For the folkloric being of Ghana and Togo, seeadze (folklore). For the village in Bosnia-Herzegovina, seeAdže.
Adze
Anadze (/ædz/) oradz is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to anaxe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since theStone Age. They are used for smoothing or carvingwood in handwoodworking, and as ahoe foragriculture andhorticulture. Two basic forms of an adze are the hand adze (short hoe)—a short-handled tool swung with one hand—and the foot adze (hoe)—a long-handled tool capable of powerful swings using both hands, the cutting edge usually striking at foot or shin level. A similar tool is called amattock, which differs by having two blades, one perpendicular to the handle and one parallel.
The adze is depicted in ancient Egyptian art from theOld Kingdom onward.[1] Originally the adze blades were made of stone, but already in thePredynastic Period copper adzes had all but replaced those made of flint.[2] Stone blades were fastened to the handle by tying and early bronze blades continued this simple construction. It was not until the later Bronze Age that the handle passes through an eye at the top of the blade. Examples of Egyptian adzes can be found in museums and on the Petrie Museum website.
Adepiction of an adze was also used as ahieroglyph, representing the consonantsstp, "chosen", and used as:...Pharaoh XX, chosen of God/Goddess YY...
Theahnetjer (Manuel de Codage transliteration:aH-nTr) depicted as an adze-like instrument,[3] was used in theOpening of the Mouth ceremony, intended to convey power over their senses to statues and mummies. It was apparently theforeleg of a freshly sacrificed bull or cow with which the mouth was touched.[4][5]
AsIron Age technology moved south intoAfrica with migrating ancient Egyptians,[6] they carried their technology with them, including adzes. To this day, iron adzes are used all over rural Africa for various purposes—from digging pit latrines, and chopping firewood, to tilling crop fields—whether they are of maize (corn), coffee, tea, pyrethrum, beans, millet, yams, or a plethora of other cash and subsistencecrops.
American Northwest coast native peoples traditionally used adzes for both functional construction (from bowls to canoes) and art (from masks to totem poles). Northwest coast adzes take two forms: hafted and D-handle. The hafted form is similar in form to a European adze with the haft constructed from a natural crooked branch which approximately forms a 60% angle. The thin end is used as the handle and the thick end is flattened and notched such that an adze iron can be lashed to it. Modern hafts are sometimes constructed from a sawed blank with a dowel added for strength at the crook. The second form is the D-handle adze which is basically an adze iron with a directly attached handle. The D-handle, therefore, provides no mechanical leverage. Northwest coast adzes are often classified by size and iron shape vs. role. As with European adzes, iron shapes include straight, gutter and lipped. Where larger Northwest adzes are similar in size to their European counterparts, the smaller sizes are typically much lighter such that they can be used for the detailed smoothing, shaping and surface texturing required for figure carving. Final surfacing is sometimes performed with acrooked knife.[citation needed]
Ground stone adzes used to be produced by a variety of people inWestern New Guinea (Indonesia),Papua New Guinea and some of the smaller Islands ofMelanesia andMicronesia.[10] The hardstone would have been ground on a riverine rock with the help of water until the desired shape was obtained. It was then fixed to a natural grown angled wood with resin and plant fibers. A variety of minerals were used. Imported steel axes ormachetes have now entirely replaced these tools for decades in even the remotest parts of New Guinea.[11] Indeed, even before the first foreign missionaries or colonial officials arrived in the New Guinea Highlands, inhabitants had already obtained steel tools through trade with their neighbors.[11] Stone tools are sometimes manufactured to be sold as curios to tourists.[12]
19th century knowledge woodworking adze and axe
Micronesian ofTobi,Palau, making a paddle for hiswa with an adze
Egyptian boatbuilding relief, featuring a workman using an adze
Adzes, Marshall and Yap Islands – Pacific collection –Peabody Museum, Harvard University
Japanese adze
Rye Shipyard – the construction of motor fishing vessels, Rye, Sussex, England, UK, 1944
A craftsman uses an adze to square beams, and to recreate 17th-century colonial life
Modern adzes are made fromsteel with woodenhandles, and enjoy limited use: occasionally in semi-industrial areas, but particularly by "revivalists" such as those at theColonial Williamsburg cultural center inVirginia, United States. However, the traditional adze has largely been replaced by thesawmill and the poweredplane, at least in industrialised cultures. It remains in use for some specialist crafts, for example bycoopers. Adzes are also in current use by artists such asNorthwest Coast American andCanadian Indigenous sculptors doingtotem pole carving, as well asmasks and bowls.
