Lumber Guy
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:33am
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Occasionally, wood shingles have to be replaced. A shingle froe is a very handy tool to have and buying a new one is expensive. Rather than buy a new one, I decided to try to make my own.
The first step is to acquire a piece of a vehicle leaf spring with a hole in one end. My friend Bennie provided this from a truck spring.
The spring had to be heated and shaped to make a useable froe. I had to use the tools I had on hand. The grill worked okay with forced air from a hair dryer. As an unintended benefit, hamburgers were grilled after the first pass at shaping the froe.
The spring steel was extremely hard. I had tested filing the edge, and my file just skated along the metal. Once the blade was straightened and the eye centered, it was reheated and left to cool slowly in the ashes. This seemed to soften the spring steel enough to be able to file it.
I made a temporary handle from a hickory sapling to test the froe.
Once I felt the froe was adequately shaped and worked properly, I worked on getting the cleaving edge right and started making a better handle from a seasoned white oak billet.
This is a very functional tool that can be used for any project that requires controlled splitting of wood.
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