n 



Froe 



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Al+ernafe Eye 



from a wooden maul on the back of its blade. Once 

 the split was started, the maul was dropped and the 

 hand that had held it was placed at the end of the 

 blade away from the handle. By twisting the blade 

 with the two hands the split could be forced open. 

 The froe was a most powerful and efficient splitting 

 tool when narrow, short plank, or battens, were re- 

 quired. The balk to be split was usually placed more 

 or less end-up, as its length permitted, in the crotch 

 of a felled tree, so as to hold it steady during the split- 

 ting. The pioneer used this tool to make clapboards 



and riven shingles; the Indian canoe builder found it 

 handy for all splitting. 



Another pioneer tool that became useful to the 

 Indian canoe builder was the "shaving horse." A 

 sort of bench and vise, it was used by Indians in a 

 variety of forms, all based on the same principle of 

 construction. Usually a seven-foot-long bench made 

 of a large log flattened on top was supported by two 

 or four legs, one pair being high enough to raise that 

 end of the bench several feet off the ground to provide 

 a seat for the operator. To the top of the bench was 

 secured a shorter, wedge-shaped piece flattened top 

 and bottom, with one end beveled and fastened to 

 the bench and the other held about 12 inches above it 

 by a support tenoned into the bench about thirty 

 inches from the high end. Through the bench and 

 the shorter piece were cut slots, about four feet from 

 the high end of the bench and alined to receive an 

 arm pivoted on the bench and extending from the 

 ground to above the upper slot. The arm was shaped 

 to overhang the slot on the front, toward the operator's 

 end of the bench, and on each side. The lower 

 portion of the arm was squared to fit the slot, and a 

 crosspiece was secured to, or through, its lower end. 



The worker sat astraddle the high end of the bench, 

 facing the low end, with his feet on the crosspiece of 

 the pivoted arm. Placing a piece of wood on top of 

 the wedge-shaped piece, close to the head of the 

 pivoted arm, he pushed forward on the crosspiece 

 with his feet, thus forcing the head down hard upon 

 the wood, so that it was held as in a vise. The wood 

 could then be shaved down to a required shape with 



Shaving Horse 



22 



