DIY elbow adze

[b0ogaloo]

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 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



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



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



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



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



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




Andy

[twentyclicks]

Very nice work. Looks like it cuts brilliantly.
Pablo is certainly the sharp cookie around here when it comes to making cutty things!