log splitting with a froe

http://peplers.blogspot.com/ Me trying out a froe splitting small logs.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• froe
• logs
• log
• split
• splitting
• firewood

[mikepepler]

@G58 You're right of course. A friend of mine said "When it comes to being 'green' we're all hypocrites, the question is what level of hypocrisy are we comfortable with?". This is certainly an area we could do better in. We made some changes a couple of years ago, when we started using our own wood instead of selling it, by including wood down to 1" diameter in with our larger logs for starting fires. But maybe we should look at the smaller stuff too...

[G58]

@mikepepler It may suit you mike, but my main point is that it doesn't suit the environment. Simply waiting until "fuel supplies get scarcer" is typical of the whole western world's attitude towards scarce resources. Brash is a valuable resource, not a waste product. Have you been to Africa? How long do you think it will be before water wars & millions of Africans migrating to Europe & camping out in places like your woods? 10 years? 5 years? The lessons are all there to see now.

[mikepepler]

@G58 You're right, I could do that for kindling, and for fires in the wood there's plenty of brash around to use - which is what we do. But it's different for the fire at home - I find it's easier in terms of storage, transport and time as well to split up the odd log at home rather than collect up masses of twigs, break them to suitable sizes and then bring them several miles home. Maybe I'll change when fuel supplies get scarcer, but for now this suits me fine.

[G58]

@mikepepler You burn off the thinner branches every year, right? releasing carbon back into the atmosphere for no benefit. Then tie inner tubes round cut logs to make kindling, wasting the human energy & losing the full calorific value of the log??? Extraordinary. The thinnings obviously dry quickest of all, can be snapped by hand & bagged or bundled for kindling & light a fire quicker. Zero waste. Real conservation. It's a no brainer. I've done it for 35 years. Never cut kindling in my life.

[mikepepler]

@G58 Yes, I never buy any, we always make it ourselves for use in the woods or lighting the woodburner at home.

[mikepepler]

@G58 I'd not heard that term for what I call a mallet, thanks. But I still see no problem with using a froe to split a log if that's the tool you happen to have with you, even if a splitting axe would be quicker. I've found that using a froe and mallet lets little children get involved, as there's little risk of them getting near a blade, they don't need to worry much about their aim, and they can easily lift the wooden mallet.

[G58]

@mikepepler Why are you making kindling? Is it for your own use?

[G58]

@mikepepler I think you've misunderstood me. I didn't mean a log splitting maul, I meant the original meaning of the word - the thing you're hitting the froe with: a mallet made from one piece of timber - a 'hammer or wooden club', from Old French mail, from Latin malleus 'hammer'. My reason for commenting was that you were making work instead of employing the skilled man's practice of economising operations to reduce labour & time. A lot of woodland courses don't reflect genuine woodman skills.

[mikepepler]

@G58 I'll post another video later to show why. I use a froe and mallet to make kindling from a log, by tying an old bike inner tube round the log, and then you can use the froe to split the log down very small. Would be impossible with a maul. I do know what a froe is for, and have cleaved lots of chestnut with one.

[G58]

Why? That's not the purpose of a froe, and it's an extremely inefficient way to just split short logs. You're taking between 3 and 5 blows using two tools [including the maul] and hands to achieve a task that takes just one blow with one hand using the correct tool: a log splitting axe. So what did you actually learn from this pointless exercise?