In this video Elia Bizzari shows how to use a traditional froe to split green wood. In his example, he splits a long piece of oak for a Windsor Chair seat back. This tutorial is really useful because Elia teaches how to steer the froe to control the direction of the split. If you want help buying an antique or new froe, you can visit our article: Green Woodworking Tool Buyer’s Guide.
You can also buy the DVD, from which this tutorial comes: “Build a Traditional Windsor Rocker with Elia Bizzarri”. Even if building a Windsor chair isn’t in your future, the DVD shows many extremely useful green woodworking skills, so check it out:
Here are some upcoming classes at the Wood and Shop Traditional Woodworking School: