in the neighborhood of 60°. Choosing the right fork is a fun job, kind of like scouring the woods for the right crook for a spoon. The most important characteristic of the fork is the angle. You’ll also need a forked branch from a suitable hardwood. They do sell complete adzes, but they also sell unhandled blades for a very reasonable price. So where to start? Well, I started at Kestrel Tool. That’s a win for us, though – we’re woodworkers we can handle the woodwork (pun intended?) The best adzes today are still made by craftsmen, and their work doesn’t come cheap.īy removing the eye from the equation, you drastically reduce the amount of metalwork, but you complicate the handle-making process somewhat. The plain fact is that nobody’s going to sell a million of these things. So what’s the advantage of the elbow adze? More than anything, the advantage is the cost – forming the eye of a Western adze is no simple task, and adzes simply aren’t made on the same scale as a hammer, so it’s difficult for a manufacturer to make a half-decent tool while taking advantage of economies of scale. The elbow adze looks like a crude tool, but like any tool, it can be as refined as you make it to be – and even a tool that looks rustic is capable of very fine work if it’s well-made. The familiar Western Adze has a straight-grained handle that fits into a metal socket. This primitive elbow adze has a simple blade lashed onto an elbow-shaped handle. Unlike the more familiar western adze, with a straight handle fit into a metal socket, an elbow adze uses branch union for the handle, where the grain naturally follows an elbow shape. I would prefer to link to an article written by an expert who’s made fifty of these things, but the internet seems curiously silent on this topic, so here we are.Īn elbow adze gets its name from the shape of the handle. It feels a bit strange writing a “how-to” article for a task that I’ve completed exactly once in my life. ![]()
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