An adze is a wood-working tool, similar to an axe. The shape of the adze is sometimes the same as an axe, but the blade is attached at a right-angle to the handle rather than straight across, and instead of chopping horizontally through a piece of wood, you use an adze to vertically shape the wood.
The earliest adzes were made of stone, shaped into a roughly rectangular form by flint knapping and then by grinding the working end into a more or less straight pointy elongated edge. Sometimes well-worked, small adze blades are called "celts".
Once metallurgy became available, adzes were made of bronze, and eventually iron. An adze is identified partly by its shape, and partly by the evidence for differential hafting pattern. The illustration on this page is of an iron adze from 20th century Dogon people in Mali, showing the hafting method used by stone and metal wood-workers the world over.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the Guide to Stone Tools and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
