A froe is a tool for splitting shingles and rough clapboards from logs.  It
consists of an iron attached to a handle, looking sort of like an axe but
with the blade  stretched out to about a foot and turned 90 degrees to face
straight up.  The user holds the sharp end down against the end grain of a
log and strikes the back of the blade to drive it into the wood.  A split
opens from the wedge shape of the blade.  By pulling to the side with the
handle the user opens the split and runs it down the length of the log.

There!   Now I have at least 50 thousand neurons which are freed up from the
responsibility of holding this knowledge and are available to fill with some
other marginally useful fact. Any suggestions?


-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Krugman <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, November 11, 1999 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: Puncheon Floors -- again


>In a message dated 11/11/1999 9:53:16 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>> The carpenter makes puncheons by riving boards about two inches
>>  thick and six to ten inches wide from a log, using a froe and a mallet.
>>  Smoothing is done with a foot adze, working cross-grain after the floor
is
>>  installed.  A cruder type of puncheon is made by splitting sapling logs
in
>> half,
>>  leaving the bark intact.
>
>Is this the "punching" that relates to "puncheon"? Is the splitting (don't
>know what a "froe" is....) the act that relates it to the other root words?
>
>-- Needs to watch traditional woodcraft in action