Home-made Froe 2

I shaped the scrap ash handle of the froe with the usual tools (spokeshave and rasp) and mounted the blade with small carriage bolts.  Since the holes in the planer blade were slotted the blade moved around more than I wanted so I drilled a third hole and added another small bolt.   With everything fixed in place I ground a small back bevel on the splitter so that the tool would not “dive” to one side while in combat.

A quickly cobbled together sheath from scrap leather completed the activity, although I just glued the leather together.  I will rivet it together tomorrow so it is a bit more permanent.

Taking the froe for a test drive was a delight as it split perfectly and was easy to both drive and maneuver, yielding very thin and narrow pieces exactly as I had desired.  These two were about 3/8″ x 5/8″ x 30″.