Heirloom adz

[Michael Ray Smith]

We've been cleaning 60 years worth of accumulated stuff out of my mom's house, and I ran across a small hand forged adz that I don't remember ever seeing before. I assume belonged to one of my grandfathers -- or one of their fathers. It wasn't rusty, but it was really dull, and the handle had seen better days. It has some of the imperfections of hand forged tools -- the hole for the handle isn't quite straight, and the blade is a bit thicker on one side than the other. But I cleaned it up a bit, gave it a new hickory handle (I cheated -- it's a factory-made hammer handle that I shortened a bit), and sharpened it enough to shave. Although why you'd want to shave with an adz, I'll never know. I like it a lot, even though I don't know what I'll ever use it for. In fact, I don't know what it was used for to begin with. Does anyone else? It's curved a bit, but not enough to be a bowl adz. Not nearly large enough to be used for framing.

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[Frederick Skelly]

I dont know what it was used for, but your restoration looks great. Im especially intrigued with the history - if it belonged to a grandfather or a great-grandfather, Id have to learn how to use it. ( Thats how i got involved with hand planes - i restored a one that belonged to my grand dad.)

Good luck!
Fred

[Pat Barry]

Please post pictures of shaving demo

[Steve Voigt]

Not sure what it was originally used for, but you could certainly use it on chair seats--the blade seems ideal.

[Jim Koepke]

+1 on what Steve said, that would be my first thought for giving it a use.

jtk

[george wilson]

As little as that one is curved,it does point towards chair seats.

[Zach Dillinger]

Too shallow of a curve to call it a coopers adze, although the hammer-like poll could point that direction. Hard to say for sure what it was used for.

[george wilson]

A Cooper's adze has a square head on it,and a very short handle.The blade is pretty heavy,so it will cut oak when there's little room to swing it. The blade is not as wide as that one,but is about the same curvature. However,there is no telling what type adze it is if it was made by a country blacksmith,and we don't have the original handle. I used one for some time when I was making wooden anvil patterns. They wanted a surface that looked like it was hammered out on the sides. The adze was the best way to accomplish that.

[Lonnie Gallaher]

Using a store bought handle is not cheating. I consider them blanks for how I want the handle to be when I am finished with it. Besides for some of us, finding suitable material for a handle is not easy.

[Michael Ray Smith]

A Cooper's adze has a square head on it,and a very short handle.The blade is pretty heavy,so it will cut oak when there's little room to swing it. The blade is not as wide as that one,but is about the same curvature. However,there is no telling what type adze it is if it was made by a country blacksmith,and we don't have the original handle.

George, the handle that was on it (original or not, I don't know) was straight and shorter than the replacement by an inch or a bit more -- so maybe it was intended to be a cooper's adz.

[george wilson]

By short,I mean not much over 6" for a cooper's adze. But,being from some unknown smithy,there is no way of really telling.

When I needed to borrow one,the coopers played a joke on me,and sent the one they had which was SO HEAVY no one there wanted to use it! It was very tiring,indeed,and I wasn't adzing out the inside of a barrel.

[Michael Ray Smith]

The handle that was on it was probably more than than six incges long but probably not more than eight.