Making Roof Shingles With Hand Tools 

Never laid a shingle down, don't need shingles, never plan on making shingles, yet I'm still here watching stuff about shingles

My 6G grandfather lived in North Carolina. He died in 1795. In this will, he left his froe, drawing knife, and iron wedge to his grandson. I have the feeling he was a shingle maker. Excellent video. Thank you for the experience.

I am a mountain man, an Eagle Scout, and a survivalist/ prepper. But after 12 minutes I realized I will never know more about wood than John. Great video, I learned a lot. Thank John for passing on his knowledge.

Wow my grandfather covered a barn with shakes before I was born I had no idea how much work went into it makes me appreciate him even more

I don't know why the algorithm pushed this up, but I'm captivated

Watching a patient craftsman proud of his mastery, hope this craft continues with younger people taking it up, thanks for the lessons!

it makes me happy to see people building things from scratch that we take for granted everyday

Day 29 of quarantine: learning to make shelter by hand just in case

I was told there were hot shingles in my area looking to be nailed.

Seeing this cements the fact that one should not take old buildings for granted.

I don't know if I'll ever need this information, but I'm glad I have it. Thanks, Gents

Welcome recommendation-squad to another episode of "how the hell did I get here"

It's incredible how machine cutting changed our thinking about wood. I think in planks and joist instead of logs. Great video, shows how many things we can make.

I don't have access to logs, nor do I have access to the tools necessary to make shingles. I have no idea why this video was so interesting but I'm really happy I watched it haha.

This guy is a national treasure just amazing watching him work

I made shingles for my shed using 2 hatchets and a hammer. My shingles werent quite as nice as his but i was using aspen . Guess its been about 8 yrs now and they are still on the roof and doing their job. I couldnt afford to buy shingles so i had to make do. Took many hours to make about 400 shingles but i enjoyed it.

I have no idea how I got here, but I am very glad that I did. Very interesting video, thanks for sharing!

Finally REAL old-school woodworking...I miss being around woodworking and the tools... wonderfully done...lots of stuff to learn and I like the fact u get into how long and why about the woods use..grand stuff I almost feel like a notepad...🤗🤔😋👍✔️ Edit: forgot to add you got a new sub...😎

It's crazy cool that you've spent so long handing logs and making shingles that you have built this amount of first hand knowledge. Great video, great content and wonderful attitudes!

I was just wondering about wind lifting the shingles, and my answer was there in front of me. Purely logical about the exposed end-grain absorbing water on the sawn shingles. So simple, so effective to use splitting.

All i wanted to see was how big of a mallet that people used on a froe, now I'm amazed at the craftsmanship and time that went into making shingles back in the day. I could watch John make shingles all day. Very impressive.

Excellent detail and showing the Tools and Workmanship. I worked helping guys make cedar shakes in Northern Maine repairing and replacing roofs on old log cabins in the forest back in the mid to late 1970's. The cedar is far softer and shaves into thin slabs unlike the hardwood you are using. That's probably why the went to the flat belt driven horizontal shingle saws in the Appalachian territory. There were buildings that had shakes on them for 90-120 yrs and they still were in near perfect form.

Here in the US we like to use cedar for our shakes because it’s less likely to rot. In most areas of the US. You must use Open deck (the way you have) due to fire hazard. In our colder climate we can use 3/4 ply with a 30 pound felt and 10’ lace making those roofs last for 25-30 years with the integrity to hold hundreds of pounds of snow. I am a spoiled tradesmen that has had the luxury of going to lumber supply stores; so watching you guys make your own materials is fascinating to me.

Hello, "Harry Rogers": Thanks for this, I have a bit of a passion for the old ways, unfortunately there aren't many that know the old ways left now. If you can, more videos of this kind would be appreciated. Thanks again for all you're doing. Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!

very impressive. modern manufacturing is very efficient but there are many arts such as this that are fading away. I applaud this man for showing his wood working skills

What a fun. I once participated on permaculture course of a british couple living in france. And one of these days there we had as a topic "green wood working". Remembering with all those tools, drawhorse and so on we had to build some simple furniture. Man I loved that kind of work. Very nice video. Thanks :)

Great to see a craftsman, engaging in a, virtually, lost art. Thanks to both of you!

honey, we need to reshingle the roof *AMISH MOD ACTIVATED*

I've watched the whole video. It was very interesting to see traditional handcrafting work in our modern times. I've never thought before that there is such a complexity to the process of making wooden shingles. I've learned a lot. Thumb up for the video Harry and my best regards from Germany, Chris

Thanks youtube this was a good recommendation. You did it ai after like 12 failures of recommendations you've found something i watched without stopping

Love the casual nature of the video. This is such valuable information and I am so happy that someone has covered it in such detail here on RU-vid. Thank you for posting!

Thank you, for letting us admire beautiful workmanship, tools, and skills.

the reason for the 18" length was probable due to the quality and size of the wood they were using. Old growth would be denser and so much of whats used today is fairly young. The last minor ice age we had would have also meant slower and tighter wood grain during the bronze and iron ages. Just my opinion. Great vid.!

I played this while I was doing some work. The very straightforward and well informed people in the video really calmed me and helped me feel relaxed. Thank you for uploading this!

I have a new appreciation for what goes into the wood shakes I install while roofing. I prefer installing machined shakes as they’re so much faster to install but nothing beats the rustic look of these hand split shakes. Thank you for the great video. I’m glad to see you have all your fingers still!

There are a few houses around here (Fremantle, Western Australia) still with handmade shingle roofs. The shingles must be at least 100 years old. The shingles are made from a local tree called 'she oak' an extremely hard and heavy conifer. I just put a piece of she oak through an electric thicknesser, the machine groaned under the effort. Goes to show how damned hard people used to work, and how their skill and tools must have been honed to a fine edge. There is simply no way those local roofs are ever going to be repaired with froe split she oak shingles. It would be cheaper to build an entire house!

Superb half an hour spent watching this clip, fascinating to anyone with a sense of tradition. I will never need to do this , but what a great exhibition of craft for the layman.... thanks..!!

You and John needs to upload more from time to time. Cheers.

Forget a maul, I’m using a froe now lol. Also looks like the “waste” is great kindling

I dont know why i was soo mesmerized by this. I watched the whole video! thank you for sharing!

I love this old school way of creating things, all hand crafted! a form of craftsmanship I'd really like to master one day

Thanks Harry and John for an in-depth shingle making lesson. Shows the benefits of your channel keeping these practical skills alive for folks all around the globe. I may not roof a shed with shingles, using Tropical Hardwood, but may make a box or a wheel using short planks similarly hewn with hand tools. Greetings from Thailand.

I like how he explains why exactly you're doing things like removing the sapwood. Very meticulous explanation thank you.

A long time ago I found one of those wood shingle cutters, never knew what it was till now, I still may have it somewhere around this house. What a neat thing to learn, thank you.

Very informative video Harry, more axe and knife work that I'd imagined there would be but I'm all the more keen to give it a go now, first roof will be for a composting loo so probably a sensible place to start size wise! thanks to you and also to John for sharing his considerable experience on the subject.

I made 10 shingles on my own yesterday! I will make 10 more today :)

I need me some new axes/tools, and best part was seeing the guy using the old school lathe in background

I don’t know why, because I don’t work with wood, but I completely can’t stop watching this. Seriously, just goodness

As a US roofer I appreciate, "wood shake" as we call it in the midwest , a little more.

What amazes me in this kind of shows, is that they remind us of of how hard it was, and the tremendous amount of time needed in the old days, to make things. I wonder if anyone has calculated the number of shingles a woodcarver could produce in one day (supposing he has the logs ready) and the average number needed for an average medieval house. Nowadays we have factories producing tiles and/or wooden single in amass. We cannot appreciate the work. But looking to this... Wow! I'm amazed.

VERY MUCH worth my time, and some very valuable traditional woodworking tips within the video. Historically accurate and absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing this!

It’s interesting that today we think that when the shingles get warped on the roof it looks better, which it does give it more character by using damper wood. But if the old craftsman where here today, they would probably flip out that we wanted it that way because they were trying to achieve straight shingles lol

Excellent example of hand made primitive technology that still functions today. Back in the late 1970’s I renovated the oldest house in NC. It was a “lighter wood” structure with lighter wood shingles that had sat n that roof for over 250 years. Zero rot as is normal with lighter wood, 1/3 lap as he said and when in attic you could see that each shingle was 18 inches. It was put on a dovetailed mortise and tenon frame structure of lighter wood Pine. Virtually set on the ground for the entire time without a single bug eaten part to it at all. The technology was exactly like he did but using lighter wood pine that at times was 6-8 feet wide. The inside wall boards were two four foot boards stacked on each other and a wainscoting board running between them making up the 8’ 2” height of the rooms. I took off some of the boards to install wiring and found an entire cobblers kit from the 1730’s It was amazing. No nails as this preceded anything other than hand made nails.

The work involved...craftsmanship.

Amazing, skills like this should be recorded and shared. If our machines ever fail us we will rely on skills like this.

Great video! Grew up and still live on the North Coast of the Pacific. Shake mills were the cornerstone of the rural economy, before they all went belly-up in the 70s. (Lots of Western red-cedar, best shake stuff ever.) Most barns and shops had a froe in them when I was a kid, though most folks had forgotten what they were for.

That constant sawing in the background is nice.....

I was glued to the screen all the way through this film Harry, you always find some of the most interesting subjects for your videos, although there's a lot of diversity in your films I cannot help but be enthralled in every single film. Thank you for sharing this video, this subject warranted a slightly longer film but who knew there would be so much to something that looks so simple and I personally USED to take for granted. N.

What an amazing craft. I can't imagine how long it would take to make enough shingles for entire roof, doing it this way. How satisfying it must be when you are done though. I never would have thought you could split wood against the grain, as he did with that second one. Fascinating the way they use to have to do things, and all the skills that our ancestors knew. I'm so glad people are preserving them.

Fascinating, I believe this is where my surname comes from, a Spooner being someone who made wooden roof shingles, spune being the Angle word for a splinter of wood.

How good is that, that there are English craftsmen still around, each of whom practice their own skills, traditional skills going back several centuries. We must maintain this rich culture of English country crafts. I totally appreciate the principle of triple layering to ensure watertightness.It was true then as it is today, with triple layered roof slates and tiles.

One of the best videos ive ever seen on youtube

Lovely video, I never knew I wanted shingles on my outbuildings, let alone that they would need to be made by myself- but I do now.

Has anyone else seen this clip before and decided to watch again?

It boggles my mind how many jobs like this have been lost to automation.

I don’t know how this is related to warzone. But damnit I watched the whole thing

John is fascinating to watch and listen to his expertise in explaining the process.

Thanks for sharing this video with us. I honestly wish I could be there and learn more about this.

Very interesting video Harry, thanks! It's amazing how much work is put in those shingles. I'll definitely watch the video (after you've uploaded it) of them laying the shingles too. Also, best wooden mallet ever, so simple yet so efficient.

Amazing! Thanks a lot for this video! I was recently in the Alps and there are a lot of huts with these kind of roof shingles. I was wondering how it is made.

This guy is awesome.. I can’t help but think that it’s very difficult to do well. He makes it appear effortless!! If I had to make shingles for my roof it would leak like a sieve.

Fascinating. A real master of his craft. I see that this was a few years ago, I hope that he's still out there somewhere making shingles.

you two old folks made half a hour of my life have a day worth of knowledge as I was their with ya.

I dont know why youtube reccomended this nor do i know why i watched all 36 minutes

Wow the last half an hour just flew by watching this video absolutely engrossed. What fascinating content and I really appreciate the experience and expertise passed on from the chap in your clip! Would love to see more like this

I just instantly like a guy with a friendly demeanor and a UK accent. Thanks Harry. Video was very instructive and I want to try making my own shingles now. Ps. Wish John would have paused for Harry's questions more often. Pps. That barn roof is beautiful!

informative and interesting video.

Such a fantastic video.

This is amazing! we visited historic Williamsburg and they used this style of shingle and I never could find anyone who could tell me more about them. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing video of this craft!

Them Darn Splinters! Gosh i can just feel it Now... Great Video, Thank you!

my Mother Shingled a Barn to earn Her Money to go to college at the end of the Great Depression

All that beautiful leftover kindling!

I'm forging a froe soon for some future projects and this video gave me some advice.THANKS

I have watched a bunch of these videos as I have a project with wooden shingles to do. This video is by far the best and provides some great info from a fella who really knows the craft.

1:00 AMan I just finished watching an Aussie make a wooden bucket and this came up, proof that I will be exhausted at work tomorrow. Awww hell

true craftsmanship. Terrific work, thanks for sharing. also a great advertisement for the industrial revolution 😀

My grandpa used to use a splitting froe and mallet when replacing shingles or shakes on their house. So this brings back memories.👍In the US we call the ones for the roof shingles, and ones for siding shakes.

Thanks for making this vid! A lot of good input into the craft and tools needed for this job; not so difficult with the right know - how, and that ole boy knows how!

if i ever win the lottery i would hire your friend to do my roofing on my house.

Who else had this in their recommendations

I just found this on my feed. I have two froes from my Granddad. He had several barns that had handmade shingles from swamp cypress. Here in the southeastern US, swamp cypress is one of the most durable woods for outside use. I still have some of his shingles that he made probably 70 years ago. Can’t put a nail through them due to splitting. You can put screws in them though.

Thank you John and Harry. Much obliged.

Every shingle, hand crafted by one man.... the rain just ain't that bad. Lol. Very interesting though.

Impressive!!

I need that ax! Six years later and your efforts have spread some useful knowledge.

really interesting to watch, I was going to skip bits but ended up watching it all, thanks for sharing!

I thought the “Home Depot “ people just walked around all day . I had no idea.

Did he make all of the ones on the roof 'shingle' handed?

This has been in my recommended for like 9 months and I finally gave in

This is FANTASTIC!!! Thanks for sharing!