LunaAtlas
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A froe (or frow) is a traditional woodworking hand tool used for cleaving and splitting wood along the grain.
Common Uses -
Shingle/Shake Making: Traditionally used to rive (split) wooden roof shingles and shakes.
Green Woodwork: Crafting perfectly straight-grained, stable wood for chairs, spoons, and hurdles.
Kindling: A highly controlled and much safer way to split firewood into smaller kindling than swinging an axe or hatchet.
MoonAmericanFloydHeywoodR
It’s a doohicky and it does thingamabobs.
SirPerfluousOfTheShire
It’s name if Fred and its a plumber.
zer0vector
It's to cut things around a corner
ManOfEvil93
the first one, ive seen them used to cut banana bunches of the tree
LunaAtlas
ManOfEvil93
i assume there are multiple tools for it
BIOSOIB
My Dad used to run a cedar mill making mostly shakes & shingles from salvaged Western Red Cedar (stuff that was cut down and left to rot many years ago when it was not profitable to yard it out).
There were always a couple of froes like the middle picture around the mill, but were only used for very high end orders. Shingles were sawn on a giant automated bandsaw, and shakes were "hand" split with a hydraulic froe - still had to position the block manually, but the blade was button operated.
BIOSOIB
well technically pedal or lever operated? It was a metal plate you stepped on to activate the blade which would split off a single shake. The operator had to keep moving the block around and flipping it over to get the best/most shakes per block since shakes taper at one end.
ilhares
I know I've seen them before, but probably not in 40+ years. Looks like something my grandfather had in the garage with all of his old tools that he piled up after the war.
bladderinfection
I had a great aunt that collected old men and their tools. One by one they added a layer of old world hammers & screwdrivers into the shed, and then went into the house to die. She buried five men that lived their best lives at the end.
njkckbxr
Is this from a movie?
bladderinfection
No. Over the course of 20 years or so, she would meet another older gentleman, have him move in, and then the old man dies as old men do. Nothing sinister.