My uncle was recently informed by a boat wright that the spike is used
for shredding the end grain of a dowel or peg so that it absorbs more
water, causing it to swell and fit more tightly.

Eric

--- Todd Hughes  wrote:

>  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.

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