There’s something about rustic shakes or more refined shingles that just screams ‘country charm’. From old New England cottages to sprawling West Coast estates and tiny rural cabins and outbuildings in the Rockies, wood shakes and shingles have a look and feel that simply can’t be beat by man-made materials. But buying them pre-made can be expensive.
So what do you do if you’re on a budget and want that classic look for your home or other buildings? Or just want the satisfaction of doing it yourself?
I’m here to tell you that splitting your own cedar shakes could not be easier. Shingles are little more complicated, as they are generally sawn and not split, so I’ll focus on shakes for the purposes of this demonstration.
Here’s a how-to video we filmed to show you the process. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too.
All you need are some rounds of wood that can be turned into shakes (cedar is ideal, but shakes can be split from other woods as well, such as pine [common in Europe]), a froe and a mallet.
Need a froe and mallet? Lehman’s carries both!
Here are a few tips:
- Keep the thickness of the shakes as consistent as you can.
- Flip the shake block end over end after you split off each shake – this allows you to get more shakes out of a block, as they end up slightly tapered.
- Wear appropriate footwear (not flip-flops like in the video… my bad!).
Bottom line? You can split your own shakes – it’s easy, and actually pretty fast. Why pay someone else for hand split shakes when it’s so easy to do it yourself?
Have you ever split your own shakes? Do you have tips to share? Please do in the comments below!
Victoria Gazeley lives and works in an 80-plus year old restored heritage log cabin on the wild west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Since the late 1990s, she's been studying the fine art of rural living, and has been living it since the spring of 2009. Since then, she's added (with a LOT of help!) a greenhouse, a blueberry patch, various edible plants, a raised bed veggie garden, 17 hens (and 3... oops, 2 roosters [red tailed hawk attack]), and most recently, a two-room addition using as many locally sourced materials as possible. Now she's living her dream - running The Cabin Design Studio, her WordPress web design and support business, via satellite internet, exploring all the nuances of rural living, and sharing what she's learning with others who have either recently shifted to the country or are planning the move. You can find her on her blog at modernhomesteading.ca, and at facebook.com/modernhomesteading and twitter.com/newbhomesteader every day interacting with an amazing, growing community of rural living fans, as well as her blogs at Mother Earth News and Grit Magazine.
