Adze question for the chair guys

[chuck van dyck]

Although it seems many of the chairmaker’s I follow don’t seem to care for the adze, I think it could be a useful tool. Whether for chairs or some other hollowing task.

I have a chunk of 1/4” W1 1095 I’m thinking about trying to forge with an oxy torch. I’d make the Tim Manney style with the steam bent handle and bed bolt blade connection. Seems to make grinding and sharpening much easier. Anyways that has been my plan.
Then today I had the thought of buying one of the many cheaper straight bladed adzes on the auction site and attempting to reforge the head to a shape for seat hollowing. I kinda like the idea of a longer heavier adze. Standing on the seat and chopping just makes more sense to me than the whacking away with the seat clamped down. Let gravity do the heavy lifting.

I’m wondering if anyone with experience with an adze for seat hollowing could advise here. Thanks for lookin

[chuck van dyck]

I’ve also been considering a 40mm #3 carving gouge with a socket handle. A spindle with tapers on either end could be interesting. One side to fit the handle, the other to fit the gouge. This would easily be ground using the Wolverine jig.

I would love to buy a kestrel or one of the other awesome adzes out there, but I gotta be budget at the moment. Plus I enjoy cobbling things together.

[Kevin Adams]

Hi Chuck,

I’m sure other chair makers will chime in here, but to begin with, curious how many chairs you’ve built so far and what have you used to hollow the seat? My short answer here is you don’t need an adze to do the work and unless you really want to roll your own, I’d try other methods. There are quite a few such as the gouge. I’ve never thought about forging my own adze, but my view is you really need to understand the geometry as to how it works.

Kevin

[chuck van dyck]

Thanks Kevin. Thus far I have only hollowed two seats using hand tools. Two more or so using and arbortech wheel. And a whole bunch of round seats on the lathe, but those don’t really support the bottom the same way.
When using hand tools only I really didn’t enjoy the scorp and quickly abandoned that. I have a number of Japanese spoon bottom planes and a travisher I made. These will get you there but are super slow. I like a pretty heavily contoured seat.
Clearly I’m new to it and probably haven’t put in enough time with a scorp, but I don’t think I’ll ever like that tool.
Tim Manney and Peter Galbert have shared a lot of info regarding adze geometry. That is what I like about the style of adze they developed. The blade isn’t attached by an eye. It is bolted on, so some of the geometry could be effected by changing the angle of the landing relative to the swing arch.
Might be in over my head but I really enjoy making my own tools.
I’m not sure if I stated above, but I’ve never so much as even touched an adze…

[Jason Buresh]

Thanks Kevin. Thus far I have only hollowed two seats using hand tools. Two more or so using and arbortech wheel. And a whole bunch of round seats on the lathe, but those don’t really support the bottom the same way.
When using hand tools only I really didn’t enjoy the scorp and quickly abandoned that. I have a number of Japanese spoon bottom planes and a travisher I made. These will get you there but are super slow. I like a pretty heavily contoured seat.
Clearly I’m new to it and probably haven’t put in enough time with a scorp, but I don’t think I’ll ever like that tool.
Tim Manney and Peter Galbert have shared a lot of info regarding adze geometry. That is what I like about the style of adze they developed. The blade isn’t attached by an eye. It is bolted on, so some of the geometry could be effected by changing the angle of the landing relative to the swing arch.
Might be in over my head but I really enjoy making my own tools.
I’m not sure if I stated above, but I’ve never so much as even touched an adze…

I'm not trying to poke fun or question you, but are you sure the scorp was sharp enough? At least in my experience a scorp is not the easiest tool in the world to sharpen, and when mine gets dull it's a bear to use.

I guess at least in my mind before I went through the labor of trying to forge and temper a tool to speed up my work, I'd at least spend some time trying to make the tool I already have sharper to see if that was the issue first

[scott lipscomb]

I bought a Hans Karlsson adze a couple years ago. It's a magnificent tool with steel that sharpens to a razor edge and holds that edge remarkably well through chopping.

For me, however, it is not faster, nor does it produce a better result than a gouge and mallet. I mostly use oak for my chair seats-so its a hard wood. It is quite possible that an adze is better suited to softer wood. It's also quite possible that I am not very good at using an adze.

I made a gouge (and a travisher). Both were intended as prototypes, but they work quite well, and I haven't yet been inspired to refine them. So...if it were me, I may consider making a heavy duty gouge, for use with a 2 pound, or so, mallet.
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[chuck van dyck]

I'm not trying to poke fun or question you, but are you sure the scorp was sharp enough? At least in my experience a scorp is not the easiest tool in the world to sharpen, and when mine gets dull it's a bear to use.

I guess at least in my mind before I went through the labor of trying to forge and temper a tool to speed up my work, I'd at least spend some time trying to make the tool I already have sharper to see if that was the issue first

Haha I get it man. I guess there are a few things I’ve considered.

1) I like making things, especially with metal lately.

