Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Outdoor Activities => Northern Ireland Camping and Bushcraft => Topic started by: b0ogaloo on January 13, 2012
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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
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Very nice work. Looks like it cuts brilliantly.
Pablo is certainly the sharp cookie around here when it comes to making cutty things!