Home Made Adz - Carving a Bowl

[Paleoaleo]

Hello folks, some friends told me about this great website and I came over for a look-see. Man, this is great! It's fantastic to find other folks who are interested in the same kind of things.

Thought I'd post some photos of an adz I made out of an old truck leaf-spring, and show you a bowl I made using the adz, and some other tools:

Here's a photo of a split sycamore log, my adz, and two small axes (one a Gransfor and the other fashioned out of a rail road spike) I'm about to use to make a bowl. The wood is "green."

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20Bowl%201.jpg

Here I've used my axe to flatten the bottom of the bowl, and to begin to shape the handles:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20Bowl%203.jpg

Now I'm using a drawknife to clean up the handle areas, and the outside of the bowl:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20Bowl%205.jpg

Here's a shot of the rough outside shape:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20bowl%207.jpg

Using my home made adz to begin to hollow out the bowl. Note that the blade is easily removed from the handle. This is a style of adz common to the North/west Pacific Coast of North America.:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20Bowl%208.jpg

The adz makes short work of the hollowing process:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20bowl%2010.jpg

Next, I switch to a bent, spoon gouge to work some more on the bowl:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20Bowl%2011.jpg

I also use another Pacific North/West Coast Indian style carving tool - a crooked knife to help hollow the bowl:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20wood%2012.jpg

Here's a pic of some new crooked knife blades that I recently forged out of a couple of old "*******" files:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/Crooked%20knife%20blades.jpg

Crooked knives are excellent for carving spoons and bowls and such!

Anyway...here's the almost finished green wood bowl:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20Bowl%2013.jpg

I'll let it dry for a while (inside a paper sack so it dries slowly and avoids cracking), and then finish it up.

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/carvingabowlusinggreenwood/websize/Green%20bowl%2014.jpg

I know it's nothing fancy! I'm not very good at carving, but do enjoy trying. I especially enjoy making things using tools that I made from scratch!

Tom Mills
California, USA

[Paganwolf]

A man after my own heart Tom, thats a great tutorial matey, nice to see you making your own tools :biggthump , let us know how it dries out, are you going to sand it to a finish or are you going to leave it rustic looking? And welcome to BCUK buddy great to have you here :wink:

[zen]

Looks great to me Paleoaleo :You_Rock_

Who needs 'fancy' when you have function in hand worked beautiful wood?

Keep up the good work :biggthump

[bambodoggy]

Nice one Mate....that looks cool....and has inspired me to grab a log off my woodpile this evening and have a go! Thanks :o):

[jakunen]

Nice one mate. Looks like a nice peice of kit that would grace anyone's table. Keep up the good work. And welcome to the virtual camp.

[JakeR]

Looks great!!! Me thinks your modest.....;)

[TheViking]

Excellent tutorial. It's a really nice bowl! :D And welcome to bcuk. :biggthump

[Nightfall]

Hi welcome to bcUk. Nice bowl. Your knapping of glass is also very good.

[Hoodoo]

Tom, that is some excellent work all the way around. Great carving and great tool making! Very impressive! :You_Rock_

[Hoodoo]

Tom, that is some excellent work all the way around. Great carving and great tool making! Very impressive! :You_Rock_

[Gary]

BRILLIANT - this is what its all about!!

Tom what did you use for the Adze blade?

[Paganwolf]

Quote Tom * a leaf spring form an old truck....

[Gary]

ohh I missed that - too many pretty pictures!!

Thanks Paganwolf (you C**KY G**) :rolmao:

[Snufkin]

Nice bowl Tom :biggthump and I still haven't made an adze yet.

[tomtom]

Thats a great bowl! im going to try it when i got me knew hook knife! :biggthump

[Paganwolf]

ohh I missed that - too many pretty pictures!!

Thanks Paganwolf (you C**KY G**) :rolmao:
I was merely helping a senior site citizen out :?: :naughty: :nana:

[Dave Bliss]

Absolutely splendid old chap ! how do you like my English accent ? that is a wonderful read you have just shown me,thanks a lot mate. Love the bit about the paper bag, it was one of the many things I didnt know that I now do . Many thanks and welcome aboard

[Paleoaleo]

Thank you for your kind words! My problem is that I get involved in too many things, and never spend enough time with any one to get very good at any of them! Jack of all trades, master of none! LOL....

