Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/215

Rh of the straight part of the blade, and to counteract the tendency of the wedge-side pressing the hatchet out of its true plane.

.—Those whose business requires the forming of lengths of wood into curved shapes, and who rely upon the adze for the preliminary operation, use an Indian form of adze. In India it is held so near the metal that the workman's hand touches the metal. He accomplishes blows chiefly by acting from the elbow. This very general mode of holding gives a pretty uniform length to the radius of the swing, hence the form of the adze in the plane of the swing is nearly that of the circle described. The angle of the handle and the adze is very much the same as that of the handle of the file-maker's hammer and the head.

.—When we look at the adze as used by English wheelwrights or shipwrights, we may well shudder to see how it is handled, especially when the cutting-edge is taken into account. The operation, briefly described, is the following: The workman stands with one foot upon the wood, this foot being in the line of the fibre. He thus assists in steadying (say) the felloe of a wheel. From this felloe much of the wood on which the sole of his shoe rests has to be removed. It will be noticed that the long handle of the adze is curved—the object of this is to permit an efficient blow to be given, and the instrument brought to a stop before the handle strikes any part of the workman's body; in fact, caused to stop by the exhaustion of its impact energy in and among the fibres of wood to be separated. The edge is often so keen as to cut through a horse-hair held at one end and pressed against it.

This instrument is raised by both hands until nearly in an horizontal position, and then not simply allowed to fall, but steadily driven downward until the curved metal, with its broad and sharp edge, enters near to, if not below, the sole of the workman's shoe, separating a large flake of wood from the mass; the handle is rapidly raised, and the blows repeated. This is done with frequency, the workman gradually receding his foot until the end-flakes of wood are separated. It is fearful to contemplate an error of judgment or an unsteady blow. William Tell and the apple on his son's head are, in another form, here repeated.



So skilled do men become in thus using the adze, that some will undertake, with any predetermined stroke in a series, to split their shoe-sole in two.

.—Clearly the adze must be sharpened from the inside, and, when the action of it is considered, it is also clear that the curvature of the adze-iron must be circular, or nearly so.