adze
(US), adz a heavy hand tool with a steel cutting blade attached at right angles to a wooden handle, used for dressing timber
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
adz
[adz] (design engineering)
A cutting tool with a thin arched blade, sharpened on the concave side, at right angles on the handle; used for rough dressing of timber.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
adz
adz
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Adz
a tool for working wood. In the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age, adzes were fashioned from stone and had the form of a wedge with a widened, sometimes slightly arched working edge. The blade was inserted into a bent wooden handle at right angles to the handle. In the Bronze Age, adzes were also made of copper and bronze. Iron adzes came into use in the Iron Age. They had the shape of an ax with a replaceable blade set at right angles to the handle. The working edge of the adz was usually widened and arched; occasionally it was fluted for use in chiseling. Carpenters continued to use adzes until the 20th century.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.