D-adze 03

A blast from the past, my old D-adze. Now found, and in need cleaning, de-rusting, and sharpening.

As the story goes; back a few years ago, my lady and I were helping setup an exhibit in a small town museum. As we were going through the collections with some Native American experts, I came upon Nephrite jade blades. I asked one of the experts what it was used in, and was told it was an adze blade. The adze is one of the tools used by the local native people to work cedar into totem-poles and canoes. I did some research and decided to make a D-adze based on some of the information I had found.

The blade is made from a Ford leaf-spring that I ground into shape, sharpened, and heat treated the edge. The grip was shaped from a piece of oak scrap I acquired from a cabinetry shop. The grip was bound to the blade with fake sinew (waxed non-braided nylon cord), and a couple of pieces of basswood as stabilizers. I don’t do much in the way of large wooden sculpture, so it has not been used that many times. It will take a decent bite into wood like alder.