Editing Adze (section)

== Modern adzes ==
Modern adzes are made from [[steel]] with wooden [[:wikt:Handle#Noun|handles]], and enjoy limited use: occasionally in semi-industrial areas, but particularly by "revivalists" such as those at the [[Colonial Williamsburg]] cultural center in [[Virginia]], United States. However, the traditional adze has largely been replaced by the [[sawmill]] and the powered [[plane (tool)|plane]], at least in industrialised cultures. It remains in use for some specialist crafts, for example by [[Cooper (profession)|coopers]]. Adzes are also in current use by artists such as [[Northwest Indians|Northwest Coast American]] and [[Canadian Indians|Canadian Indigenous]] sculptors doing [[totem pole]] carving, as well as [[tribal mask|masks]] and bowls.

===Foot adze===
"Adzes are used for removing heavy waste, leveling, shaping, or trimming the surfaces of timber"<ref name="Salaman 23">[[Raphael Salaman|Salaman, R. A.]] ''Dictionary of tools used in the woodworking and allied trades, c. 1700–1970''. New York: [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]], 1975. 23.</ref> and boards. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards between his feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind.

Foot adzes are most commonly known as shipbuilder's or carpenter's adzes. They range in size from 00 to 5 being {{convert|3+1//4|to(-)|4+3//4|lb}} with the cutting edge {{convert|3|to(-)|4+1//2|inch|round=5}} wide.<ref name="Salaman 23"/> On the modern, steel adze the cutting edge may be flat for smoothing work to very rounded for hollowing work such as bowls, gutters and canoes. The shoulders or sides of an adze may be curved called a ''lipped adze'', used for notching. The end away from the cutting edge is called the pole and be of different shapes, generally flat or a ''pin pole''.

* Carpenter's adze {{endash}} A heavy adze, often with very steep curves, and a very heavy, blunt pole. The weight of this adze makes it unsuitable for sustained overhead adzing.
** Railroad adze {{endash}} A carpenter's adze which had its bit extended in an effort to limit the breaking of handles when shaping railroad ties (railway sleepers). Early examples in New England began showing up approximately in the 1840s–1850s. The initial prototypes clearly showed a weld where the extension was attached.
* Shipwright's adze {{endash}} A lighter, and more versatile adze than the carpenter's adze. This was designed to be used in a variety of positions, including overhead, as well as in front on waist and chest level.
** Lipped shipwright's adze {{endash}} A variation of the shipwright's adze. It features a wider than normal bit, whose outside edges are sharply turned up, so that when gazing directly down the adze, from bit to eye, the cutting edge resembles an extremely wide and often very flat U. This adze was mainly used for shaping cross grain, such as for joining planks.
* Another group of adzes can be differentiated by the handles; the D-handled adzes have a handle where the hand can be wrapped around the D, close to the bit. These adzes closely follow traditional forms in that the bit or tooth is not wrapped around the handle as a head.
* The head of an [[ice axe]] typically possesses an adze for chopping rough steps in ice.
* A firefighter tool called the [[Halligan bar]] has a dull adze on one end of the bar. This bar is a multipurpose tool for forcible entry of a structure and demolition with a forked pry-bar on one end and an adze and spike on the other, called the adze-end.
*Demolition adze {{endash}} A demolition adze has a dull edge and is used for separating materials in the demolition or salvage of old buildings.

===Hand adze===
[[Image:Cooperadze.jpg|right|thumb|Cooper's adze]]
There are a number of specialist, short-handled adzes used by [[Cooper (profession)|coopers]], [[Wainwright (occupation)|wainwright]]s, and chair makers, and in bowl and trough making. Many of these have shorter handles for control and more curve in the head to allow better clearance for shorter cuts.

=== Bulgarian adze ===
During the communist period of Bulgaria, a new multi-use woodworking adze, called {{lang|bg|Теслà}} ({{transliteration|bg|Teslà}}), emerged. It has a sharpened edge perpendicular to the handle, resembling an adze, but it is also used like a carpenter's hammer. On the back of the head is a textured poll for driving nails, and on the front is a V-shaped hole used for prying, to extract the bent nails.

Some urban legends{{weasel inline|date=June 2024}} say that Bulgarian migrant workers always carry their adzes with them so they can do construction work more efficiently due to the lack of Western equivalent of the tool. The Bulgarian adze is often mistaken for a hammer.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DIIVuh9jT4&t=199s |title=Building a tiny house |date=2023-04-23 |last=Miriam Lancewood |time=3m19s |quote=So my main tools were this Bulgarian hammer... |via=[[YouTube]]}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

There is a popular Bulgarian folk song called "На теслата дръжката" (eng: The tesla's handle) about a craftsman and the masculinity of his tool.