Restored my Adze I got at a bootfair

[Biker]

Hi thought you'd like to see what a bit of TLC can produce.

5 weeks ago I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and nabbed myself an Adze, the straight bladed type. Bit later I was at another bootfair and saw another one which you can see in the first picture below. I have since sold that on to JohnC (Who I'm hoping is reading this thread too)

So I dropped my blob of rust into a tub of vinegar and let it rest there for a couple of days.

Later I used my wire wheel attachment on my bench grinder to take off all the loose stuff.
Then moved to my converted Aldi bench grinder which I'd adapted to take a sanding disk. Started with 80 grit and worked my way down to 120 grit working on the cutting edge and back face mostly. I eventually got them mirror bright. That old steel sure looks purty.

Then the other day I was in the recommend me an outdoorsy film thread here at BCUK and The Last Trapper was mentioned. Well I'd bought that DVD the other week so I watched the bonus stuff on it and saw the documentary about making the log cabin, only he was using a gutter adze, but what caught my eye was that had a long handle. Seemed logical to do the same. So I ditched my plans on using the gorgeous grained club hammer handle and opted for a longer one, a suitable axe handle volunteeered.

So here's the after results. I didn't have any before pix but the first of the batch below gives you some idea what it looked like.

Hope this inspires you to root through some old boxes at the next bootfair to see what treasures might be in there.

Thanks for reading.

Biker

 

[Radix lecti]

Excellent work there Biker, i maybe carbooting or skip diving again next week. Cheers.

Daz

 

[JohnC]

That looks good, I'm halfway through the one I got from you... I'm interested in the angle for the head and the handle.

 

[Hugo]

Nice one Aaron, looks real good.

 

[mrcharly]

Interesting Adze. It doesn't look like either a carpenter or shipwright model (too much curve and edge is also too curved side to side).

Might be for cooperage.

 

[Biker]

Interesting Adze. It doesn't look like either a carpenter or shipwright model (too much curve and edge is also too curved side to side).

Might be for cooperage.

I'll try and find one of the photos I took of the blade curve itself, yes the edge is rounded but not drastically. It's possible to get a pretty flat face when chopping with it, at least as good as some of the hand finsihed beams I've seen in the old houses here.

Cooperage? Hmmm could be, this is the Calvados region, but I'm sure pretty much anything like this tool can cross over into other areas of woodworking without too much trouble, just a matter of application.

JohnC Angle of head to handle. Dunno I just fitted the shaft into the head as it went into the iron. Granted the shoulders doesn't look square to the tool but that's the way it went in. I just recut them parallel and Bob's yer uncle. Like I said above it's just a matter of finding that right angle using the tool on whichever job you end up needing it for.