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ADZE (adz)
An
ax-like tool used to cut and shape wood.
Common
clues: Wood-shaping tool; Cooper's tool; Axe relative; Wood
trimmer; Curved carpenter's tool; Wood dressing tool; Wood cutter
Related
crosswordese: ADZ
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
3 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
60416 / 86800
Video:
Working with
adze on a large burl
The
tool known as the adze serves for smoothing rough-cut wood in
hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or
log and swings the adze downwards towards their feet, chipping
off a piece of wood and walking backwards as they go, leaving a
relatively smooth surface behind. However, in general it can be
used for various cutting operations.
The
head of the adze is oriented to the haft like a hoe, or plane,
and not like an axe, whose cutting blade would be perpendicular
to the blade of an adze.
Modern
adzes are made from steel with wooden handles, and some people
still use them extensively: occasionally those in semi-industrial
areas, but particularly 'revivalists' such as those at the
Colonial Williamsburg cultural center in Virginia, USA. However,
the traditional adze has largely been replaced by the sawmill and
the powered-plane, at least in industrialized cultures. It
remains in use for some specialist crafts, for example by
coopers. Adzes are also in current use by artists such as
Northwest Coast American and Canadian Indian sculptors doing pole
work, masks and bowls.
"Adze"
was frequently mentioned by William F. Buckley as one of the most
obscure words in the English language.
One
of the most common tools used in the fire service today is the
Halligan bar. This is a multipurpose pry-bar used most commonly
in forcible entry of a structure. One end of the Halligan bar is
called the adze end. It has an adze along with a 4-inch spike on
one end and the other end has a pry fork.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Adze".
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