Say what you will regarding general utility; a froe is not a precision instrument.

The side knife may be used as a light froe, for splitting small billets of wood.

This commonly happens when the froe encounters a hidden knot in the wood.

Finding this state of things inconvenient, he had proceeded to try to remove the remaining half-digit himself with a froe.

The origin of the word "froe" is not clear, and some references find it spelled "frow."

The hermit didn't have a carpenter's froe and maul to split the brails.

Their typical uses are either for glazier's work, or else as a light froe for splitting timber.

As if he had heard the words, Froe asserted, "I'm not giving her one copper shard of mine.

The froe must also be used gradually from one end, the axe (or wedges) may enter the log from the side.

Side knife, a light froe.

A mallet and froe (or axe) were used to split or rive out thin pieces of wood.

It gets rolling the first day with riving, or splitting, wood from oak logs with an ax and an old tool called a froe.

He's one o' the Quality, what's come a' the way froe Lunnon to testify to the Protestant creed.

A froe (or frow) or shake axe is a tool for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain.

A block of wood sat constantly by the fire, the froe stuck through it, ready for anyone with an idle moment to strike off a few more shingles.

The ability to use several tools at once makes the use of an axe and wedges capable of cleaving far heavier logs than a froe.

The froe does however have a wider blade, and so may give a more precisely flat surface when cleaving wide timber, such as for roofing shingles.

Unlike a froe's extended handle, the side knife does not permit twisting to lever the split open and so it must be driven through all the way.

The armored spearmen forced citizens away from Garric and Liane the way a froe splits shakes from a cedar log.

It is common to start cleaving a log with an axe, finish the first heavy splits with wedges, then use a froe to make the finished items.

Neorch and Froe (Njord and Freyr)

After finishing medical school, John Huizinga started as assistant to A. de Froe, a physician and anatomist at Amsterdam University.

A froe is also unlike an axe or maul in that the froe can be placed exactly where the user would like the split to begin.

I discovered only recently that the toughest and best mallet to drive the froe into a log is the shaft and swollen root-mass of a three-inch-thick white oak.

Among the latter are a three-sided cleaver, a grafting froe with a tang for trimming branches and a thin arrow-tipped ax for mortising fences.