I need a broadaxe...

[Hughman]

...for a demonstration on hewing (or Hughing :D )ships timbers. And a pit saw, and a better adz, and some augers....

I'm not far from Liberty Tool, but the supply of uasable items of this nature is in short supply. Any ideas?

[Ian McColgin]

Find the right smith and a bunch of chevy leaf springs and you could add to the demo by forging the ax.

HeHeHeh

[WWheeler]

Lee Valley has some neat tools for log house construction, including broad ax, adzes, etc., probably authentic for shipbuilding too.

http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/gardening/48u0307g1.jpg

http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/woodworking/logbuild/82u0201g1.jpg

[ 04-04-2003, 03:51 PM: Message edited by: WWheeler ]

[John Gearing]

Couldn't resist putting up this link to the Handtool Preservation Society of Western Oz!

http://www.handtoolswa.iinet.net.au

Shane, is this outfit anywhere near you?

[John Gearing]

Here's a website for a swedish broadaxe. Looks like they have a business presence in the USA, and from the look of their products, they may be the folks who supply Lee Valley?

http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/index.html

[Dave Fleming]

From the Lee Valley photos I see only 2 shipwright type tools there both adzes. Both incredibly crude.
The hand adze or 'enshaw' a Portugese tool and the one 'gutter adze' the one without the heavy poll. That 'enshaw'in the photo is a crude example of one. The ones I have seen and tried out were held on the wooden handle with a iron collar that fit around the wood and an iron wedge to affix it at the proper angle. Shipwrights adzes are, as I have said many times before, more elegant in design and have a spike or punch on the poll side. Also have room in the handle hole for shims or wedges to fix the hang for the user.
An adze with a heavy squarish poll is used by uptown carpenters and log home builders. Tool would be too heavy for long term use overhead or in close quarters. Fine for hewing or dubbing logs though.
See my humble web site for a photo of a shipwright adze.

[ 04-04-2003, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[John Gearing]

Garret Wade has one for about $100...

http://www.garrettwade.com/jump.jsp?lGen=detail&i temID=105685&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=10000&iSubCat=11009&iProductID=105685 (http://www.garrettwade.com/jump.jsp?lGen=detail&itemID=105685&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=10000&iSubCat=11009&iProductID=105685)

And if you have $400 to spare....
http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com/product.asp?3=1111

[ 04-04-2003, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: John Gearing ]

[Dave Fleming]

True Broad Axes are single bevel tools with handles shaped to fit the bevel. Old timers had at least two broad axes one right bevel and one left bevel and a scoring axe to set up the surface with notches every few feet.
I believe I have some photos in my Imagestation albums. The URL is linked from my web site.

[Hughman]

Dave, What would it take to get you here (Frozen, snowyxxx oops Warm sunny sailing paradise),, (Maine)to do a tutorial?

:cool: smile.gif :D ;)

[Dave Fleming]

Hughman, Tugboat Dave has my Broadaxe, a right hand bevel one. So unless I can get him to leave the PacNoWest with the axe.......

[Mrleft8]

Try WWW.Highlandhardware.com (http://WWW.Highlandhardware.com)

[Ron Williamson]

Check out your local museum,if they aren't too uptight about their collection,they may lend you what you need.Especially if you give them credit at your demo.
R

[Paul Scheuer]

Dave mentioned the true broad axe with a single bevel. Here in the Midwest, at least in my family, these were called hewing axes. Single bevel, medium length handles, 4/5 inch blade. Several found there way to various scout campouts. Never paid much attention to the source, but there was saw milling, barn building and railroad work in the family background. Each of these areas have preservationist societies that might be willing to participate.

[Ken Hutchins]

I was in an antique shop on RT 1 last summer I believe it was in Waldoboro on the right heading north, TOOLS sign out front. They have a good selection. Also another antique shop 'The Parsons House' on RT 4 in Northwood NH.

