The Gränsfors Froe is used to split wood very finely, for example when making shingles for a roof. The wood to be split is placed under the edge. The user steadies the tool with one hand on the vertical handle and strikes the blade with a mallet using the other hand. The handle is removable, making the Froe easy to transport.

Froes are L-shaped tools used in combination with mallets and wedges to rive green wood along the grain with more precision and finesse than an axe or maul. They are used to make planks, chair parts, tool handles, shingles, basket splints, blanks for spoon carving, and more.

About froes:

Froes are also known as frow, froward, fromard, frammer, etc. these names may be derived from the fact that this tool is always driven from the user, never towards him; other names are dillaxe, thrower, divider and side knife. The froe used by coopers as well as woodmen, resembles the letter (L) in its general shape; the upright arm is the wooden handle and the horizontal one the steel blade, sharpened on its lower edge.

When cleaving large logs, the cleaver grasps the handle the the left hand, to hold the tool in place, whilst with the right hand strikes the metal blade with a wooden mallet or beetle, so as to drive it through the wood, the handle is used after the fashion of a lever, once the split is begun, to extend it along the log's full length.

 

Blade length: 300mm

Weight: 1.2kg

 

Hand forged in Sweden