A froe has a long, narrow blade with a handle set at right angles, allowing the user to control a split by twisting the tool after striking it into timber. It belongs to traditional woodland crafts such as making shingles, laths, and basket splints. In poetry it can evoke self-sufficient rural labour and intimate knowledge of wood. Because it follows rather than cuts across the grain, the froe may symbolise working with natural character, revealing hidden structure, or dividing what already contains a line of separation.

The froe is used by driving its blade into wood with a mallet and then twisting the handle to guide the split. It is especially associated with shingles, laths, basket splints, and traditional woodland craft. Unlike a saw, it divides timber by following the grain rather than cutting through every fibre. Poets may use this distinction to represent divisions already latent within families, societies, or character. Related terms include wedge, maul, wooden mallet, splitting, grain, timber, shingles, coppicing, woodland craft, fault line, natural structure, and controlled separation.