An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c11.s2.1

v1.c11.s2.1

‘The axe is to drive into wood, to split it; the adze is to take a thin slip off a larger mass. The axe usually has a short body and means of pulling it back or twisting it loose from the grip of the cloven wood; the adze has a long body and (in ancient times) only a weak attachment to the handle, as it was never struck in deeply. The axe is thick in order to bear shock and carry weight; the adze is thinner, strength not being required. These various differences were not all developed fully at first.’ (Petrie, 1917, p. 5). It therefore follows that the axe is a tool for hewing, cleaving or chopping trees or wood (it could be designed for killing purposes as well [19.2.5], whereas the adze is a carpenter’s tool—a sort of an axe with the blade set at right angles to the handle and curved towards it—used for cutting, slicing or planing the surface of wood.