Home made adze for bowl carving

[JohnC]

I really fancied one of the GF adzes but can's afford one so had a go at making one from a short section of scaffolding pole and a bit of oak branch.

I chopped it out roughly with an angle grinder and a bench wheel.. hammered out the sides a bit and drilled a few holes. Its held on with a bolt, and I haven't heat treated it as I'm not sure what you can do with the metal scaffolding poles are made of, I'm assuming its a mildish steel, but it worked ok for roughing out a bowl, took about 10 mins... I need to practice a bit more and need to make one of those clamps for holding the bowl, but so far I'm pleased with it...

 

[Mesquite]

Neat idea... and it does the job

 

[kodiakjoe]

that's a very cool idea - really resourceful lateral thinking and it definitely seems to work

 

[tinderbox]

Great idea!

 

[Dreadhead]

good intuition there looks braw. as long as it works cannae complain right

 

[addo]

Great idea, i wonder if there is some tool steel as tube that might do the job.

 

[barking badger]

Cool idea addo it does the job

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[swotty]

Great thinking...I might have to have a play with that idea!

 

[grey-array]

That is a great idea, thanks for sharing it, perhaps I will make something like it somewhere in the near future ** and he adds another project to his already endless project list**

 

[the interceptor boy]

very neat idea, if you have longer pieces of scaffolding pipe, then bend it at 90 degrees and then do the rest as above you will have a very smooth handle, and less work, how is the grind and what is the hardness of the front cutting bit. well done, cheers the interceptor boy.

 

[Hoodoo]

Very creative, very functional, and I like the looks of it as well!

 

[JohnC]

very neat idea, if you have longer pieces of scaffolding pipe, then bend it at 90 degrees and then do the rest as above you will have a very smooth handle, and less work, how is the grind and what is the hardness of the front cutting bit. well done, cheers the interceptor boy.

I tried to follow the grind of the original base on a phot and a brief look at one at a meet. I think it's pretty soft, and I will have a go at heat treating to see if I can harden up the edge, probably try it on the off cut first.
thanks for the replies and comments...

 

[tomongoose]

Great idea JohnC, I am defiantly going to have a go at making one

 

[Chiseller]

Good elth :thumbup: tiptop bit of improvisation. Be carful when heat treating. If the pole is galvanized ? Make sure your in a well vented environment. Cold metal poisoning is not reyt nice . Even a scratch can bring it on. Not everyone is susceptible to its worst symptoms though.

sent using my sausage thumb

 

[FGYT]

nice job not sure you will get much from HT

i make mine from flat O1 and forge it into a half round form

ATB

Duncan

 

[JohnC]

That's a good tip about the galvanising, I'll be cautious....
ill look out for a lump of 01 steel to give it a go with Mark 2 adze

 

[Chiseller]

That's a good tip about the galvanising, I'll be cautious....
ill look out for a lump of 01 steel to give it a go with Mark 2 adze

:thumbup: I only speak through experiences from my own mistake....I did push my luck in my demolition years....

sent using my sausage thumb

 

[Engineer]

Pointless trying to harden scaffold tube as you alluded to it is mild steel but what you could try is case hardening of the cutting edge using casenit try google lots of info


John

 

[JohnC]

I'll give that a try, seems to be a fair bit about homemade case hardening compounds...

 

[Toddy]

Neatly done John I like that bit of practical wombling

Somewhere I have some casenit case hardening powder........in the bowels of the workshop somewhere. If you don't find anything soonish, I could have a burrow through ?

atb,
M