Mary,

Interesting background on the word puncheon . . .  I don't know anything about
it's derivation, but I don't suppose it has anything to do with "puncheon"
cattle. . .

A froe is a splitting or riving tool, usually thought of for splitting shingles
or shakes.  It's a blade about 12-14 inches long with the edge down and an eye
on one end to accept a short handle perpendicular to the blade.  You set the
blade on the end of a log round and use a mallet on the end opposite the handle
to drive it into the wood to start the split, and then rotate the handle to
conntinue the split down through the log.  In that fashion you can split a log
in half or split off a number of shingles from a blank of wood.  When we were
working on the El Capote cabin, we needed a froe to make up the hand split
shakes for the roof.  At that time (about 1974), we couldn't find anyone in the
country who sold froes, and in West Texas we were a little remote from the
antique tool markets in the east.  We ended up taking a drawing of a froe from
one of Eric Sloane's book to a local knife maker and blacksmith who forged one
for us for about $100.00.  Today you can buy a froe for about $40.00 from any
one of a number of specialty tool companies that supply loggers and timber
framers.  In 1992, I worked on the restoration of a wonderful 1936 CCC log
building for the Forest Service at Mt. Hood.  (The building is right outside Zig
Zag, Oregon, just down the road from Rhododendron).  We restored the roof with
36in western red cedar roof shakes hand split right on site with, you guessed
it, froes and mallets.

Lisa