So, I was talking with my father in law not long after we bought our cabin. I think it might have been when he went out there with us, and I was showing off some of my tools, including the froe and mallet that my dad made for splitting shingles back in the 70s. I mentioned that eventually I was going to buy an adze for working with timbers and such out there, and since we usually try to give each other neat tools for Christmas, it wasn't too much of a surprise when the next time I saw him, he presented me with an old adze head that he had been saving, shown here:
It's got a lot of pits in it, and somebody sanded off most of the rust at some point, such that the manufacturer's mark is visible on the underside of the head. Enough of the mark is still clear enough to get the name of the maker, and a quick Google search brought up lots of info about them. The mark looks closest to the one shown in figure 41 at the link, without the double stamping. There are some punch marks below the bull logo, which may have been an owner's initials or something. I was kind of surprised that the markings showed up as well as they did in this picture:
The founder of the company began making edged tools in Pennsylvania in 1806. The company continued in the hands of his family until at least 1906, and after the company was sold (looks like maybe to another family member), the brand continued on until the 1920s. So, this adze has been kicking around for at least 90 years, and probably a lot longer than that before it eventually wound up on my workbench. It sat there for at least a couple of years, in need of a handle.
As it turns out, you can buy an adze handle for about ten bucks plus shipping from Ace Hardware Outlet on Amazon. The only problem being, they ship the first one to Albany, New York, and then they have to send you another one to the correct address. That struck me as being not a very efficient system of distribution.
Said handle didn't fit my antique head worth a damn, although I'm sure it's probably a good fit for whatever modern manufacture adze it was made for. Fortunately it was too big, so with a lot of trial and error, and trips back and forth to the belt sander, I was able to achieve a decent, tight fit:
So, now I just need to learn how to sharpen this thing properly. It's actually pretty sharp as it is, and I already used it to mangle a 2x4 without hurting myself. (what, you've never seen a sheet metal brake used as a table before?)
