The photo below shows a partially complete maple sugar trough, being made with old-time tools in 2008 from a cucumber log. It was being made by Melvin Korns and his son Warren for the 2008 sugaring season.
The (large) foot adz was found in a building on the old Allen Lester Korns farm (the handle is new), while the hand-adz was borrowed for the job. The circular cutting tool is believed to possibly be a cooper's tool, for shaping staves.
The next photo shows the finished trough after the inside was smoothed out and sanded and legs were added.
To make maple sugar, one cooks regular maple syrup down further. The resulting thicker syrup is put in the trough and stirred for a long time with a wooden paddle. During this process it swells up, and you keep on stirring it and it turns into crumb.
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