I just started learning how to play with fire and steel and make my own wood working tools. There's something fantastic to me about taking a piece of scrap steel and turning it into a useful tool.

At the risk of seeming like a boor, I'll post some more photos of some tools I've made. As i've said to others before...aside from my internet friends, there aren't many people in my life who actually give a damn about this kind of stuff. My mates at work think I'm a bit nuts (daft, as you'd say), as does most of my family.

So here goes!

Here's a pic of the cutting edge of that adz above. I meant to include this pic earlier. I put the bevel on the outside of the blade:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/adz%20bevel.jpg

These are my first attempts at making a bent spoon gouge. The straight chisel in the photo was made from al old file:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/Imgp1491.jpg

The gouge was a bit tricky to make, but I had fun and it came out pretty well! Here's another pic of some nicer handles that I turned for them:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/Imgp1508.jpg

Here's another gouge I made. This one is bent only slightly, and it has a much flatter cutting edge:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/Gouge.jpg

I seem to get a lot of use out of a skew chisel, so I thought I'd set about making myself a number of them in different sizes. Here's a medium to small sized one I made a few weeks ago:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/skew%20chisel%201.jpg

Here's a pic of a little forge I made out of a fire brick. I carved a chamber out of the inside of the brick, and have a small hole in the left side. You can just make out the head of the propane torch sticking in the side of the brick:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/One%20brick%20forge%20fired%20 up.jpg

Although I have a larger propane forge, I use this little one for heating small blades (like that skew chisel).

Here's a pic from the side, so you can see the set-up a little better:

http://photos.imageevent.com/paleoaleo/knivesbladesandbladesmithing/websize/one%20brick%20forge%202%20hole s.jpg

I hope it's Ok to post so many photos.

Thanks again for your warm welcome and your kind words. It's nice to meet you folks!

Tom

[dtalbot]

Excellent addxe and bowl

[tomtom]

thats a good simple idea for a forge.. what sort of tourch do you use?

[Stew]

Here's a pic of the cutting edge of that adz above. I meant to include this pic earlier. I put the bevel on the outside of the blade:


I was wondering about this. I've not used an adze before but on mass produced ones the bevel seems to be on the inside IIRC. How do you think they compare?

[Hoodoo]

I was wondering about this. I've not used an adze before but on mass produced ones the bevel seems to be on the inside IIRC. How do you think they compare?

Notnecesseceleryso. :-)

http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/emoticons/gbadze1b.jpg

[Paganwolf]

nice tools Tom, i miss my forge im thinking of putting another one together in my garden after crimbo, :biggthump

[Paleoaleo]

Hey, now that is a nice adz! Looks like a Gransfor. The first time I used an adz was one of those. It belonged to a friend and I had to return it to him!

Yes, I've seen some adzes with the bevel on the inside, but most I've seen are on the outside. As it appeared easier to sharpen/hone/strop with the bevel on the outside, I thought to try it that way. As I might have mentioned already though...I'm a mere novice! A novice with much to much enthusiasm. LOL!

On the simple brick forge, I use the type of torch a plumber might use to "sweat pipes" (as they say here in the US). I find that propane works, but not as well as the fuel used for brazing. There's a brand here called "Mapp gas." I forget the actual name of the fuel, but it gets much hotter than propane.

Happy hollidays to all of you!

Tom

[Hoodoo]

Hey, now that is a nice adz!

:naughty: :naughty:

[tenbears10]

Great tools :biggthump any more tutorials you have in mind would be greatly received.

I think that making the tools to make an object like a bowl is the ultimate in creating things. Also great recycling when you transform old files and steel into something useful.

Bill

[mr dazzler]

I have a small adze made by henry taylor. My Dad gave it me some years ago.
It has always been sharp, but the handle was too short and stubby. (it has the bevel inside, but outside seems more natural to me-changing means you lose a lot of steel unecessarily) I recently put a longer (about 18" instead of the original 10 or 11" one) and slightly slimmer cleft ash handle on it, and it has completely transformed the tool. The balance, feel and accuracy has improved dramatically. Its a lot easier to make the edge go where my eye is looking, without thinking about it :lmao: Using a buffing wheel to polish the back and gently finish the edge has helped too.
I think your tool making shows tremendous promise paleoaloe. You got some good sweeps and lines there. What anvil and hammer arrangements do you have? How do you shape and finish your edges? Have you done much since your original postings?