Adze advice

[bb07]

I bought this adze quite a few years ago but haven't really used it other than to play with it a bit. What I would actually try to make at this time, I do not know.
Rather than expecting miracles of craftsmanship, I just want to learn to use it efficiently and safely to start with.
Trial and error and time are great teachers, and other than the obvious such as using it on wood, not my skin and boneare there any tips or tricks to using one that experienced users can share? Many thanks!

[Everything Mac]

Looks to be a full size one yes?

Stand with your legs astride the work piece. and swing gently at a shallow angle so that you only just kiss the work, don't try and take large sections off at a time but rather chip away at a curl of wood until it comes off.

Slow work but you pick it up quickly enough and it is easy to get the hang of. I always used to hold it so that my strong hand did the work while my weaker hand would control it and make sure the angle was right.

What do you plan on making? - Pretty good tools for log cabin building, trust me on that one.

Make sure it is very sharp.

Best thing I can tell you is to go very slowly. - they don't tend to bight too deep unless you are doing it wrong. Depending on what you are making you should look into the GB cupped adze.

All the best
Andy

[nuggets]

go with the grain of the wood !!!

[pastymuncher]

Try building something simple, make a garden bench for example. It would get you used to working the tool and doesn't matter too much if it's not perfect.
You might try squaring a log as first project, trying to be as accurate as possible, with the angles, size and flatness.

[Everything Mac]

go with the grain of the wood !!!

Recommended but you don't always have to - you may find that the grain suddenly changes direction, - Cutting perpendicular to it can be helpful in such circumstances to clean up the area.

[robin wood]

This is a surfacing tool (a good one) not for removing a lot of wood. You should use an axe to create a fairly flat surface before touching it with the adze. Lock your forearms against your hips and the movement comes from pivoting wrists, this is the way to achieve accuracy rather than a big swing from the arms. With a little practice you should easily be able to split a pencil line.

[pastymuncher]

Whilst I agree they are a surfacing tool, as good as plane in the right hands, they can also remove a lot of wood very quickly. I regularly use a hand adze as a quick way of bringing stock down to size and the finish the wood with the same adze.

[bb07]

Thank you all!

[Everything Mac]

Thank you all!

Aww come on - what you making??

[bb07]

I haven't anything specific in mind yet but will most likely try squaring a log to start with, to get a feel for the tool.
I did learn one thing I didn't know from the above replies-that it's not a tool for removing large amounts of material, and is more for finishing. That's good to know as I probably would have tried hacking off huge pieces and then wondered why it didn't work so well....

[Everything Mac]

Well you can use it to clear lots of wood as pastymuncher (great name btw) says. but it is generally for tidying stuff up.

That said don't think you can't use it to square a log, you can do that easy enough.

Andy

[Taffy63]

Folklore states that an adze is the only tool that the Devil will not use... this is because it can be very dangerous to the feet/hooves and shins! To make things safer the feet can be raised above the point of contact of the log being worked on. This can be done by having the log in a trench with your feet either side or place thicker logs either side of the log being shaped and standing astride those.
Have fun
Cheers
Nigel