An adze is a stone or metal woodworking tool. It is similar to an ax but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. The adze is one of the few ancient tools that are still used by carpenters.

In Siberia, adzes appeared in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, 4600–7500 years ago. During that time, people began to explore local waterways and travel along rivers. They used the adze to make dugout boats by removing wood from the center of the log.

Such boats vary in size and design. Small dugouts are used to transport one person and small cargo. -sized ones are used for fishing, hunting waterfowl, and transporting women with children. Large boats are suitable for long journeys, transporting entire families and their belongings.

The homemade tools of northern craftsmen include a saw, a right- and left-handed ax, an adze, a scraper knife, a plane, a plumb bob, and a cord. All of them are produced taking into account the craftsman’s dominant hand. To make a dugout boat, it is very important to select a log of suitable size, most often an aspen tree. A craftsman searches for a tree in the forest in early spring. The circumference of the trunk should match the arm span of the craftsman.

After selecting the tree, the craftsman must check whether it is suitable for making a boat. For this purpose, the bark is peeled off, and a strip of wood is cut using an ax or knife. The craftsman must make sure that the wood fibers are straight, which means that the boat will be strong and reliable. Freshly cut wood contains a lot of moisture and is easy to process with a sharp tool. This is why the craftsman sets to work at once.

Before proceeding to the next step, the wood is soaked in boiling water and steamed. This makes the wood softer and easier to cut with an adze and a plane. The hardness of a heated workpiece is compared to that of frozen butter.

The craftsman begins hollowing out the log from the bow and stern, using a straight adze. For further work, they also use side adzes, an ax, and a two-handed plane. The middle part of the log must be removed as far as the tool would allow, while also taking care not to chop down the sides of the future boat.