kupija

He held the adze in both hands near the end which he was using, with the concave side of the handle facing towards him, the [coolamon] being fixed securely between his knees...He spent hour after hour in laboriously cutting a series of parallel grooves.' Kupija (adzes) are used to work the surface of wood - a strong chopping action removes large chips, while a more delicate scraping or shaving action finishes the surface. Kupija with large blades are used to hollow out coolamons, make spearthrowers, spears and handles for picks and axes. Those with small blades are used to make grooves on tools. Kupija were once made by flaking fine-grained pieces of flint or chert to form blades. The blades were then attached to both ends of a wooden handle, usually with spinifex resin. Today we often make them from old car springs, and use them along with modern woodworking tools such as rasps and sandpaper.