Cleave 6 shakes with a froe - PEP BB woodland.sand.shakes

For those who attempt this, please get the right kind of wood with the associated correct amount of green-ness or dryness.  All we had at the PEP1 event was semi-dry, semi-fungi infested pine.  So we split a chunk into fourths with multiple wedges, froes and sledge hammering.  Then I cleaved the shakes with a froe for the first bit, then two mallets with the froe handle removed for the next couple inches, then a chunk of 1x6 pine as a punch to hammer the back side of the froe blade down through the pine.  Half of the attempted shakes split apart or didn't go all the way through the billet before splitting out the face.  It was moderately frustrating.

I made 7 shakes since one had a missing bit at the top and another was 1/2" too narrow (average width was 7" though).  I shaved them with the shave horse and a draw knife.  Green wood would have been very helpful for this part.  

The shakes are very thick but they are 21" long so I think they're as good as I want to make them.

I look forward to cleaving shakes with the right kind of wood. The feeling will be that much better when the time comes and I'll be thankful for the experoence for this BB to get me there. The first piece was from a pine that was out in the elements for two years. That wasn't going as smooth as I imagined so I cut some green wood from another pine that Ken fell during the PEP event.
The round didn't meet the requirments for the width so I cleaved the whole round kind of shaving it off. I don't reccomend that not only for the reason of difficulty but also the shake might warp when it dries out.
Cleaned up the shakes slightly on the shave horse with a draw knife.

Here is me applying for the pep badge

One more pic from Jordan's other post showing the shear volume of shakes he made:

Here is my submission for the Woodland Care - Sand - Cleave 6 Shakes with a Froe BB.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
- Wood chunk before splitting
- action pic
- 6 rough shakes, 20 inches long and at least 6 inches wide

Cleaved 6 shakes with a Froe. The cedar I was using was a bit twisty, but I learned a lot about cleaving and froes in the process anyways.

I cleaved 6 shakes from a cedar log using a froe and a mallet!

Making cedar shakes today, I tried to make them fairly thin then flattened the sides with a draw knife.

I split a cedar log to make these shakes. There were some significant knots but I was able to work around them and in some cases actually pull them out.

I've included a picture of the wood chunk before splitting (you can see the black lines drawn with a Sharpie where I planned to start), an action pic of the final split of one piece into two shakes, and the final picture of 6 rough shakes, with a tape measure included for reference.