NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1983, No. 43, $3.50 Making ... - Wood Tools

Splitting Out a Firewood Tote
This projea gets you started with green wood
by Wizyne Ladd
The ftrst time I met Vermont chairmaker Dave Sawyer, he
was sitting on a shaving horse making a pitchfork. The
only sounds were the creaking of the horse and the hiss of his
drawknife. Having played at woodworking myself, I looked
around the shop for the familiar router, bench saw and jointer,
but saw only bits, braces, hand planes and, against one
wall, a ftne bench. Sawyer asked if I knew of any ash trees for
sale. As it turned out, a huge, straight ash had blown over on
my land. The following week, wedges in hand, Sawyer came
over to split the ttunk. We carried the splits to my car, then
to his shop. The next day, I was amazed to fm d that he had a
pitchfork made from my tree.
I was so impressed with Sawyer's skill and practiced eye for
simple, sturdy woodworking that I spent the following year as
his part-time apprentice. One of the ftrst projects I learned
was the log carrier shown here. Though the graceful bow
gives the tote a fragile look, I've discovered that it can carry
more wood than I care to heft at one time. And you can wrap
twine around the foot rails and hang it from a rafter to make
a wonderfully
green
sturdy indoor child's swing.
Splitting wood-Making the log carrier from riven
green wood affords some important advantages over sawn,
kiln-dried wood. First, you can go straight to your woodlot,
fell a tree, and then split, shave and assemble it into a ftnished
produa, all in a matter of houts. Split along the grain
instead of being sawn across it, riven wood is stronger than
sawn wood, and satisfyingly easy to cut, bend and shape
while green. You don't have to glue your projects together,
either. Whittled tenons, dried over the woodstove, slip into
mortises bored in wet wood, where they swell and lock the
joint. For working green wood, you'll need two steel wedges,
a mallet and a froe for splitting. A drawknife, spokeshave,
brace and bit, and shaving horse complete the toolkit. For a
shaving horse design, see the box on p. 41.
1: Fig. Splitting
Firs t split removes
unusable heartwood.
sequence
Green-wood tote holds all the wood you want to carry.
I use white ash for my carriers because it's the best bending
wood that grows on my land. Hickory and oak also bend
well. Whatever wood you choose, it should be straightgrained.
Read the bark. If it's free of swirls and scars, chances
are the wood will be the same. A 5-ft. log, 6 in. in diameter,
will provide enough wood for a dozen carriers.
Quarter your log by ftrst driving a wedge into one end and
then leapfrogging the wedges up the side. If you've got a big
log, split it into eighths. I use wedges only to get the log into
manageable splits or bolts, which I then carry to the shop,
where I split the parts closer to the final size with a froe.
You'll need a brake-a mechanism that props the bolts at
about 350 from the vertical for froeing. The crotch of a fallen
tree or two heavy logs adjacent to each other make a suitable
brake. Work with the bolt angled toward you.
Learning to froe is easy
froe
if you remember that this tool
doesn't cut the wood, but rives or splits it along the material's
natural fibers. Start the with a wack or two from the
mallet. Then set the mallet aside, and continue the split by
alternately levering the fibers apart and advancing the tool
into the split. Split the unusable heartwood off the point of
the quarter first. Then follow the sequence shown in ftgute 1,
splitting in halves so that an equal amount of wood on each
side of the froe will keep the cleave going straight down the
length of the bolt instead of running off and exiting where
you don't want it to. If the split does run out, put the heavy
side down, and with the heel of your hand, put weight on
this side of the split only. This will make the heavier half
"give up" its grain. You can tell by the sound whether you
39