Comments on: Beginning Woodworking: Splitting Logs

By: Howard Lobb

Howard Lobb — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:27:11 +0000

I am a passionate wood worker who totally enjoys green woodworking and fine woodworking,,, they are one and the same. I have taken the tree from the bush riven out a shaving horse from Roy Underhills book. This opened up a world of pleasure I have enjoyed ever since. I started out using kiln dried wood as a child as I was lead to believe this was the only way, like so many wood workers believe. When I got my first book “The Woodwrights Shop” by Roy Underhill my eyes where opened to a whole new approach. Yes it took many hours to develop and hone my skills to be able to produce fine woodwork. I can now say with the confidence I am able to produce works that are of a very high standard on anyone’s scale. (it’s not bragging if it is true it is merely stating fact) I enjoy the process of producing,,,I get great pleasure from taking exactly what is readily available from a tree and producing exactly the piece required for a project as all wood comes from the tree. Experience comes from doing and the tree is a great place to start. It is far easier to be able to go directly to a tree and select the section you require then to search through piles of lumber for a specific grain pattern. Yes it takes time to learn to read a tree,yet it isn’t difficult. Reading a tree leads to understanding lumber. Doing anything for the first time is very much like being a child and the thing that is so great about children is their wonderment, enthusiasm, willingness to learn.This maybe the key to staying young,,, For contempt prior to investigation leads to ever lasting ignorance, a place I never want to be,,, I would rather cultivate a child like viewpoint of my world,,,

By: sabebirthstone

sabebirthstone — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:23:58 +0000

hi Adam. looks like your interest in 18th-century style using period techniques and tools of wood working activities is awesome. hope you can also share it with us specially the actual hands-on in a class as i'm sure you will be a good mentor for those aspiring individual to be following in your footstep. cheers.soundcloud buy

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:00:27 +0000

That’s excellent! I’d love to see it when she’s done making it (with a little help from you, of course).

By: tsstahl

tsstahl — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:05:33 +0000

Where is the shave horse today?

By: rwageneck

rwageneck — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:42:55 +0000

Thanks Megan. The article and video are perfect for getting us started. My youngest daughter Megan (5 yrs old) said she wants to help too because she saw your name on the blog. Thanks for the help. I’ll have my Megan send you a photo of her stool made from a log

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:27:07 +0000

Have you read Peter’s article on splitting logs and making them into planks? http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/the-best-oak-money-cant-buy

There’s a link in there to a video of Don Weber splitting a log – both the article and the video may help.

By: rwageneck

rwageneck — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:36:15 +0000

I recently bought a froe at homestead heritage and am looking for an oak that needs to become a stool, or a box. My 9 and 7 yr old sons want to help, but I honestly don’t know where to start in splitting the log and riving it. I have P Follansbee’s book, but wish I had a video or some blogs such as your to explain the process further. I’m sure there are many out there like myself who would like to teach our kids woodworking as we ourselves are learning. If you teach, we will apply it as best we can. It may not be perfect, but it beats watching them play Xbox

By: Jonas Jensen

Jonas Jensen — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:43:27 +0000

Getting children engaged in logging is always fun.
I have had my two sons (7 and 10 ) cut down trees using a two person traditional crosscut saw. They were really proud afterwards. We only used it for firewood, so accuracy wasn’t essential.
But I think that they would enjoy making a small stool by splitting a log and using a drawknife to round the legs. So maybe that could be a project for the summerholiday.