Rex Krueger patreon

Early Access Video: 3 Greenwood Tools You Can Make

🕑 Added 2021-08-14 11:00:03 +0000 UTC

Comments

Robert Dennett

Do you have any blacksmithing capability?

Robert Dennett

Do you have any plans to cover carving? How about the use of the crooked knife?

Brian Suker

I will try. Life is busy and it may take a bit before I can make time to really try it out.

Jeff Stauffer

I'm starting to wish I had bought a froe. They are not trivial to make! Also, if you would have an extra piece of dogwood you could hand me through the computer...

Rex Krueger

So, there was this yearly booksale in my hometown library every year. Literally about a million books. Every year, there would be dozens of copies of the whole foxfire series and I would pick them up, leaf through them, and put them down. I was always interested in them, but I never bought them (for like $1 each). I regret my youthful stupidity.

Rex Krueger

Thank you!

Rex Krueger

I'm very interested in hearing about it. Please put a review on the forum if you have the time and tag me in!

Robert Dennett

And what material? Also, how thin can you get away with? Yours appears to be about 1/4" thick. Would 1/8" be too flimsy?

Brian Suker

I just bought the Lee Valley froe. We’ll see how it goes.

Scott Alderfer

Thanks, Rex!

Jeff Stauffer

I am also in the process of trying some of this green woodworking. I have a froe half completed (the easy half) and made a wooden mallet over the weekend. I also went out into the forest and played lumberjack... and then went to see my chiropractor today. I think I'll get the beetle done this evening and hope to have a shavehorse done by the end of the weekend. Keep the videos coming! They're awesome.

Nicholas Harris

Rex, have you read The Foxfire book? Book 1 in particular was my first introduction to green woodworking and discusses lots of these tools and methods. It provided a great overview of practical Appalachian green woodworking.

Rex Krueger

I think you can make pretty much any axe/hatchet work. I have a carving axe and a hewing hatchet with a straight handle. Never seen a need to crank that handle for furniture work.

Sean O'Neill

Scott-A hewing hatchet is a good choice for carving. Since it is flat on the one side, it is good for squaring up the wood and also can make very precise cuts. Like any of our tools, make sure she’s good and sharp and it will do a great job for you. If you get into carving and want a little smaller and lighter axe, look at the grans fors axe Rex mentions in his response back to me and the one I use-the hults bruk janeker has worked well for me, too. Good look!

Rex Krueger

I'm no expert, but I think the concept applies in most/all solid materials. That's why the club has that taper between the handle and the head. Again, I defer to the authorities on this.

Sean O'Neill

Rex-A push knife is very similar looking to a draw knife, but a little different. I was made aware of them by Paul Adamson a master carver in the UK. He has written some books on kuksa and spoon carving and has appeared in Zed Outdoors Channel on YT. I highly recommend this channel for green woodworking. Anyway, Morakniv makes a push knife, the Morakniv 220. The handles come straight out from the blade, rather than turn down like a drawknife. The blade is double beveled unlike most draw knives and the blade width is less wider than most draw knives, too. The blade thickness is also thinner, so you have to be careful not to take too much off in one cut. It’s a finishing tool for carving bowls and spoons that can make some more precise cuts for flattening or truing up the rim on a bowl. Adamson actually uses it almost like a paper cutter coming down for a guillotine cut to trim the corners and end grain sections on kuksas and bowls. He puts a screw hook on his carving block that fits into an eye hook on the push knife that comes from the factory that way and makes nice paring slices with the knife on the workpiece. This tool is totally optional and not absolutely needed for carving, but it was only like $25-30 on Amazon. I’ve used it recently on some of my green woodworking projects and it works nicely. And, like a drawknife or spokeshave, you can either push or pull the knife to make cuts.

Rex Krueger

That is something I should look into! Thank you!

Rex Krueger

I wish I knew when the first project would get here!

Rex Krueger

Stupid speech-to-text program! Can't deal with homophones!

Rex Krueger

Thank you!

Rex Krueger

You and me both!

Rex Krueger

That's probably a good idea. I'll add that feature.

Rex Krueger

I used a stick....and curses.

Rex Krueger

I use the Gransfors small carving ax. Worth. Every. Penny. In your comment, you mentioned a "push knife." I'm not sure I know what that is, but I'm interested.

Rex Krueger

I feel that way about so many things.

Rex Krueger

About 2 inches wide and roughly 18 inched long seems standard. Mine is 3.5" wide and that's too much....although it still works.

Rex Krueger

I'm glad to hear that! Most of the greenwork content on YouTube isn't super-popular. I'm hoping to bring it to a wider audience.

