I screwed up and let the Archeologist at work find out that douglas fir shingles can be made by hand. And, since we have douglas firs on the forest, he has decided we should make some for an upcoming restoration project on an old cabin. So, now I need to find a source to buy several froes, so that I can learn how to make the shingles, and then train the Archeologist, so that he can train volunteers, and people doing their community service time for things like poaching.
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Woodcraft sells one for about $50. Tools For Woodworking has a small and large by Ray Isles for $65 and $75. I think the Gransfors froe at Japan Woodworker is the priciest out there, at $160. You can find them used at lumber shows and sometimes antique stores for considerably less.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2020168/19675/Shingle-Froe.aspx
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=toolshop&Product_Code=MS-IFROE.XX&Category_Code=&Search=froe
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?pf_id=35.100.487&xref_idx=GoogleBase
How many do you have to make , and are you making shingles or shakes? And although I've made upwards of 40,000-80,000 shingles personally, I've have not made any out of fir. I know shingles/shakes can be made from almost any kind of wood, I've mostly used oak,cypress,cedar,and pine in that decending order. The oak I rive radially, but the rest are tangentially (parallel to the growth rings),which way are fir shingles made? And if you are making shingles you will also need a drawknife and shaving horse for each worker. When I would teach shingle making to students, they would become very frustrated because they were expecting to make 100 shingles a day. But the first few days were learning to use the tools properly, and they would only produce 30-40 a day, untill they "got the feel & rythum" of the tools. At best production was 80-100 shingles a day. Shakes are a much easier to make and you can produce easily 100-200 a day. I know the old books talk of 500+ a day, but they had much better trees back then. What are the trees like you intend to use? large and straight without any twist I hope.
Anyhow that's my two cents worth. I also looked on E-Bay there are a couple of rroes there. One without a handle for about $16.00+shp.By the by the pic in my profile is of me when I was making the shingles for Mt. Vernon. 54,000 hand made shingles from old growth cypress from Florida.
Bill D.
Quality Wood Chips
Bill, we would probably be making shakes, unless the Archeologist insists on shingles. But, since we will be restoring 100+ year old cabins, some of which are in the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness, where we can't use power tools. They were built from on-site materials, with hand tools, in an area with a short construction season, so shakes were probably what was installed originally.
Of the two cabins that the Archeologists sampled, one had manufactured cedar shingles. But, the purlons had been replaced with mill sawn wood. The more remote and primitive one had Douglas Fir shakes, installed on lodgepole pine purlins.
We intend to use "danger" trees that have to be cut down for safety reasons to get the wood from. I know of a couple that appear to be straight and true, at least in the trunk reach.
The trees I have in mind to use for the lumber are 36 to 42-inch in diameter. So, I intend to cut 30 to 36-inch long pieces, quarter them into blanks, and cut the shakes off radially. Any that don't split true will become firewood.
Sounds like a fun restoration project. Good luck with training the volunteers, too.
For inspiration, here's Babcock Mill in West virginia. Constructed from bits and pieces of several old mills, as I recall. (Contact print of 8x10 negative.)
View Image
Scince you can't use power
Scince you can't use power tools it's good that you'll be making shakes. With trees that size you may have quarters that might have to be split again then after you remove the heart and sap wood you'll possibly have shakes 6-8 inches wide..just about perfect. And with that length you'll get great exposer. Of course riveing raidially you'll also have a thick and thin edges, but that can be fixed with a small broad hatchet or drawknife. Also with the long shakes you get great coverage so you don't have to make so many.
Have fun and...good riveing!!! And if you can post some pics, that would be great to see.
Bill D.
Quality Wood Chips
My wife gave me one years ago that she had the blacksmith make down in Williamsburg. The last time I was down there they were making things special order for sale. You might try there, could be costly.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Early-Wood-Working-Froe-Timber-Framing-Log-Cabin-Tool_W0QQitemZ140383623676QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20af8419fc
Thought you might like to see/bid the froe listed here.
Bill D.
Type "froe" into Ebay and
Type "froe" into Ebay and take your pick of several.
Brent
FYI, an old bowling pin makes a great mallet for beating on the froe. They're really heavy and hard, not as much work as with a maple club.
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