[Dave Fleming]

Broad Axes I have seen were made by D.R.Barton or Campbell Bros. Head was straight no offset to the forging, Bevel was ground on edge and the handle was shaped to fit the bevel re:offset.
The idea of head being shaped with the offset doesn't strike me as good idea. Like one size fits all, it rarely works. Most tools with handles such as adzes, axes, top mauls, single jacks, hell even nail hammers were shaped to fit the owner. Fella, 5'3" is not going to have the same length nor offset as a fella 6'. Just ain't gonna work. Top Mauls and Planking Mauls( have seen only ONE of the latter), not uncommon to have two in a shipwrights kit. Short or choked handle for working in tight spaces and a longer or 'full swing' handle for the rest. Everybody had a personal 'thumper'. A 'thumper' was a single jack, blacksmiths hammer or engineers hammer, weight about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lbs, handle about as long as a current hotshot framers hammer,shaped and thinned to suit owner. It was used by many a shipwright instead of a nail hammer for small stuff.
But I am going off topic here, sorry.

[Hughman]

Dave, Tell Tugboat he's welcome. Here's some bait. http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid39/p718be199d6f75195ce85643abffa41cd/fd09d6e1.jpg
1930's army tug.

Ron, I am the local museum! :D
I have learned that curators are some fussy about using "artifacts" for the use for which they were intended! :eek:

Ken, I think that place is no longer....

Ian, I have had some remarkable experiances with blacksmiths who thought they could make traditional tools!!! :rolleyes: :eek: I'd greatly appreciate one who could!

[Dave Fleming]

Fellow bye the name of Weygers or Wegers sometime in the late 1960s or 1970s wrote some decent books on making tools using car/truck springs.
I follow the metalheads in the USENET news group rec.crafts.metalworking and, to the best of my recollection the latest word is that older say prior to 1970 auto/truck springs are OK but, later than that not good. Alloys and temper were changed and don't respond well to home blacksmithing.

[Ron Williamson]

Too bad,because they probably have doubles and triples of timber tools.
Our local Museum,whose director is a customer of mine,had NO problem lending me things from their collections,as long as the items weren't too precious or delicate.
R

[Bob Aberton]

Here's a really stupid question - forgive my ignorance - but I have seen mattock-like garden tools with the same kind of head as an adze. With a lot of patience, a really good metal saw, and a bench grinder, could one conceivably turn one of those things into a crude adze? Or am I completely off-base here?

[JimD]

Originally posted by Bob Aberton:
Here's a really stupid question - forgive my ignorance - but I have seen mattock-like garden tools with the same kind of head as an adze. With a lot of patience, a really good metal saw, and a bench grinder, could one conceivably turn one of those things into a crude adze? Or am I completely off-base here?I would imagine with enough grinding you could get a decent edge on one, but would the mattock have the right angle or curve to it to chip out the wood effectively? I would doubt it. That tool is more like a heavy duty hoe. We used to use 'em for treeplanting (so did Shania Twain! :D )

[Dave Fleming]

Re: severely rusted tools.
There is a web site about using Electrolysis to remove rust from same.
Cleaning Rusty Tools (http://rusty2l.com/)

[Hughman]

Jeff, It sounds like there are piles of axeheads lying around in the fleamarkets in your area... :D Being left handed, I'll need one of each! ;)

Dave- Thanks for the link, I printed it out.

Has anyone read "The Evolution of the Wooden Ship", by Basil Greenhill and Sam Manning?

This has great descriptions of the techniques that I want to demonstrate. If only I could find a copy to buy!! $ :eek: $ :eek: $

[Dave Fleming]

Another not shipwright related but, IIRC, shows the techinque of converting a round log to a square timber is Eric Sloan's, A Reverence for Wood. And perhaps one of the early FOXFIRE issues might have something.

My shipwright adzes, Campbell Bros and L&IJ White, are no relation to a pick mattock nor an uptown foot adze. For reasons already posted in this and other similar threads.
BUT, for demostration purposes of doing said conversion set up on stocks. I see no reason to search for a shipwrights adze. One of those clubs, er... Lee Valley thingys would work.

<insert sneaky grin here>