The adze was an axe turned sideways. The blade was perpendicular to the handle instead of parallel. You swung the adze between your legs and the blade carved the surface of the wood in shallow scoops. The adze was the first tool for shaping a log into a beam. The log was round. The beam was flat. The adze made the flat. Every timber frame building in America started with an adze turning a tree into a piece of architecture.

The adze was dangerous. The blade swung toward the feet. The carpenter stood on the log and swung the adze down between his boots. One slip and the blade hit the shin or the ankle or the top of the foot. The adze required absolute trust between the hand and the eye. The hand swung. The eye aimed. The shin survived because the hand and the eye agreed on where the blade would land. An apprentice did not use the adze. The adze was earned. The adze was the last tool the master handed over.

The adze left marks. Shallow scallops in the face of the beam. The scallops were the signature of the hand that swung the tool. Every carpenter swung the adze at a slightly different angle and the angle produced a slightly different scallop. You could identify the carpenter by reading the beam the way you identify a singer by listening to the voice. The scallops were the carpenter accent. The planer removed the accent. The planed beam was generic. The adzed beam was specific.

The hewn beam is the most valuable beam in a salvage yard. The adze marks make it valuable. The marks are proof that a hand shaped the wood before machines existed. The marks are two hundred years old and they are still legible. Every scallop is a swing. Every swing is a moment. Every moment is a carpenter standing on a log in a clearing in a forest in 1810 turning a tree into a house. The beam remembers every swing. The beam is a recording of a workday. The adze marks are the grooves in the record.

Nobody uses an adze. The bandsaw mill turns a log into lumber in minutes. The adze took a day. The bandsaw produces a smooth surface. The adze produced a textured surface. The smooth surface is ready for construction. The textured surface is ready for a museum. The adze moved from the job site to the antique shop to the mantelpiece. The tool that built the building is now a decoration inside the building. The adze went from making the house to decorating the house. That is retirement. The tool hangs on the wall above the fireplace and the fireplace sits inside a house that an adze could have built but did not because the bandsaw was faster.

See also: Sawhorse, Joist