Am I wasting my time trying to rive 16 inch stock?

[Scott Winners]

I am starting to think so. Material is local birch, moisture content is 27-35% on freshly exposed faces per my firewood meter. I have a small (bench mounted) brake, but my sense of the thing so far is my stock is too short for me to have much influence on which way the split runs before the game is over. FSP for the local birches is right around 30% regardless of species.

I dipped all the endgrains in latex house paint today, my plan is to bring them into the garage later this evening and touch up the paint. No end checking on the pieces I paint dipped today, the two splits I worked over last night did have end checking after a day in the garage with no paint on the end grain.

I am leaning towards just splitting out oversize peices for for arm spindles and maybe some legs, and then shaping to no runout with a draw knife (fun and easy at this moisture content) rather than continue to frustrate myself with this short stock and my froe. I can also shape a few crest rails with a drawknife and skip the froe entirely.

FWIW my pieces don't look nearly as straight and true and knot free today as they did in cold weather when I sequestered them from the rest of the incoming firewood. The good news is I paid 21 cents / bf for this stuff, and I can heat my house with it if I don't get chair parts out of it. Local I am looking at $9 and up / bf for kiln dried and shipped lower 48 hardwoods. I saw 5/4 QSWO in 6" widths at 12.50/ bf last week. I can also get air dried 8/4 local birch for less than a dollar per board foot; I have a hunch I will be using a fair bit of birch where I can.

At what sort of stock length do you think to yourself "Skip the froe, just drawknife this piece."?

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[Jim Matthews]

Any "standing dead" Birch or Larch to come down, nearby? I think the starting point could be a little drier.

The only species I successfully split with a Froe was Cedar, for shingles.

My guess is the most successful spindle makers are choosy about stock for all the reasons you listed.

[Charles Guest]

In a word, yes.

[Scott Winners]

In a word, yes.

Thank you for the reality check. I went after one piece of firewood this evening, just cleaved it with a hatchet and got busy with a drawknife. Better results, less time. Thank you Mr. Guest.