I Got a Ray Iles 6 inch Froe for Christmas!

Those early shake-makers were experts with the froe... Donald Culross Peattie, A Natural History of Western Trees , 1952 I like to split guitar bracing material from billets of spruce or Douglas fir, usually I use a 2 inch wide registered mortice chisel for the task, but the chisel doesn't work as well as a froe. During this past summer and fall I bugged a friend of mine to weld a piece of steel pipe to an old file I have to make a small froe for the shop. Either he was too busy or I was, the froe never got made. Then, lo and behold, there on the Tools For Woodworking website were three different sized froes made by Ray Iles! I emailed the web address to my wife and told her which froe to order for me, I was so very excited! On Christmas morning I unwrapped a wonderful present, a six inch Ray Iles froe. It's a nice froe, very much the length I need... and today I cut up a length of a hickory pick axe handle, chucked it into the lathe and made a new handle