Friday, January 28, 2011

My adze





Great Britain has a lot to offer in terms of a wonderful history of chairmaking, I would say the finest in the world, as far as diversity and the degree of excellent work that was done there. One of the traditional skills I picked up working in that land was learning the use of the chair adze for roughing out seats, the work of the 'bottomer'.  This particular adze I purchased from a second hand tool dealer before leaving the country, but it was really a gutter adze with a much narrower curve across the width than is suitable for chairs.  A blacksmith in the states shortened and reshaped it to my liking. He did an excellent job, including with the re-tempering, and it holds it's edge very well.  One of my favorite tools.  Today, there are other ways to initially shape a seat, using routers and grinders that rely on electricity and make a lot of noise.  I prefer to stick with the adze, not an easy skill to learn, but I believe one worth keeping alive in the more modern age, compared to a time when such a method was commonplace.


Great Britain has a lot to offer in terms of a wonderful history of chairmaking, I would say the finest in the world, as far as diversity and the degree of excellent work that was done there. One of the traditional skills I picked up working in that land was learning the use of the chair adze for roughing out seats, the work of the 'bottomer'.  This particular adze I purchased from a second hand tool dealer before leaving the country, but it was really a gutter adze with a much narrower curve across the width than is suitable for chairs.  A blacksmith in the states shortened and reshaped it to my liking. He did an excellent job, including with the re-tempering, and it holds it's edge very well.  One of my favorite tools to use, and a lot of experience is required to have sufficient control when roughing out a seat.  Today, there are other ways to initially shape a seat, using routers and grinders that rely on electricity and make a lot of noise and fine dust.  I prefer to stick with the adze, not an easy skill to learn, but I believe one worth keeping alive in the more modern age, compared to a time when such a method was commonplace.

The lower photo is of a 'bottomer', the man employed in an English chair shop to rough out the seats.  Quite possibly the photo was taken in the early 1900s.  Lots of seats to work on, the stacks behind him indicate.  The wood is likely Elm. The short handle would make the work particularly grueling,  I can only wonder how his back held up? 

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