And another froe

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Pondoro2310

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Apr 13, 2014
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I have posted pictures of my 10-year old froe bought at Woodcraft, but here is a genuine antique, bought at a flea market. The newer (smaller) one is 0.20" thick, the antique is 0.40" thick. We'll see how it cleans up.



 
That's quite a difference in thickness. I wonder which performs better, for various tasks.

I also wonder how thick are the froes made by Gransfors Bruks.
 
Since they are spitters and not cutters I would presume the oldie to work great with that extra thickness. And probably take quite a pounding without there being any flex. Be curious to hear how they compare.
 
Pondoro2310 said:
I need a bigger club to beat that thicker froe with, and a suitable handle. Then I will try it out.
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Great opportunity to make a sturdy end grain mallet out of something hard and tough like elm or ironwood. You'll be able to use that on both froes. And maybe then start selling cedar shakes!
 
My junk store froe, after considerable grinding along the back which was heavily mushroomed. The local loggers supply actually had froe handles in stock. I tried making a makeshift one out of a cedar branch but that proved way to soft. I split off a handful of shakes (not grade one by any stretch) to roof over my rainbarrel. I think my shake making will be confined to little garden projects.

My wife thought the the boat shed I was building out of logs would have a home-made shake roof as well until I told her that (a) I would need to cut down a whole 'nother tree for materiel and (b) it would take me months to split enough to cover the shed. Corrugated polycarbonate my not be rustic, but it's cheap and plenty watertight.





 
Alocksly Bravo, those shakes look to be perfectly good! Downslope overlap is supposed to be much more substantial though so that at any given X-section there is 3 layer coverage. Easy to appreciate why they're so expensive once you try making them yourself. One single 'square' of shakes is one heck of a pile of wood and it takes 3 or 4 of these 'pallets' just to cover a 10' x 10' (one square!) section of roof.
 
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300Six said:
Alocksly Bravo, those shakes look to be perfectly good! Downslope overlap is supposed to be much more substantial though so that at any given X-section there is 3 layer coverage. Easy to appreciate why they're so expensive once you try making them yourself. One single 'square' of shakes is one heck of a pile of wood and it takes 3 or 4 of these 'pallets' just to cover a 10' x 10' (one square!) section of roof.
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Yeah, I kinda built the frame before I cut the shakes. A proper roof wouild need at least another 10 degrees of slope to allow for enough overlap and not have it end up too shallow. This one mainly keeps the pine needles out and looks "rustic" enough for the garden area but if this was over a cabin it would be drippy and drafty both. I have a surplus of cedar branches and leftovers right now so that's what I'm building stuff with.
 
El Quachito said:
Thanks for posting. Looks like the new one would eat up the tool you drive it with.
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Froe clubs do not look nice for long. You can build a proper mallet with a perpendicular handle, or just use a convenient branch. If you Google images you'll see how torn up they get.
 
El Quachito said:
Thanks for posting. Looks like the new one would eat up the tool you drive it with.
Click to expand...

Froe clubs do not look nice for long. You can build a proper mallet with a perpendicular handle, or just use a convenient branch. If you Google images you'll see how torn up they get.
 
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