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You will probably laugh, but how do I tell the difference between an adze and a hoe? I have about 6 that I've gotten at garage sales, and I suspect most are hoes? I've done a little searching and I read that an adze will have a square or rectangular hole. Mine don't have handles so there isn't much clue there.
They have been abused, so in theory an adze could have been used for a hoe making it wear like one also.
One has a round mouth (not rectangular mounting hole), and I don't see a gardening use for that, but I'm not an expert.
Anyways, what are your thoughts?
Thanks
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Location: N. Cincy inside the loop
Pictures might be helpful.
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Typically adzes do have square or rectangular holes, or eyes. In most, the handle can be readily removed for sharpening the bit. There are a bunch of different styles of adzes as well. Most have a gently curved, relatively thin blade (or bit). Some have a square poll for striking, or to add mass. Ship's adzes often have turned up lips at the edges of the bit that help with fairing off broad surfaces without the corners digging in and often have pin-polls for driving in trunnels (pegs).
Hoes, old ones, usually have oval eyes and rarely have polls, they're typically wider at the bit than adzes (though not always).
There is also a third category of tools that confuse people: mattocks, (sometimes called grub axes) that usually have oval eyes and are very heavy with thick bits. These look like if a hoe and a pick-ax had a baby. These are used for grubbing in holes to worry out rocks and sever tree-roots.
Sadly a fine adze, which is a precision tool in the hands of a skillful carpenter, seems to the uninitiated like the perfect tool to use for grubbing in holes and chopping ice in driveways. Much like when my ex-wife discovered that my nice shiny new old stock chisel was just the thing for breaking up clumps of road salt in a bucket so she could spread it out easier. Then she left it there... Then I left her there ;-)
DC
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It's my impression that, other than the small - think hatchet size - carving adzes, adzes have some kind of poll on the back side, opposite the cutting edge. Some polls are little pin-like things, used for driving nails below the surface; others are chunkier. Hoes don't have polls.
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Where I live, there are a lot of old broke hoes posing as adzes.
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At auctions I see adzes represented as grub hoes quite often. I have concluded that few auctioneers know their adze from a hoe in the ground.
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(12-05-2019, 06:46 PM)WJB Wrote: At auctions I see adzes represented as grub hoes quite often. I have concluded that few auctioneers know their adze from a hoe in the ground.
Excellent line! I'll be forwarding that one to my pun-loving brother and sis-in-law.
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Well I finally got a picture posted. I'm terrible with a computer, so I am at the mercy of my wife. I'm guessing (based on above information) that the ones on the left side are "hoes" and the right side are adze? If I am correct, I need to make some handles, at least for the adze (s) Do you think the top right one could have a short handle? I'm not much into use of an adze, but without a handle they don't have much use or value. Not sure if the hoe (s) are worth making handles.
Thanks again for all the comments, I learned something new, I know what a "poll" is, and it's more accurate than the ones politicians use
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Hoes typically have long handles because they are meant to be used standing up. Blades on hoes are thinner and flat, vs. an adze blade which is curved and thick enough to support a bevel on the cutting edge. Hoes are not typically sharpened. (Even though hoes and shovels should be sharpened, because they work better that way.) Mr. Carr already mentioned the poll portion of an adze as well as the opening for the handle.
Still Learning,
Allan Hill
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12-06-2019, 11:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2019, 11:48 AM by Bill_Houghton.)
I think you've sorted them out correctly. Not sure about the one at top right, but it could be what's now being called a carving adze, used on smaller work.
In this area, the one at top left is referred to as an "Italian hoe," because, historically, the Italian immigrants to this area used the style. It's not the kind of hoe you would use for delicate weeding around the heritage roses; more for serious weed clearing.
By the way, although you didn't ask: your hardware store probably doesn't have adze handles, unless you live in a shipbuilding area. I've never used any of their products, but House Handles (
website here) lists them.
