Hand-forged froe and dogwood maul

[Wrenchmensch]

Years ago, I learned to make wooden shingles using a froe and maul. These tools work with any wood. The technique is simple. Take a 14" - 18" long log (cedar or oak is great for this). Place the log in a vertical position with the narrower end down. Holding the froe by the handle, place the sharp edge of the froe about 1 " in from, and tangential to, the edge of the top surface of the log. Hit the top edge of the froe with the maul. 5 or 6 successive hits with the maul will yield a shingle. Lots of shingles can be made in a couple of hours using a dozen logs.

The froe in the picture is a hand-forged antiquity. The maul I made from the trunk of a dead dogwood in our woods. It shouldn't wear out too soon.

[Papaw]

Very good! Making it yourself and using it! Great job!

[fliffy42]

I have always wanted to try making my own shingles but.... in all my "hunting" trips, I have yet to "find" a froe. It has been one of the thing I havent come across. Maybe as the pioneers moved west from New England they took them all with them?

[Branson]

I have always wanted to try making my own shingles but.... in all my "hunting" trips, I have yet to "find" a froe. It has been one of the thing I havent come across. Maybe as the pioneers moved west from New England they took them all with them?

Well..., Longstep could surely make one, and he's only an email away.  But you're right; I'd say I've only seen maybe five in the past 30 years.  Bought one of them.  You would also need a brake in order to make shingles well.

[keykeeper]

I see froe's all the time at auctions, flea markets, antique malls, etc.

Cliff, I'll pick one up or make you one.

They aren't too hard of a project.....now where did I leave that piece of leave spring at.....

[Redneck Albertan]

If you want a brand new froe and mallet they are available at Lee Valley Tools. leevalley.com.

[scottg]

:)

Not really my froe club. This one is a beatle.   Yeah yeah yeah
    yours Scott

[Papaw]

One word-- MASSIVE!!!

[Dustin21]

scottg are you fred flintstone in disguise  better yet with that club maybe the name BAM BAM suits you  LOL

[scottg]

Hee heee
Well I don't have to hit things too many times?  :P

Its a kind of wood I don't even know what to call.  I call it pin oak, not having any other name.
  Its a kind of oak that is a pretty small tree, but it's good n hard and doesn't want to easily split as it dries, a rare thing IME.
I get it when its taken down getting to a good big firewood tree.
   yours Scott 

[Aunt Phil]

Are you forging the froe in the profile of a wood chisel or a splitting wedge?  It's an ongoing argument in this area.

[anglesmith]

Yes there can be some debate. It is one of those tools where you have to go back to basic thinking and carefully observe the very early froes if you can.  All the early ones I have seen here in Australia are quite thick (3/8" plus) and were made of wrought iron (not hardenable), they are flat on one side with a rolling (rounded) taper on the other side and usually 2-2 1/2 deep. If you think about it, once the split is started the "cutting" edge plays no further part.  Driven down level or little deeper depending on the timber, the handle (lever) and the rolling taper then come into play.  All the shingles I saw split while working Timber Town heritage village were done in a three rail splitting bench set at the right height for easy hitting and levering.
Graeme

[scottg]

Splitting wedge here. Never saw one shaped like a chisel bevel in my life. Must be a regional thing.
And a dull one at that.  Dull as a froe was a common saying.
your Scott

[Branson]

Are you forging the froe in the profile of a wood chisel or a splitting wedge?  It's an ongoing argument in this area.

This is probably a question to be put to Roy Underhill, since Eric Sloane isn't around anymore to answer it.  I can
only rely on my own experience and research over the past 30 or more years.

I've never heard the argument until now.  Until I read Graeme's post, I didn't know anybody made chisel edged
froes as a general rule.   In fact, I have never seen such a froe.   The only non-standard froe I know is a cooper's
froe, which has a segmented arc for easier production of barrel staves.

As Graeme points out, the style of the cutting edge is pretty inconsequential when almost all of the work uses
the froe as a sort of pry bar.  It's a splitting tool, not a cutting tool.   You want to shave the shingles?  Use a
draw knife after you've split them out.

Like I said, I haven't heard the argument.  It's not mentioned by Underhill, or Sloane, nor is it found
in the Fox Fire books, which record the experiences of people who used such tools traditionally.  I don't
find it in Bealer's book on traditional wood work, nor in Aldren Watson's Country Furniture, both respectable
resources for pre-industrial carpentry.

The Oxford English Dictionary, the most scholarly and precise dictionary of the English language, defines
a froe as:
"A wedge shaped tool used for cleaving and riving staves, shingles, etc."

Drew Langsner, in his 1978 book, Country Woodcraft, writes of the froe blade:
"The blade should be gradually tapered forming a fairly acute angle at the cleaving edge.  In cross section,
the flanks are slightly convex so that the contact point rolls across the blade as the froe is levered back and
forth."

I'm sure that the advocates of the chisel edge have their arguments lined up, but modern people tend to
forget that tools like the froe are the result of many, many,  perhaps hundreds of years of hands on
experience through generations of carpenters.  Traditional froes are wedge shaped for a reason, a
reason derived from generations of experience.

[keykeeper]

I've seen them with working edges made both ways. I think maybe it fell upon the smith who made them, as to their personal preference and how long they wanted to spend on the forging.