"Adzes are used for removing heavy waste, leveling, shaping, or trimming the surfaces of timber"[13] and boards. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards between his feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind.
Foot adzes are most commonly known as shipbuilder's or carpenter's adzes. They range in size from 00 to 5 being3+1/4 to4+3/4 pounds (1.5–2.2 kg) with the cutting edge3 to4+1/2 inches (75–115 mm) wide.[13] On the modern, steel adze the cutting edge may be flat for smoothing work to very rounded for hollowing work such as bowls, gutters and canoes. The shoulders or sides of an adze may be curved called alipped adze, used for notching. The end away from the cutting edge is called the pole and be of different shapes, generally flat or apin pole.
Carpenter's adze – A heavy adze, often with very steep curves, and a very heavy, blunt pole. The weight of this adze makes it unsuitable for sustained overhead adzing.
Railroad adze – A carpenter's adze which had its bit extended in an effort to limit the breaking of handles when shaping railroad ties (railway sleepers). Early examples in New England began showing up approximately in the 1840s–1850s. The initial prototypes clearly showed a weld where the extension was attached.
Shipwright's adze – A lighter, and more versatile adze than the carpenter's adze. This was designed to be used in a variety of positions, including overhead, as well as in front on waist and chest level.
Lipped shipwright's adze – A variation of the shipwright's adze. It features a wider than normal bit, whose outside edges are sharply turned up, so that when gazing directly down the adze, from bit to eye, the cutting edge resembles an extremely wide and often very flat U. This adze was mainly used for shaping cross grain, such as for joining planks.
Another group of adzes can be differentiated by the handles; the D-handled adzes have a handle where the hand can be wrapped around the D, close to the bit. These adzes closely follow traditional forms in that the bit or tooth is not wrapped around the handle as a head.
The head of anice axe typically possesses an adze for chopping rough steps in ice.
A firefighter tool called theHalligan bar has a dull adze on one end of the bar. This bar is a multipurpose tool for forcible entry of a structure and demolition with a forked pry-bar on one end and an adze and spike on the other, called the adze-end.
Demolition adze – A demolition adze has a dull edge and is used for separating materials in the demolition or salvage of old buildings.
There are a number of specialist, short-handled adzes used bycoopers,wainwrights, and chair makers, and in bowl and trough making. Many of these have shorter handles for control and more curve in the head to allow better clearance for shorter cuts.
During the communist period of Bulgaria, a new multi-use woodworking adze, calledТеслà (Teslà), emerged. It has a sharpened edge perpendicular to the handle, resembling an adze, but it is also used like a carpenter's hammer. On the back of the head is a textured poll for driving nails, and on the front is a V-shaped hole used for prying, to extract the bent nails.
Some urban legends[weasel words] say that Bulgarian migrant workers always carry their adzes with them so they can do construction work more efficiently due to the lack of Western equivalent of the tool. The Bulgarian adze is often mistaken for a hammer.[14][citation needed]
There is a popular Bulgarian folk song called "На теслата дръжката" (eng: The tesla's handle) about a craftsman and the masculinity of his tool.
^Rice M (1999).Who's who in ancient Egypt. New York:Routledge. p. 25.ISBN0-415-15448-0.A statue of the third dynasty boat builder Ankhwah is showing him holding an adze
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