In a message dated 98-06-26 01:49:09 EDT, Bruce wrote:

<<  At gathering time of the crew the next morning a replacement plate was
sitting
 in the field, hewn and adzed and set on a couple of trucks to be pulled
 down the road. >>

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.

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, ( a good way to get hurt)
and if he'd have taken a flashlight into any hewn barn, and shined it along
the face of the timber, he'd have seen the tell tale traces of the nicks in
the edge of the carpenters broadax clearly visible going ACROSS the grain and
face of the timber.

Sometimes the less tangible artifacts are the hardest to preserve.

Rudy