>
> Great story!
>
> If it really was a couple of old timers, (keepers of the knowledge) the
> conversion was probably done by scoring with a single bitted ax and
hewing
> square with a broadax. The adze is actually a joinery tool used for
reducing
> timbers to size at the joinery and shaping rafters and floor joists at
the
> seats.
Rudy,
Better come on up and take a look around. Maybe its the result of a strong
tradition of shipbuilding, but the adze was definitely and often used as a
finishing tool around here, even on barns and sheds; even on structural
members that were intended to be hidden behind plaster or sheathing. Not
always, maybe not frequently, but not uncommonly. I have found cased corner
posts and plates that were adzed, joists, girts and even studs. I can show
you barn sills that were finished with an adze. Its even possible to find
plank-built exterior walls that were adzed on inside and outside surfaces;
and this in an area where up-and-down mills were common as taverns. And I
do know the difference. I spent ten years restoring frames around here,
have hewn timbers with axes and finished them with adzes.
My assumption, about the event retold in my story, was that the old timers
were showing off.
>
> Eric Sloane is the most recent example of the misunderstood history of
the
> adze. On page 26 of his (story book) A Museum Of Early American Tools, he
> shows a magic adze (no carpenter) adzing a timber. Any real old timer
could
> have told him what an innefficient process this is,
Inefficient, certainly, and unnecessary, but done nonetheless. I agree with
you about Sloane in general, but in this particular he wasn't off the mark.
>( a good way to get hurt)
Sure, for the inexperienced. I can introduce you to a handful of codgers
who remain with us who spent at least the early years of their working life
in boatyards where timbers were regularly finished with the adze. There
isn't so much as a toe missing among them.
> Sometimes the less tangible artifacts are the hardest to preserve.
And sometimes discovering regional or cultural differences in construction
techniques and details, and trying to explain them, is the most satisfying
part of hanging around old buildings.
Bruce
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