This makes me miss hanging out with my old man in his shop, watching him take tools and random things he'd find and turn them into either another useful tool or some kind of piece of art. My uncle gave him a piece of purple heart wood that he found and my dad made it into a small boat paddle to go with my mom's ship art. It had a tiny worm hole in it and he left it in it, and it was used as the hanging piece so she didn't have to mount a hanger to it. She still has it, though he's gone now, but watching channels like this really make my heart go back to a happy place of my childhood.
Hey i gotta tell you when you took the blade out of that saw and re-attached it inside the loop of that leaf spring that might have been some of the smartest shit ive ever seen
I'm a service engineer for security systems (CCTV, alarms etc). Sometimes, what I do is mechanical or electrical and other times it's sitting at a computer dealing with software. Add to that, it's on customer premises, not on a fully equipped workshop and often (though not right now with Covid-19) it's with what I can carry on public transport in Central London. It makes me very resourceful!
Perfect! I need a large froe and was about to buy one then saw the price! This is exactly what I need. This is also a perfect RU-vid video in my book; no annoying background music, just the sound of the work. The maker has obviously made a lot of things in his life given the fluency of this; it's very enjoyable to watch. Liked, subscribed and saved for future reference. 👍 🇬🇧
As a purist, this kills me. As a realist, I Love it! As a woodworker that Steel hammer on a steel tool made me cringe. But overall GREAT JOB! (I need a froe, hence my finding your video)
Here in the pacific northwest froes are used to split cedar into blocks for milling into shakes and shingles. We don't use a wooden mallet (laughing my guts out). We use a mallet with a heavy cylinder of lead for a head.
You know what’s better than voiceover commentary? Text commentary that says “let me play you the song of my people” as an angle grinder goes about making chipped fire. I like it. 👍🏼
I had one of these once. "Mother Earth News" showed how to make one. After trying this again with a storebought one many years later I decided it was too much trouble. You have to get straight grained wood with almost no knots which is very hard to do these days. I've always wondered how pine would do. There is nearly none available here.
@@badbrain8279 it works with pine wood , I did some , in the past . I made a froe like this , somme yrs ago , with Triumph Spitfire leaf spring , ( it was too thick ) then I tried a gransfor bruks one( I made a video on RU-vid , of epicea shingles making ) , and then found a very old one , forged here ( SW of France ) that was rusted but very good to use .
YOU. ARE. AMAZING! 😍 I love watching you work. What you create is awesome, and the fact it is done in a small shop with common tools makes it that much better. Keep up the great work, sir! 👍🏼
It’s exactly what I was thinking it would be from! I had been looking for a leaf spring ever since I saw your picture. It’s weird how occasionally I will see shattered fragments of leaf springs on the side of the road, but never when I specifically look for them. Sometimes trucks or trailers get overloaded or hit a pot hole and the leaf springs get ruptured from the mounts and I see them just laying there. But now that I want to find one, I will never see another one again. I saw someone else make one from the hinge from a barn door.
@@TheSmallWorkshop thanks for sharing this build. May I ask the size of the spring? Or which common vehicle to get it from? Is the diameter recommended to be a size specific?
Not all leaf spring end loops are ideally shaped like that one, many don't have the blade section central to the circle. This won't affect the operation of the froe, but for symmetry and looks I'd find one like used here.
it's so cool what you do with old rusted stuff ! i've always wanted to find old things and turn them into something useful, like a long gone rusted car. i wish i had this patience and talent..
That is waaaay cool. I never would have thought of a leaf spring. The froe I bought decades ago was a ring of pipe welded to a blade and I made my own handle. It got lost in one of my moves so now I'm gonna make my own. I'm thinking I would weld the loop closed so the leverage won't twist it open. I have a whole dead ash tree and I can't wait to split it up into baseball bats and shaker rockers. Thanks for the video!
I looked all over for a good looking froe and a way to make one. I built my almost exactly like yours. I used a friends hydraulic press to straighten the leaf spring. I am curious to see how the eye hold up. I know that you welded it eventually but I saw another video were the guy said that keeping it opened helped the handle to be pinched and not fall out as easily. Lot of comments on here are from people who do not know about froes. Some good comments to but... You did a great job.
