What Did You Sharpen Today?

L & I J White carpenter's adze. Really nice, beefy piece. Lots of thickkkkk steal. It's pretty dang hard, too. It took an Inox file to cut the steel. Ruined a big oberg for hard steel henceforth. I went with 25° hopefully as a happy medium, I had to take out a pretty substantial convex.

Files, stones, a dollop of 1500 at the end before the final edge.

View attachment 1191887 View attachment 1191888 View attachment 1191889
Very nice, and also hilarious!
 
L & I J White carpenter's adze. Really nice, beefy piece. Lots of thickkkkk steal. It's pretty dang hard, too. It took an Inox file to cut the steel. Ruined a big oberg for hard steel henceforth. I went with 25° hopefully as a happy medium, I had to take out a pretty substantial convex.

Files, stones, a dollop of 1500 at the end before the final edge.

View attachment 1191887 View attachment 1191888 View attachment 1191889
Well done man that is beautiful! Takes a damn long time to get something that flat and that polished. Fmont's "this is how you sharpen an adze" post!
And a great maker too.
 
I love l&ijw, I have a big drawknife of the make that is a favorite. In fact on Monday night we became bonded, after it gave me five stitches on the top of my right hand. The darn thing fell on my hand, I didn't set it aside when I should have. There's an urgent care a few blocks away, though. Gusher but not a squirter. Technically it's not an ax so I will hide my shame on this thread lol

Eta: I would *love* to get my hands on an lijw Connie, I saw a pic.
 
I haven't found really good video on how to set up an adze and use it. Info on adzes on the internet is sketchy at best. I have collected some info over time. Let's start with the terminology.

Adz%20Head%20Terms.jpg


You have a half poll adze. It's the most common type I've found. They were popular for railroad crews for leveling a tie.

The key to adze use is getting the hang right for your use - that is, how open or closed is the hang. Shipwrights described an open hang as being "on-the-wood" which will tend to dig into
the cut. A closed hang is "off-the-wood" will tend toward a lean cut or a cut the comes up out of the wood. This was the most common hang.

The hang of an adze is adjusted by placing a shim in the eye next to the haft, either in front of or behind the haft in regards to the the bit. See examples below:

Shimmed%20adze%201.jpg

Shimmed%20adze%202.jpg


In text it was described as follows:

"
This did remind me, however, of a short article in _The Chronicle of the
Early American Industries Association_ in March of 1980 by Arthur E.
Woodley -- who was a veteran shipwright and in charge of the shipwright's
shop of the Melbourne Maritime Museum. The title of the article was "How to
Check the Set of an Adze Blade." While the article deals with a
shipwright's adze (with a pin or peg poll), I think the principle involved
probably relates to other adzes as well.

The method is to lay the adze on a surface, pin down, and mark the end of
the handle as well as the center of the pin. Turn the adze over, and if the
end of the handle and the cutting edge line up with the marks, the adze is
properly "set." If the cutting edge falls beyond the mark made from the
center of the pin, it is considered "on-the-wood" and will tend to dig into
the cut. If the cutting edge falls short of the mark, it is considered
"off-the-wood" and will tend toward a lean cut. Adjustments to the "set"
are/were accomplished by shaving and/or packing the handle within the the
socket.

Mr. Woodley concludes with:

"It seems to me that most of the old shipwrights with whom I worked
(many of them from shipyards in Britain) preferred to have their adzes set
just very slightly 'off-the-wood', particularly when doing a good class of
work. Some of them even had two or even three adzes in their kits, tuned up
for different classes of work. ..."

See how placing a shim at the back of the eye aligns the front of the eye to the haft and results in a more open hang,
adze1.jpg


while placing a shim at the front of the eye closes the hang and will move the bit "off-the-wood".
adze2.jpg


The pindle or peg of an adze could be used to determine the hang as described below.

[
adze%20handles.jpg


In use you should be standing on the work. You lead foot should be pointed forward, your back foot should be turned 90° +/-. Blows of the adze should be directly in front of your lead foot with the "off-the-wood" bit surfacing under your toes.

Hopefully Old Axeman will see this and chime in with his own experience. He is much more skilled with an adze than I.
 
