Essential to the fabrication of proas is the adze, a handled cutting tool for shaping, squaring, and most importantly, hollowing, wood. The Micronesian adze needed for hollowing canoe hulls is a unique and refined type. Initially carvers mounted stone, and later shell, blades. Contact with the West introduced sharper, longer lasting metal blades, which were individually fabricated by smiths to replace shells blades with little change to the design and traditional use of the adzes.
