How do you split your braces?

[Matthew Lau]

How do you split your braces?

I've been using a Chinese kitchen knife, but I've heard others use froes, shingling froes, hacking knives?
What do you guys like and why?

I'm thinking of upgrading from my $16 chef knife.

-Matt

ps. I don't want to scare prospective visitors with a ginormous knife over my workbench.

[Bob Gramann]

Huh? I push a chisel across the grain into one end of the board to open a split. Then, I pull it apart with my hands. I don't use any special tools.

[Chuck Tweedy]

yea, what bob said

[Bob Hammond]

The traditional tool is known as a froe, or shingle axe. An ordinary chisel works fine for thinner stock, as said above.

For bigger stuff I have a 1" DeWalt DWHT16065 construction chisel that has a 1/4" thick blade with both chisel and knife edges, and one can pound upon it with gusto.

[Clay Schaeffer]

I start the split with a chisel or knife then lever the tool to continue it. For brace stock almost any tool will work (putty knife , screw driver, plane blade, etc)

Hi Bob,
A friend of mine bought one of those DeWalt construction chisel/ knife tools to add to his tool kit when he went blue water sailing. It impressed me as one of the most dangerous hand tool designs I've ever seen. A hard push and a slip on to the blade could sever fingers and make your hand completely useless. Not a good thing on the open ocean. I advised him to throw it overboard.

[Chuck Tweedy]

that thing is gnarly! kinda what i would imagine would result if a viking designed a chisel

[Bryan Bear]

I used to just use a chisel ant that works perfectly well. Recently I picked up a small cleaver at a junk store and picked it up for a buck. I like it a little bit more because it is not as long (tall in this use) as a chisel so it is a bit easier to line up on the edge of long stock and strike with a mallet. The width of the blade makes it easy to leaver the stock apart like a froe.

[Alan Carruth]

I picked up a Navy survival knife just before I got out. The stainless steel won't hold an edge for squat, but it makes a nice tool for splitting billets of spruce.

[Bob Hammond]

I'll be careful not to whip out the construction chisel whilst cresting a wave on my surfboard. But it can be a satisfying tool to use when properly applied.

[Michael Lewis]

It doesn't really matter much WHAT you use to split your wood, it matters more HOW you do it. Start the split in the center of the end of your piece to get the most even split. If you start near one side rather than in the center the split will wander off toward the small edge, yielding a tapered piece.

I use an axe or hatchet to make the first split. This is to find the true direction of the wood grain. After that I rip the wood to size needed. This gives the most yield from the wood, and uniform shape. Most wood is not truly laser straight grain, so it has to be flattened or smoothed to correct for grain variation, so resawing is usually more efficient.

[Matthew Lau]

Thanks guys!