I am not a carpenter adze user but FWIW on a recent visit to an archeological site of an 18th century French fort (https://bladeforums.com/threads/the-members-discussion-thread.1644464/page-14#post-19180572) I got to talking to one of the archeologists who studied and practiced log building techniques of the period. It was pretty easy to get him talking about the tools and during our chat he mentioned something I hadn't heard before that because adzes had rectangular eyes their handles could be rotated 180 degrees to give steeper or shallower angles for the blade entering the wood.

Here is a comparison I did with an adze to illustrate the two positions:

AnCQwmT.jpg


Just thought this was interesting and might add to the discussion.


Bob
 
I am not a carpenter adze user but FWIW on a recent visit to an archeological site of an 18th century French fort (https://bladeforums.com/threads/the-members-discussion-thread.1644464/page-14#post-19180572) I got to talking to one of the archeologists who studied and practiced log building techniques of the period. It was pretty easy to get him talking about the tools and during our chat he mentioned something I hadn't heard before that because adzes had rectangular eyes their handles could be rotated 180 degrees to give steeper or shallower angles for the blade entering the wood.

Here is a comparison I did with an adze to illustrate the two positions:

AnCQwmT.jpg


Just thought this was interesting and might add to the discussion.


Bob

That is an interesting concept - the handle purposefully being flipped to present at a different angle - on purpose. Nice adze by the way:thumbsup:
 
L & I J White carpenter's adze. Really nice, beefy piece. Lots of thickkkkk steal. It's pretty dang hard, too. It took an Inox file to cut the steel. Ruined a big oberg for hard steel henceforth. I went with 25° hopefully as a happy medium, I had to take out a pretty substantial convex.

Files, stones, a dollop of 1500 at the end before the final edge.

View attachment 1191887 View attachment 1191888 View attachment 1191889
Very nice, and also hilarious!
I'm not quite sure how I missed that detail in that highly polished finish! Lol. I couldn't understand what was so hilarious about your post! I thought Meek1 had misunderstood something you said or something! Haha.
Now when I finally see the joke, there you are sticking your tongue out at me! :p Guess I deserve it! I'm still chuckling...;)
 
I'm not quite sure how I missed that detail in that highly polished finish! Lol. I couldn't understand what was so hilarious about your post! I thought Meek1 had misunderstood something you said or something! Haha.
Now when I finally see the joke, there you are sticking your tongue out at me! :p Guess I deserve it! I'm still chuckling...;)
I wasn't going to give him up. And I was ok with people thinking I was nuts to protect his secret.
 
Frankly, I have not sharpened anything this morning ... yet, but that may be in the offing. I have been perusing a historical book from my extensive library that has a copyright of 1936 although the edition I am reading from is the twentieth printing dated December of 1964. It shows tattered corners, yellowing pages and a good spine all of which reflect on the importance that I placed on McCormick's work in writing this treatise on the early days of logging in North America. It has exposed to me again to a unique method of axe sharpening that I had completely forgotten about until last night as I re-read this old book from my younger days. I am wondering how many of you have utilized this method of keeping a nice edge on your working axes when on the job and your usual sharpening tools are nowhere nearby?

Now quoting from the book: "The Seven Axemen used great double-bitted axes that an ordinary man could not lift. When the axes became dull they would start a round, flat rock rolling down the hillside and run beside it holding the blades of their axes against the rock until they were sharp again".

As seventy years of age approaches in the not so distant future and the Drs. telling me I need two new knees and cataracts removed, the thought of running blindly beside a rolling rock down a hillside with my trusty axe in my arthritic hands in the dim light of a forested acreage has me seeing a visit to an Emergency Room if I give this method a try or in a worst case scenario missing my seventieth birthday and any hopes of having more of them. Could any of you younger fellows that are in your physical "prime" and still possessing all your faculties give this a try and report back on how well it works before I risk life and limb on something that may prove futile for an old man in dotage?
 
Frankly, I have not sharpened anything this morning ... yet, but that may be in the offing. I have been perusing a historical book from my extensive library that has a copyright of 1936 although the edition I am reading from is the twentieth printing dated December of 1964. It shows tattered corners, yellowing pages and a good spine all of which reflect on the importance that I placed on McCormick's work in writing this treatise on the early days of logging in North America. It has exposed to me again to a unique method of axe sharpening that I had completely forgotten about until last night as I re-read this old book from my younger days. I am wondering how many of you have utilized this method of keeping a nice edge on your working axes when on the job and your usual sharpening tools are nowhere nearby?

