Shipwrights, carpenters, and railroaders all had their own version of it. I do love gouges too.The Adze has been around almost forever. the grains change as does the whether and your mind, and you'll end up with other carving tools. Once you think you have things they way you like. So it ends up being about the same price.Īnyways, just a thought. (Sure you can find a rare deal on ebay or modify one to a wider sweep) But most gougers like to have a couple of different sweeps. For a massive gouge, you paying at least $100 new. One thing I like to do for more accuracy is mallet the pole on the adze like you would with a large gouge. Granted there are better positions to carve in that save the body from aches, but the adze really sped things up. when I carved dough bowls and kuksas before I had an adze. Then I take it out of my 'wood vice' and axe the rest.Īlso another thing I just thought about. This second video is right after adze work. it takes me 20-30 minutes with axe and gouge only. This was last year, and I'm much more accurate and confident. The spoon knife is there to clean up the adze work. If you watch, the spoon knife or twca cwm doesn't really have that much action. great example in this swedish film that's been floating around for some time. The more work done with heavier tools, the easier it is to finish up later with smaller knives.Ī lot of old school carvers used adzes to carve spoons as well. Then I chop the outside with an axe and then it's time for knife work. I like to adze the bowl portion, then clean it up with a gouge. With all that said, I do like to change up my routines since I carve daily. The adze is so fast with removing waste wood that I bet you could carve two in the time it takes to drill out one kuksa with a forsner and drill press. Its a gamble, one wrong whack and you cut into your bowl walls. But then I started to get risky and use the adze. I used to carve all my kuksas and bowls with spoon knives. So I wanted something about theh size of a 50 cent piece. I wanted something a little smaller than the usual 'bowl carving adzes' you see from Hans Karlsson or Svente Djarve. Someone on the forum made me a custom adze to my specs. I used to be afraid to use the adze, but now that I understand it a little more, I can confidently chop to the line with it. It really just comes down to what you prefer and what you are comfortable with. Ive talked to Drew and have some of his old books. I agree with everything said but also rules are meant to be broken too. If someone wants to do this kind of work, and isn't opposed to power tools, a drill press and a Forsner bit will really speed thins up, though maybe not as much as you would think if you have the right gouges and the know how. For deep ladles, kuksas and the like, a short bent gouge (also called a spoon gouge is useful - actually pretty much essential. Not some teensy little thing, but a real gouge that you can shave with. Bent knives are ok for spoons, but even there I'd rather have a gouge. I do know for sure that the appropriate gouges will beat the pants off a bent knife for kuksas and bowls. I think an adz might be useful for those who don't have larger gouges and want to do large bowls, but even there I think that for accuracy and efficiency the gouge is what I would want. I am pretty sure that with my razor sharp Swiss gouges and maybe a mallet that I can carve far faster and more accurately than I ever could with an adz. I can't imagine attempting one with an adz. Hook knives work, but are slow, especially for bowls and kuksas. I have carved hundreds of spoons, ladles, bowls, and Kuksas.

One possible avenue is to purchase a knee adze type bit and use it both ways, anyone care to venture an opinion on that? Gouge and mallet: more control and ability to dig deeper probably cheaper if I make my own mallet, less traditional

One other notion that has presented itself is perhaps including a small hand drill in my arsenalĪdze: cooler looking and quicker, but one small enough to be easy to handle in cup sized work may not hollow as deeply as I would like I think this would allow for reaching way deep into a bowl while still allowing quick but controlled removal of wood that is where the coffee goes. The other option that seems very attractive is a gouge of about the same dimensions and a nice wooden mallet to drive it. So I'm starting to get a nice mental picture of what i want i think a tiny adze weighing in at 8-12 oz with a bit about an inch wide on about a ten inch handle will allow me to make quick work of hollowing things out and use my wrists rather than my elbows, but might be limited in how deep I can carve on a narrow bowl as I do like my cups and bowls at least as deep as they are wide.

Hans karlsson bowl adze