With a froe it all depends on what you plan to do with it.
  Practically anything you cobble together will work for occasional 
splitting stock for small projects here and there, at your chopping block.

   But once you commit to busting out a zillion shakes to cover a roof 
or a shed or something, things start to matter. A fully tapered blade 
comes into its own then.

One thing nobody ever talks about is holding the shake bolt. You can't 
just chase them around on open ground for long. It'll wear you to a 
frazzle.  (been there)
  I used a pretty short tree stump, flattened on the face, with a corral 
made of scrap 2X4's along the ground, to keep the bottom end of the bolt 
in place and have something to pull back against.
You sure need something when you are going to be doing a lot of them.

  I never saw anyone else's solution. I have seen large homes with steep 
pitched big roofs covered in hand split shakes.  I always wondered how 
other guys did it.
yours scott




-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html