Now quoting from the book: "The Seven Axemen used great double-bitted axes that an ordinary man could not lift. When the axes became dull they would start a round, flat rock rolling down the hillside and run beside it holding the blades of their axes against the rock until they were sharp again".

As seventy years of age approaches in the not so distant future and the Drs. telling me I need two new knees and cataracts removed, the thought of running blindly beside a rolling rock down a hillside with my trusty axe in my arthritic hands in the dim light of a forested acreage has me seeing a visit to an Emergency Room if I give this method a try or in a worst case scenario missing my seventieth birthday and any hopes of having more of them. Could any of you younger fellows that are in your physical "prime" and still possessing all your faculties give this a try and report back on how well it works before I risk life and limb on something that may prove futile for an old man in dotage?
Explained that way it sounds to me like an old timer having fun pulling one over on somebody.
Now if you had a perfectly round flat rock and you got downhill in front of it and slowly walked backwards I can see it working in the best of circumstances.
I can kinda picture one of our ANCIENT ancestors trying it? Rolling it down a perfectly flat track made in a groove on a tree trunk maybe? Otherwise I can't see how it could work! It's hard enough to hold your angle on an old sandstone wheel with a wobble. Let alone a rolling rock bouncing and slicing this way and that!!
Sounds like a story told to a young man his first day on the job. I can see the old hands hugging their guts and laughing to beat hell watching a young'n chasing a damn rock downhill. Haha. Akin to us sending the newbie for the "skyhook"or the "board stretcher".
 
Explained that way it sounds to me like an old timer having fun pulling one over on somebody.
Now if you had a perfectly round flat rock and you got downhill in front of it and slowly walked backwards I can see it working in the best of circumstances.
I can kinda picture one of our ANCIENT ancestors trying it? Rolling it down a perfectly flat track made in a groove on a tree trunk maybe? Otherwise I can't see how it could work! It's hard enough to hold your angle on an old sandstone wheel with a wobble. Let alone a rolling rock bouncing and slicing this way and that!!
Sounds like a story told to a young man his first day on the job. I can see the old hands hugging their guts and laughing to beat hell watching a young'n chasing a damn rock downhill. Haha. Akin to us sending the newbie for the "skyhook"or the "board stretcher".

Hello Josh!

Well, I must be losing my touch? ... I've been discovered!

The author of PAUL BUNYAN SWINGS HIS AXE is Dell J. McCormick and he also illustrated it as well. The quote is from one of the stories, The Kingdom Of North Dakota. Interestingly, I have not looked at this book for a long time and reading these old stories I find them as funny or even more so than when I read them as a kid. Looking back over most of a lifetime, I am now thinking this book may have been the primer that piqued my interest in trees and my first lesson in the manly art of B.S.ing! My first job out of high school was joining two other fellows from school in planting 10,000 seedlings in a State Park near my hometown ... it was an unpaid volunteer position. Strangely, about a year ago a friend and I went to the park to try to locate where the Alexander Faribault fur trading post was and we inspected some of the tracts of land that had been converted from the Big Forest into land that was growing crops and grazing land for milk cows a century and a half ago. The reforestation that we helped start in 1970 has some nice timber where bare land once was. Next year it will be 50 years ago since the three of us sweat a little, drank some ice cold water the Park Ranger brought for us, ate some peanut butter sandwiches and apples, then wondered what these trees would look like and how many might survive to become mature trees.

The first time I read this story I didn't know any better and believed every word. While I no longer believe everything I read in this book ... I am still that little kid, just a wee bit older.
 
I'm embarrassed to admit how long this axe took all said and done. Especially since I only put a glorified radial grind on it! There wasn't a lot of mushrooming but I spent a long time fixing the deformed mass of metal under the mushrooming. I used plain white paint for infill.
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21xjeiY.jpg
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LEuhS3v.jpg

Here you can see some of my effort. After filing and honing with a diamond stone I took a fine regular stone and used short forward/backward strokes to try to blend the bright steel with the body of the axe.
62HDuzc.jpg

The angle of the cutting edge is 23°-25° inclusive.
Zc6RF9T.jpg

I wish I could parkerize it. Haven't made my mind up yet what I'll do. I very well may sink it in my pond for a couple weeks so I can wire wheel it. Anyway I've rambled enough! Have a good one!
dhhjABf.jpg
 
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