"Carving work continues on the final beams meant for the ongoing construction of the Chief Shakes Tribal House in Wrangell. KSTK’s Ariel Van Cleave recently visited the carving shed and filed this report.
You can hear the sound of a blade meeting wood coming from a large shed in downtown Wrangell. Two women are busy working on long, rectangular beams of red cedar with adzes, which is an axlike tool that’s shaped a bit like a curved “L”. Susie Kasinger and Linda Churchill have been adzing since last year for the ongoing construction of Chief Shakes Tribal House. The two are finishing work on the last beams which will be used to form the fire pit. The carving shed itself is about the length of a barge container and as wide as about two. The floor is covered in pieces of wood and the whole area is coated with a rich, sweet smell. Kasinger said she has the scent of cedar on her clothes and skin after she’s put in her eight-hour workday. She explains adzing is a slow process of taking small notches out of the beams while following the grain of the wood.
“The rows are supposed to be between a quarter and a half-inch wide. And you try to just follow the row down and keep your lines. That’s a really big challenge is we try to keep the lines straight. It’s getting a lot easier now, now that we’re almost done,” she said."
Get the Story:
Adzers Hard at Work in Chief Shakes Tribal Hous
(Alaska Public Radio Network 10/1)
Related Stories:
Editorial: Program helps to preserve Chief Shakes Historic Site
(6/7)
KTSK: Sealaska donates cedar
logs for clan house renovation (02/06)
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