Adze-plane, Skeparnon, Multipurpose Adze or Two-handled Adze? Practical Work with an Alleged Predecessor of the Woodworking Plane

Abstract

This article presents a practical approach to a Graeco-Roman woodworking tool called “ascia-Hobel” in the archaeological literature, respectively “adze-plane” as the corresponding English term. The tool in question consists of an often semi-circular adze-blade attached to a two-handled shaft and seems to be suited both for chopping and for shaving wooden surfaces. It has therefore been considered a possible intermediate between the adze and the proper woodworking plane as known from the Roman era onwards. Archaeological finds of specific forms of adze-blades have convincingly been associated with depictions of the tool. As there are no complete finds of the “adze-plane” a reconstruction based on a combination of elements from the existing sources has been manufactured. In practical use, the reconstructed tool turned out to be a full equivalent to the ordinary adze but with additional features. For comparison, another adze of the same shape and construction was built, but with only a single handle. When used for chopping it worked as well as the two-handled adze even though both tools showed different characteristics. Shaving, respectively carving worked more precisely and effectively with the two-handled adze. Therefore, it could be concluded that the two-handled adze is a specialized kind of combination tool and not an intermediate between an adze and plane. It is functionally rather similar to the adze and obviously not a kind of plane. As it is typologically similar to the adze and, at the same time, lacks several technical and anatomic features of the plane, the writer proposes abandoning the misleading denomination “adze-plane”. Instead, the more suitable term already used in this summary is suggested for further use: “two-handled adze”.

Keywords

• wood working
• tools
• tool traces
• roman era
• germany