Adze: To glue or not to glue?

[Jamie Sharp]

Hello everyone. So today I am wondering, If I am making northwest coast style adze to sell to others, Should I glue the blade on? Or should it be only wrapped on to the handle?

And if I do glue the blade on, should I use an extremely good epoxy like the g-flex I am using for my knives, or go with something removable with moderate intentional force like shoe-goop so the adze can be more easily sharpened later?

[Brian T]

If your customers are motivated enough, sell the blades and let them follow your instructions
for handles and design geometry ( Holm Constant, etc.)
I'm sure that some will still want no part of the assembly process.

I don't glue the adze blades. The tarred #18 seine twine seems sticky enough under tension.
If you cut the blade seat just a little concave with a scraper,
the whipping will pull the steel down on the wood. Dry is good enough.
For me, that's enough tension that the twine actually leaves compression marks on the birch.

For all the knife blades that I've hafted, I like JBWeld epoxy. It has steel and limestone powders in it.
The whipping hides my untidy workmanship.
Must be coming up to 10 years now and I have not had a single blade break loose.

[Jamie Sharp]

Hmm, just learned that epoxy does soften at 150f, so it should be easy enough to remove even an epoxied blade with a torch and a rag on the cutting edge, if someone was so inclined.

[Brian T]

True, I could torch off the knife blades. I've never been faced with blades coming loose.
My plan was to explore the design of the handles with prototypes then make finished ones.
Even so, many got a trimming with a bandsaw.

[Jamie Sharp]

True, I could torch off the knife blades. I've never been faced with blades coming loose.
My plan was to explore the design of the handles with prototypes then make finished ones.
Even so, many got a trimming with a bandsaw.

It was less a worry about them coming loose, and more that some artists prefer to remove the whole adze blade to sharpen it.

I guess I can just sell both, glued and unglued if it ever becomes an issue.

[Brian T]

With the traditional dry whipping as I do, I could simply cut the twine and have the adze blade off very quickly.
I've never heard of anybody else using a tennis ball as a mandrel but I can crush 600 or 800 grit paper around that for edge work. It's hard to load the fuzzy tennis ball with honing compound but it can be done.
It occurs to me that dirty old tennis balls with the fuzz beaten off might be even better.
Where's a bad ball when you need one in January?