2) I have pretty bad tendonitis at times. I assume your grip with an adze can be light compared to that of a scorp or travisher even when taking those heavy cuts. I just hate when it turns to carpal tunnel.

3) I sharpen my scorp more or less to the same degree as my other edge tools. For the scorp I use 8k diamond grit on a spindle mounted on the lathe, then strop the back. It will get decent cuts in endgrain. The thing is I mess with a lot more cherry and oak than pine or poplar. Usually kiln dried.

Maybe I’m just kidding myself?
I got the steel and a torch either way.

[Jason Buresh]

Haha I get it man. I guess there are a few things I’ve considered.

1) I like making things, especially with metal lately.

2) I have pretty bad tendonitis at times. I assume your grip with an adze can be light compared to that of a scorp or travisher even when taking those heavy cuts. I just hate when it turns to carpal tunnel.

3) I sharpen my scorp more or less to the same degree as my other edge tools. For the scorp I use 8k diamond grit on a spindle mounted on the lathe, then strop the back. It will get decent cuts in endgrain. The thing is I mess with a lot more cherry and oak than pine or poplar. Usually kiln dried.

Maybe I’m just kidding myself?
I got the steel and a torch either way.

On a blacksmithing note, if you go to Amazon there is a little forge called Mr. Volcano that is made in the USA and is under $100 and runs on a BBQ propane tank. I have been waiting for time to set mine up, but the build quality on it seems pretty good for under $100.

[Richard Verwoest]

I think you should go for it. I'm sure you will learn a ton, no matter what.

[Charles Guest]

Although it seems many of the chairmaker’s I follow don’t seem to care for the adze, I think it could be a useful tool. Whether for chairs or some other hollowing task.

I have a chunk of 1/4” W1 1095 I’m thinking about trying to forge with an oxy torch. I’d make the Tim Manney style with the steam bent handle and bed bolt blade connection. Seems to make grinding and sharpening much easier. Anyways that has been my plan.
Then today I had the thought of buying one of the many cheaper straight bladed adzes on the auction site and attempting to reforge the head to a shape for seat hollowing. I kinda like the idea of a longer heavier adze. Standing on the seat and chopping just makes more sense to me than the whacking away with the seat clamped down. Let gravity do the heavy lifting.

I’m wondering if anyone with experience with an adze for seat hollowing could advise here. Thanks for lookin

Put the torch down and go build a chair. Buy a scorp or a large fairly shallow gouge to work your hollows.

[Richard Verwoest]

He has built a chair. He does not like using a scorp. So why not try to make an adze? As he mentioned, he enjoys making things with metal. Do you have some reason for telling him to "put the torch down"? Read?

[chuck van dyck]

Richard, thanks for putting my thoughts on that reply down for me. Guess Charles skimmed it. Can’t blame him, I tend to blab on with a lot of nonsense.
If speed were the only issue I’d load the arbortech turboplane more. It is pretty amazing.

But I want an adze and was hoping to hear from those who use them.

I think I will do the first run without the torch. Both bends are super shallow. W1 kinda wants to snap, but it’s cheap. So good for experimenting. O1 should be no problem but it much more expensive.

I shall update when I finally get around to it. A built-in pantry, 11 hvac covers, and a desk to get through first.

See you in a month.

[Charles Guest]

He has built a chair. He does not like using a scorp. So why not try to make an adze? As he mentioned, he enjoys making things with metal. Do you have some reason for telling him to "put the torch down"? Read?

I'll get back to you with a more complete answer. I'm working on a carpentry project and I've decided to make my own hammer as I'm just not at all impressed with the ones available (that seem to suit everybody else but me). I'm going to put a half degree more "bell" to the face of it. It ought to be perfect then. I honestly don't think I could drive another nail with the one I have. It would be beneath me to do so, as I'm probably the most gifted carpenter to ever walk the face of the Earth, and you know a degree or two here or there would have made all the difference in the two or three carpentry projects I have under my belt at this point.

Say 'hello' to the mirror.

[Tom M King]

My most used hammer has most of the bell face flattened off of it. Places come up where the nail is too close to something to use the middle of the face, and you need to hit it near the top edge. The bell that came on this one of quite a number that I have came with a pretty deep bell that the top of the hammer would hit something before the top edge of the face would. If you need that much bell on a hammer face, use the nailset earlier.

[chuck van dyck]

I'll get back to you with a more complete answer. I'm working on a carpentry project and I've decided to make my own hammer as I'm just not at all impressed with the ones available (that seem to suit everybody else but me). I'm going to put a half degree more "bell" to the face of it. It ought to be perfect then. I honestly don't think I could drive another nail with the one I have. It would be beneath me to do so, as I'm probably the most gifted carpenter to ever walk the face of the Earth, and you know a degree or two here or there would have made all the difference in the two or three carpentry projects I have under my belt at this point.

Say 'hello' to the mirror.

Hah, is that really how I sounded?