Fair trade tools : Small African Adze

[AndyE]

So I wanted a bowl adze, however the prices are frightening

On another thread Re: the GB Adze someone posted a link to these people

So for the sake of £23.50 I ordered the Small African Adze
pictured below

Delivery took two days and the adze arrived as pictured
Now the thing is it has a straight blade thats angled at 90 deg to the handle , which is not much good for anything really . So I set about modifying it a bit

Firstly I removed the handle which in my opinion was too short and the wrong shape

I made a new handle out of some beech , and then I set about modifying the blade
I shaped the cutting edge until it was concave then using a propane torch and a NATO towing eye as an anvil I forged it into the shape i wanted

After heat treat9ing , I sharpened it using a various grits of diamond stones and stropped it with a leather belt

Having never used an adze before I cant comment on how good it is compared to the GB's or Hans Karlson , but it does work and to me works very well
Spent an enjoyable hour roughing out the bowl its pictured on


Andy

 

[Silverhill]

Wow! You've done a good job there mate!

 

[WolfCub]

Very impressed with your 'adjustments' !

And thanks for the link. Might order one of their billhooks to try out..

 

[John Fenna]

I am not sure if it is the same project but the "Eco Shop" in Cardigan sells African made tools - the bill hooks look well made and if I did not have one already I would have bought one ....

 

[nic.]

Good work, it certainly works and at that price itis a bargain. looking at the tool marks it looks like it cuts very flat rather than scooping out chips? If so and you can bear to have another go you could well find putting the bevel on the other side would help as it would allow more of a scooping cut to be taken. Or if you are set on the bevel being the side it is then forging the outside into a curve in both planes would have a similar effect. As it is the outside looks very flat from the photo for an inside beveled tool.

 

[AndyE]

Hi

It arrived with a bevel on both sides .. I used a file to concave the blade to make it more " gouge " shaped . in doing that I obviously blunted the edge .. when i was resharpening it I only used the diamond stones on the outside or top edge . it does take decent size chips out . but I'm going to order the larger adze with a 3" cutting edge , grind it right back and put a chisel type bevel on the top side
thanks for the advice

Andy