A question about adzes

[Hammock Hamster]

Hi all,

I have a small gutter adze that I use for hollowing out bowls that works really well for me.

I'm part way through a new bowl that I am making as a gift and a thought came to me that perhaps I could use the adze to shape the outside of the bowl as well.
I have seen this done with straight bladed adze (which in my mind is very similar to using an axe) but not not with a curved bladed tool.

I don't have any spare wood to test it out and just wondered if anyone here had tried this before with good results?

This is the bowl I'm in the process of making and am thinking of a concave shape to the sides.

Cheers, Hamster


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[mrcharly]

I have and it works well.

 

[Hammock Hamster]

I have and it works well.

This may seem a silly question but did you start from the outside and work inwards and did you get a fairly consistent indentation all round?


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[Robson Valley]

I'm less than half way to the pic in post#1 and not sure what to do next.
Never carved a feast dish.

 

[Hammock Hamster]

I'm less than half way to the pic in post#1 and not sure what to do next.
Never carved a feast dish.

At that stage I would say deepen the bowl as much as you can/want before madness sets in and try to finish the inside as much as you can (it's much easier when it's a big lump like this as you have the weight working with you).
The sky's the limit from then on, generally I would work down the angles on the handle sides then join in the sides of the bowl.

If I had been using something like my normal birch I could have made two bowls from this log but I was lucky enough to be given an abundance of fresh eucalyptus. Despite its reputation for checking its holding up well so far but it does grow very twisted and my first few test pieces proved that it won't be split like a normal log.


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[mrcharly]

I've worked it organically, just heading in until I 'found' a surface of the bowl. Working with an adze you take a swing and remove a chip, so on such a big log I'd probably work it back from the corners a bit, then work around, reducing it all a bit, then take one area down a bit more until it felt like I was getting close to the right thickness.

 

[Robson Valley]

thanks. None of my 3 adzes are particularly useful for inside curves, it seems.
Best a big gouge and a mallet.

mrcharly: turned upside down to do the outside, handle ends first?

 

[mr dazzler]

Depending on how adventurous your outside form is, if it has concave areas, the curved adze can actually be better for the essential stock removal stages, when you are finding the form. I do it that way, then go to hook knives or straight knives to remove the plough ridges so to speak. Try it out, nothing ventured nothing gained.....ps I had second thoughts about the eucalyptus wood (responded to one of your youtube vid's) once its dry, it finish cuts ok and loses that grubby grey look. A disaster on the lathe though, I made end grain vessels that eventually looked like clay pots that had been slapped about while they were still wet, really extreme shrink distortions
Good luck with the next phase