Elbow Adze

Item number 18 from the The Burke: University of Washington.

Public

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Exhibit Label

S'abadeb-Seattle Art Museum In the manner of its use, the elbow adze of this type is closer to the D-adze than to the elbow adzes of the northern Northwest Coast. This style of adze, with many local variations, was used throughout the Puget Sound and Hood Canal areas. With the carver's hand positioned close over the top of the blade, the short handle added only a little leverage to the carving effort. With experience, however, a tool like this can accomplish a great deal of accurate wood removal. All kinds of hewing tasks were done with this tool, from the sculpting of canoes, models, bowls, and trays to the flattening and truing of planks split from large cedar trees with wedges made of wood.