Hi Todd--- Around here and around the guys I've asked who've been here:
the *poll* of an adze, or whatever you call the punch on the back of the
adze is for knocking down whatever might be in the way of the blade.
Usually, IINM, it's stuff you can see, like clinches, and/or steel pins.
Around here, in the Pacific NW, lots of construction was underway while
the logs were still floating. now get out of here. I said 'GET OUT' gam
in Seattle

--- Todd Hughes  wrote:

>  Yeah I have always heard that the spike on these was for driving
>  nails or spikes down into the wood while an adzing.....Don't know
>  maybe,... but you know I have seen lots of these adzes esp. older
>  ones where the the "spike" was much to big to drive any nails down
>  past the wood surface so whats up with that ?. Also how big a problem
>  really was spikes in logs that were being adzed? and what do you do
>  with the nail you are knocking down into the wood , if you just leave
>  it there won't you just hit it again as you adze more wood off going
>  down toward it...I've seen a load of hewing axes and never seen one
>  with a spike on it...got to think if they ran into them while adzing
>  guys also ran into nails while hewing wood, eh?... how come they
>  don't have a spike on thier axes to drive them down like they did
>  while adzing?.
>
>  I was at a yard sale once of an old guy that was a wooden boat
>  builder and had actually built a few Skip Jacks and worked on
>  Chesapeake bay log canoes and I bought a couple of his spike ship
>  adzes and I asked him about those spikes. Told him I had always heard
>  they were for drving in nails or spikes that were in the wood....He
>  got a big laugh about that and admited he had heard that too but
>  never from anybody that had used them. He told me when they were
>  building a boat they would drill holes in the wood from the outside
>  to the depth they wanted the wood to be thick , then they would adze
>  down till they hit the hole stop and then plug them with a wooden
>  dowel they carried in thier pocket and knocked in place with the Adze
>  poll then keep on working. Said with out these holes very hard or
>  impossiable to know exactly how thick the wood is since they are
>  working inside the boat's hull. He even told me the reason he thought
>  old Adzes have a bigger poll was because back then they used bigger
>  dowels because they drilled bigger holes, latter ones used smaller
>  holes and dowels......Interesting.....he alson confirmed my suspician
>  that the reason you see so many lip adzes with the lips ground off
>  was because it makes them easier to sharpen.
>
>  One of the better yardsales I've been too and I still have his ship
>  adze with the neat carved handle that he sold me for $15......Todd
>
>
>
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