Rex Krueger

Like most things, it's harder than it looks. (But not by much!)

Rex Krueger

I'm glad people are into it! I never know when I start a new thing.

Rex Krueger

The Lee Valley Froe is about $50. That seems fair.

Rex Krueger

Does it go that far back? Wow. I'm glad to be walking in those footsteps.

Rex Krueger

"Fresh"! I like that/

Rex Krueger

Frans has it spot-on. I set these up the night before.

Scott Alderfer

I have a question is regarding a carving axe. I'm pretty new to green woodworking. As in the only project I've tackled so far is a froe mallet. So far, I have used a hewing hatchet (single bevel). Is that adequate as a "carving axe?" My hatchet has a straight handle. Is a curved handle preferred by most woodworkers? Thanks.

David Coxon

I saw a guy do that a few years ago. Finished a cut, relaxed and the still spinning saw hit his leg. His safety trousers (actually chaps over the top of t trousseau) saved the day

Thomas Hverring

Excellent question!

Scott Alderfer

Good point. I think Rex's log brake is comparable to an aluminum brake, which clamps down on long pieces of aluminum coil stock and holds them stationary to then create a longitudinal bend in the piece of aluminum. That's how aluminum window trim and fascia trim are bent to create the trim's profile. It's logical, because Rex's log brake is holding the workpiece stationary to do work on it. And great video, as usual.

hollo

Are stress risers "a thing" in woodworking? I knew they were in metalwork, where a sharp internal angle was where all the stress becomes concentrated and results in stuff breaking there, but I'd imagined that the grains in wood meant that stress cracks didn't really propagate across the grain and that this wouldn't be an issue.

Skully Wood and Metal

I have a 6" thick oak slab that is 2' wide, I need to split it along a natural split to make it easier to cut up and use in the future. Thanks as always for the great information.

Robert Karlsson

You really sould buy a couple of chainsaw pants. My friend managed to put a chainsaw in his leg a few years ago. Looked like a shark had taken a bite out of the leg.

Matt Evans-Koch

Nice video Rex. Green wood working looks like a lot of fun and getting started would be minimal cost-axe, hatchet, buck saw, sledge hammer, splitting wedge and a froe. Almost all of these can be found at yard sales. I believe that you can find froes at Northern Tools also. Haven't looked lately but they had them several years ago. Looking forward to the first project.

Tom Manseau

I think you meant to use the word brake instead of break. Great content!

Sam Brelsfoard

You can find them on Etsy, too. Hand crafted or used.

Gareth McMahon

Great Rex, enjoyable as usual

Hagen

Great video, as always. Not only did I learn some interesting basics about greenwood-working but also many new vocabs. I'd love to know how craftsmen came up with these names, honestly

Mick King

I rather expected the tops of the wedges to be eased over/beveled whatever the right word is. I'm enjoying this series, thanks for the hard work

John Hiemstra

Another excellent video. Hmm, a wood shop that's accessible to wildlife...and all of the little things that come with them. Do you have a simple tool to clean off your shoes? Oh right! The glut would be useful for that.:) Thanks for the great ideas Rex.

Sean O'Neill

Hey, Rex! I’m loving all the greenwood content!! I’ve just begun my greenwood journey, too, a few months back and it’s a lot of fun, definitely a different but no less rewarding style of woodworking. I was wondering what carving axe you have? I have two: a smaller Hults brük Janeker axe and a larger Müeller Bieber Classic hewing style. Both have worked well for me. And yes, one of the first parts of the learning curve is using the axe much more before going to a draw knife, push knife or carving knife. The axe is amazingly precise and clean cutting once you get the hang of it-no pun intended.

Richard Ziewiec

Interesting to watch but not something I would be doing myself I must admit.

Robert Dennett

Froes are forged from mild steel, correct? Also, in the video with James Wright, you mentioned that your froe blade is too wide. What dimensions would you recommend?

Frans van Ballegooijen

This post (and the video) were probably posted before that time. You can set a date and time on which it'll be published. Just like the video's on YouTube. We can see them because we have a direct link to it, but Rex (or Nate) has set a date and time on which it's to be released to everyone else. At that point it will be visible to all other users. Until that time only those with a direct link will be able to see it.

Aaron Wasielewski

This is so awesome, I’m so glad that you’re venturing more and more into the green wood side of things. I think that when people see where you take this, anyone who is on the “meh” side of things with green woodworking will have their eyes opened. That was me when I started woodworking, but as I got more exposure to it, it’s become practically my primary woodworking interest!