DIY elbow adze

[AndyE]

I've copied and pasted this from our local NI-wild forum , the post mentions a friend of mine called pablo who's not registered on here


I've wanted an adze for quite a while now . only thing stopping me from purchasing one is the price . Sorry but I don't care if its made by the best blacksmith in the world .I'm not paying £140 odd quid for one

After doing a lot of searching online I came across a charity in Wales (http://www.tfsrcymru.org.uk/fair-trade-2/products) that imports fair trade tools from Africa. So I ordered a small Adze with the intention of modifying it . It duly arrived and it was modified
But edge retention was terrible . according to the website they're made from leaf springs ,which is usually decent enough steel . but I just couldn't get it to hold an edge

Plan B : MYOG

So with a piece of 40 x 5 01 tool steel donated by Pablo , I ground a chisel grind on one side and then heated it in my DIY forge and formed it into a convex shape .. just like a hand gouge

I then drilled a 6mm hole near the top of the blade and hardened and tempered it

My on-line quest for adzes had produced quite a few results from the USA for Elbow adzes , which is just an adze blade lashed onto a branch
So this is what I did

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-2CS714_SkTs/TxC3TsYBcAI/AAAAAAAAFjw/loozcqaHjSM/s640/IMAG0082.jpg

theres also a large wood screw holding the blade it in place , which you can just see the head of in the photo below

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8eabfiJqVus/TxC3U4eU3DI/AAAAAAAAFj4/0d-FWC6BtqI/s512/IMAG0083.jpg

The thing about adzes is getting the angle of the blade in relation to the handle right, In fairness it was Pablo that finally sorted the correct angle out .

Pictured below is a bowl I roughed out with it

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vPWjEqTELnI/TxC3fAOPEEI/AAAAAAAAFks/aIpFuQt3WMw/s640/IMAG0091.jpg

This close up of a piece of sycamore shows how well it cuts

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ekTwqV7wGcQ/TxC3kVBlxDI/AAAAAAAAFlA/P2b4-8u1cbI/s640/IMAG0093.jpg

i found it very comfortable to use .. however Pablo reckoned a slightly shorter blade would be better . So we ground another blade which i made a handle for tonight and will compare the two tomorrow at some stage

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a0MwgB1Ocpg/TxC3Z1-iDcI/AAAAAAAAFlk/1Nam_eMgK10/s640/IMAG0087.jpg

I also made a baby adze :D with a piece of 20 x 3 as the blade . which actually works very well for all the size of it

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S2TpMzYh2Zs/TxC3nCAf0LI/AAAAAAAAFlQ/fY8__V41Ue0/s512/IMAG0095.jpg


Andy

Since that I've made a 50mm wide one and a 30mm wide one , they're a great tool for hollowing anything from spoons to bowls

Andy

[bikebum1975]

Looks good I am supposed to be getting use of a friends shop this spring and summer I may have to give something like this a try for sure. Have a couple ideas in my head for one

[Bernie]

Interesting. The bowl is pictured on a Record lathe (an ideal machine for making bowls) and is being painstakingly hacked out with an adze. We do like these challenges don't we. :)

[Martin]

Looks like a good job there. With respect to Bernie, I would imagine it's difficult to make an oval bowl on a lathe?

Martin

[AndyE]

I think Bernies referring to the irony of the picture ,,,

Oval bowls can be turned on a lathe using eclipitical turning techniques . just not that size on that lathe , I'd be chasing it round the workshop floor as it vibrated its way to freedom :D

Andy

[JonnyP]

Adzes sure are expensive. Hence me never buying one.
I use old chisels and gourges wedged into handles, like this..

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/jonpickett/DSC03918Small.jpg

My newer ones have a bit more weight behind them than this one..
Duncan at Dorset Woodland Blades, made a few adzes like your's a while back. I am not sure if he is still selling the blades.
I like the way you have put the bend in the blade, so the handle would not hit the bowl.. Very good..

[AndyE]

Yes weight will be an issue when the handles dry out .. I'll probably end up drilling a hole at the head and filling it with lead or steel shot
How do the chisel heads cut ? looks like thy're mounted @ 90 deg to the shaft .. we tried numerous angles until settling on what you see above .. Its about 80 deg to the shaft . At 90 the adze just seemed to dig in rather than scoop out .

Andy

[JonnyP]

Yes weight will be an issue when the handles dry out .. I'll probably end up drilling a hole at the head and filling it with lead or steel shot
How do the chisel heads cut ? looks like thy're mounted @ 90 deg to the shaft .. we tried numerous angles until settling on what you see above .. Its about 80 deg to the shaft . At 90 the adze just seemed to dig in rather than scoop out .

Andy
I first set it in at 90 degrees but soon found that was the wrong angle to be working with. I then set it in as it is above, I guess about 70 degrees looking at it.. It works ok, but is not great to be honest. My gorge one is the best, but I do not do many bowls like this. I tend to make my bowls using either a pole lathe or an electric lathe

[AndyE]

This is the latest addition to my ever increasing Adze collection , made the blade yesterday and the handle this morning .

I've called this one the battle Adze.

Blade is 6mm x 50 mm x 200mm ( 1/4" x 2"x 8" ) 01 Tool Steel

I forged the blade to 2mm before grinding the bevel . The curve was formed using the NATO towing eye on my sankey trailer as an anvil

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dso3vz_6R-w/T3jVnR7MVMI/AAAAAAAAF6Y/y0llsSnjRaQ/s640/IMAG0291.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-SswTFO3g_zk/T3nWrdRtcdI/AAAAAAAAF6s/lV4eqO-GsjI/s640/IMAG0301.jpg

The handle is Beech and that black stuff round it is inner tube for grip

Pictured beside a gransfors kubben hatchett for scale

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Oyc2R6S7KJs/T3jInjSOVYI/AAAAAAAAF48/BOmgg1EVsg4/s640/IMAG0295.jpg

I made this because i wanted a heavier adze that could be used double or single handed , it removes material fast .. really fast ,the chips that it creates are 4 mm - 12 mm thick , the disadvantage to this are the deep tooling marks that are left behind , however the other adzes I have made with less agressive curves ( i think the proper term is sweep ) soon clean up the tooling marks

I gues it could be called a roughing out adze , Im going to make another with a less agressive sweep but the same weight , I'm really pleased with how this one turned out , took about an hour to rough out log pictured below

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MqrvqOCZTKI/T3jIt8NMOkI/AAAAAAAAF5g/xxGq5s8u4q8/s640/IMAG0297.jpg

Andy

[Tony1948]

Good work BudT^

[KaiTheIronHound]

Awesome mate! Really nice pieces! I've made a few adze blades using old leaf springs, i'd guess the steel wasnt heat-treated properly? Or perhaps it just wasnt leaf spring. Unfortunately i've run across a few fair trade products that arent made of the steel they say they are, including a small adze... It had cruddy edge retention, so i chucked it in the forge and rehardened it, except it didnt harden. I suspect it was probably made from standard 1018 steel. I also cant understand why they'd cost that much to buy, the few i've sold i do for $50AU... Then again, i dont have a big name for myself, so maybe the price is in the name of the maker? :P

[andy202wr]

Nice:happy-clapping:

[AL...]

Now thats Bushcraft at its very best!!

Cheers
AL