To catch your grinder sparks (learnt this from Veradona in the Czech Republic), get a thin sheet of steel, bend at a right angle so it will stand up by itself, attach a few strong magnets to the back. When you're done, lie the shield down, remove the magnets, use the shield as a funnel to tip the dust into a container for disposal. Brilliantly simple
I really enjoyed that. I'm still using something similar that my Father made in the Sixties, but with the metal tubular handle welded on in line with the blade.
Great tutorial and agree it is way better without the usual random muzak found on others ! :-). For a more robust tool that stays on the handle when really levering take the Froe to your local garage and have them drop a weld down the hole-blade junction. Did that for mine many years ago and it has been super solid.
I liked how he placed all of the items on his workbench, then started grinding..., with his hearing protection left sitting on the bench. File that under: Things we did when we were younger, but that now we regret. ;)
a couple of suggestions, if you have the ability to oil quench the froe to harden the blade and temper it, just to ensure it is hardened properly. Also never hit the spine of the froe with a metal hammer, use a wooden baton
I had one start on me out of the blue once, because it's button failed... Weird design, the switch was always on and a lever was keeping it off, when the leaver failed the button went to it's natural state of ON and it started jumping on the floor... Scary stuff! (It was not a Makita)
@@stovepipe9er The safety Sallys are correct we should not knock them, I am 59 years old and am going to the family "I didn't hear what you said, please repeat" WTF I never used hear protection
Normal leaf springs are curved. I can only find curved or arched leaf springs egford transit van 1.2 cm thick and 76mm wide. The blacksmiths said that the only way to preserve torsional strength of spring steel is to hydraullically press a curved leaf spring into a straight one suitable for use as a froe. If th3 spring is inserted into a forge and heated then the torsional strength is lost, that’s not an option. The eye on the spring allows insertion of a wooden handle however i5 must be tight otherwise high torques associated with splitting thick logs will rotate the handle loose. What do you suggest to combat these practical manufacture problems ?
Excellent video; better job on a very useful splitting tool that will last generations!!! Absolutely superb!!! God bless!!! Chuck Knight from Buffalo, Texas. 🤠
Great idea. It would be good to have about three of these with three different size blades for the shop. One shorter, one longer, and one the same size.
Thank you for showing all what ear protection looks like while using the most loudest piece of equipment known to Joe Sixpack. Best cheapest way to make a froe. But I’m thinking you didn’t need to recess the eye or dog ear the top end otherwise you could get more cuts out of you wheel. I think you should make these and sell them. I’d pay 20 for a 16 inch long
Ok, so I ended up watching this as I'm about to replace an ash handle on a small axe. Wow, what a brilliant tool. I have to chop some kindling this afternoon so now I've seen this I won’t be satisfied until I've made one. Of course we're on lock down here in the uk so no chance of getting to a breakers yard for a leaf spring for a while. Have subscribed so I'll have to be content with watching someone else make stuff for now. Stay safe and keep up the great work. 👍🏻
Thanks, I used a grinding wheel before the sanding one. You can see it at the 3:30 minute mark. And also you are right about the welding, I ended up doing that after a few months.
I thought for certain you were going to weld the eye closed. One of the key uses of a froe was to use the handle to lever the green wood apart after being driven in to make boards, shingles or kindling. Welding the eye shut would make for a more stable tool. What really turned me off was when you struck the froe with a steel hammer. A froe is struck with a wooden maul, never with a steel hammer. Your use of a leaf spring was a good idea though.
Nu am transpirat la filme de actiune cum am transpirat la videoul asta!! Cum stau berile alea cu gatul expuse sub bancul de lucru, o miscare gresita si se putea intampla o tragedie!! :) Felicitari pentru video! Chiar cautam detalli despre o unealta asta dupa ce am vazut un video cu mesteri artizanali care faceau sindrila folosind asa ceva
I’d heard about fries being made from an old automobile leaf spring, but it’s great to see the process in action. Question: I noticed that you didn’t harden or temper the blade. I take it that doing so isn’t necessary on a froe?
Thought it was an adse, but froe it is. Inexperience with forging is to blame, but I thought it clever to use a leaf spring for subtractive construction, and with a great edge hardness too.
If you don't do it up tight and it grabs, it will tighten itself more than the spanner can undo. This happened to me with a 9" grinder, I had to use a hammer and cold chisel to undo the nut after the spanner sheared a pin off.
