Hand-hewn texture using adze

[Gene Davis]

Saw this yesterday at the Denver art museum and looked it over closely. All in pine, with rustic detailing.

Was thinking of doing one and trying to get the texture right. The description of the piece included the info that an adze was used, and it sure was evident. I included here, a screencap of a hand adze sold by Highland that might be used to get the results.

If anyone has thoughts on how best to get the textured surface, I would like to hear from you.

The piece was on display and of course one could not touch or open it, but I think that the arrangement of clavos (nailheads) you see on the doors indicates that they are there not for just decor, but to affix crossband slats on the door backs to aid in keeping things flat.

So if I do this piece, I'll do the same, and go a little further if I can when buying stock, seeing if I can get quartersawn material for the door slabs.

[Karl Andersson]

In my opinion, an adze would be the only way to really get that surface, but the adze you show seems to have a radiused blade (like a gouge), so your texture would be very different - narrow oval-shaped "divots" instead of wide rectangular ones. Look for a hand adze that is flat (or much flatter) side to side - the fore and aft curve will always be there. Incidentally, a full-sized adze is easier to get nice, smooth shavings with and is easier on your upper body than trying to get a "finished" surface with this single-handed one, so you may want to hit ebay and look for vintage - or the new cheap ones made in Romania (or is it Bulgaria). You could get a nice distressed surface with a single-bevel hatchet, but it would be a different texture - a bit rougher.
Karl

[Malcolm Schweizer]

You could obtain a similar effect with less skill needed by using a scrub plane in a random pattern or you could do it in a pattern for a slightly different effect. The person who made this had mad skill with the adze.

[Darrell LaRue]

A side note here about adzed finishes...

Whilst visiting Fort George at Niagara-on-The-Lake I was asking about the woodwork (naturally) and the museum interpreter told me an interesting story about the ceiling beams in the Officers Mess.

When they commissioned the recreation of the building (the originals having been burned a very long time ago) they specified an adzed finish on the beams. And that's what they got. But the timber framers who did the job were told they did it wrong. They were chastised for using machined timbers. Which was not the case, because the finish off a properly wielded adze should be as smooth as a planed surface, given a skilled worker. They were made to go back and chew up their work and make it look like what the common conception of an adzed finish should be - rough.

I bet the originals were smooth, not full of divots and scallops, because it was the *officers* dining hall, not a dingy barn for the common troops.

I have used a hand adze a few times, and you are in for a real workout trying to match the finish on that cabinet. Make sure that tool is scary sharp before you start. And practice!

Darrell

[Gene Davis]

This YouTube video gives me some hope. Look at the whole thing to see the texturing he gets with the hand adze.

Before I saw the vid I was thinking a nice new fishtail gouge at 3 sweep x 35mm might be right for the job, but now I am thinking the adze is the right tool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbHcFw92B1A

My preliminary workup of size and scaling of members is shown below. Need to do the carving and the clavos placement.

Made a little change, that of adding end stiles adjacent the doors in front. I wanted clearance for the hinge knuckles.

[Tom M King]

Funny, I was in an 1847 house attic that I'm working on today with a Preservation Specialist. He had always thought that an adze was used with the grain, and the operator used it coming back at his foot. I showed him the telltale breakouts of grain, which proved the adze was used cross grain. Most of the beams had the texture really smooth from a smooth adze operator. Occasionally you could see where he took a stroke a little too deep, and since the edges were below the surface, it tore out the grain a little on both sides.

These particular ceiling joists were sawn out of hewn 8x8s. Some were sawn on two sides, but about a third of them were hewn on one side. The hewn sides were not adzed. They would have squared the log up on the ground in the woods, which made it easier and lighter to handle, and left all the mess in the woods to rot. The only reason I can think of that they bothered to adze the top was to keep from dulling the saw blade with a dirty side.

I know some people demonstrate an adze being used back towards their foot, but as many adze finished beams as I've seen, I've never seen any where the tool was used with the grain.

The link below is one of my helpers using an adze on a replacement beam we made to match the others in a 1784 house. It's to replace one eaten by termites. The beam came out of a standing dead Silver Maple, and was nice and dry, but not split all to pieces yet. Gregory would get the adze caught in the wood once in a while, and have to lever it out. It left a texture that I didn't really like, but the beam was going in a place where it would rarely be seen, so we said we'd go with it, and work on it with a gouge later. Once we got it over to the old house, I saw some places where the hewer of the original Oak sills had done the same thing, so we ended up with an exact match of texture anyway.

http://historic-house-restoration.co...ec2012_034.JPG

[Jim Matthews]

I would drop Michael Dunbar or Peter Follansbee a line regarding this.

I suspect that this process is more effective in Green wood.
Once it's dry, getting this kind of finish will be difficult.

http://www.mikedunbar.com/index.html

[george wilson]

I have never seen an adzed surface as smooth as if it had been planed.

The smoothest adzed surface I have seen is on a large Alaskan indian war canoe. It was made out of a very large cedar tree in one piece,and it is BIG. The hull must be at least 6 or 7 feet deep,maybe more.

The adze marks were done by a PAST MASTER who made incredibly even adze cuts all over the surface. Each cut is about 2 or 3" tall,and about 3/4" wide,even as can be. It looks like some kind of machine chipper was run over the curved hull. But,the canoe is very old,dating before any power tools.

That is the finest adzed surface I have seen,done by an indian who used the adze every day he lived. Go to South America and look at the incredible stone work. Often an indian would devote his entire life to shaping one stone.

[Gene Davis]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll try doing it with a gouge I bought 35 years ago and used just a few times. Bought for helping to whack out and smooth the U-cuts in a small log Adirondack lean-to I built for the kids, I used it as-is and never really sharpened it. A #6 x 40mm thing, stamped "Germany" on the blade, looks like the shiny one in the pic, attached, or will, when I get it all cleaned up and sharpened.

I've an old Baldor grinder I got from my wife's dad, and may buy a couple wheels for helping do this. One felt, and one at maybe 200 grit, the kind that wears easily. These, and some compound for charging the felt.

Attached are a couple of shots I snipped from a web search for gouged texture finish. I think that this, softened up using sandpaper with a sponge or something, might get me close.